Selma Blair - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Blair was born Selma Blair Beitner in Southfield, in the Metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan; the youngest child of Elliot and judge Molly Ann Beitner (née Cooke). Blair had a Jewish upbringing and was given the Hebrew name Batsheva. Her parents divorced when Blair was 23, she subsequently legally changed her last name. She has three older sisters, Katherine (a book publicist), Elizabeth and Marie Beitner. She was raised by her single mother.

Blair attended Hillel Day School, a Jewish day school in Farmington Hills and Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills; soon after, she spent her freshman year (1990–91) in Kalamazoo College, where she studied photography and acted in a play called The Little Theater of the Green Goose.

Later, Blair moved to New York City to pursue her photography career, living at the Salvation Army. She attended NYU as well as acting classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Column Theatre and the Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop; later she returned to Michigan to finish her studies and then start an acting career.

After transferring from New York University, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 with a BFA degree in photography, a Double major in Fine Arts and English and a BA in Psychology.