Stars Honor The Educators Who Changed Their Lives: 'My Teacher Was The Reason'

To celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, PEOPLE asked heartthrob Noah Centineo, Abbott Elementary star Lisa Ann Walter and more celebrities about the educators who had a lasting impact on them

Noah Centineo: Ms. Redan

"I was pretty hyperactive as a kid. I had a pretty wild imagination, as a lot of us do, and I didn't really have a good way to control it. And she wouldn't get me in trouble. She took that, and she said, 'Okay, you like to move around a lot. Here's a djembe. Start playing the djembe. Come to drum club after school. You talk a lot during class and you're funny. Okay, join the theater program.' She coached me and taught me how to do a monologue. Without that teacher, Sue Redan, I had no one to be like, 'You should be doing this.' My teacher was the reason."

Lisa Ann Walter: Ms. Davy

"Miss Freddye Davy was teacher of the year in Montgomery County, Maryland, [multiple] times. She was one of the first kids to integrate our public school system in this country. She took education incredibly seriously. She said her Hs or Ws with an 'H' in front like, "Hwhat hwere you thinking Miss. Hwalter?" And she had a very high standard; she taught advanced English. I was in her class all three years of junior high. And when I would talk too much, because I was bored, because my mother was a teacher, my father was a physicist, I was ahead. So she would be smart enough to say, "Here's the chalk, you teach the class." And I did. And she said, "You're very good at this. You might be a teacher someday." And I absolutely adored her, she was very much like [Sheryl Lee Ralph's] Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary."

Jack Black: Mr. Weintraub

"Scott Weintraub was my theater teacher in high school. He was hugely impactful and he really challenged me in a way that I'd never been challenged before. He had me doing Bertolt Brecht when I was a senior in high school. And for anyone that doesn't know, Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright from the World War II era. He was super anti-Hitler and he was super political and super funny, but super intellectual and not something that you hear about high school theater taking on and tackling. But Scott Weintraub challenged all of us to do this big play called The Caucasian Chalk Circle. And it was this amazing courtroom drama, wartime play that spanned history and justice in an incredible way. And I always think about him whenever I reflect on how fortunate I've been, and his instinct to challenge yourself and to take chances really served me over the course of my career."

Frankie Grande: Ms. Brogan

"Shout-out to Barbara Lee Brogan, Ms. Brogan, my English teacher. She was just so effervescent and so charismatic. She taught me from a very young age that it was okay to be quirky, fun and odd — and [to] celebrate it. She was just so gracious with me and helped me with my writing, and never looked at me weird for having an alternate opinion about a piece of literature that we were studying in class. I always thought outside the box, and she rewarded me for that. It was very early on — I think it was ninth grade — and I just carried that with me ever since."

Rafael L. Silva: Ms. Gronnet

"Mine would be Barbara Gronnet, seventh grade. When I first moved to the U.S., I took an ESL class. I had to take ESL because I didn't know English as a second language. Ms. Gronnet was [like] my mom in middle school, and she helped me. Moving to a new country, new culture, it's very scary. But she was a beacon of light for me, and hope."

Brian Michael Smith: Ms. Perez and Mrs. Kitzman

"I'm going to give a shout-out to this teacher, my wife, Denisse Perez. She's a teacher, worked at the N.Y.C. Department of Education for almost 20 years. And the work that she does with children, the way that she affirms her children, is something that I love to see. I wish that every student had a teacher that was as giving [and] caring as her. And I would [also] say a teacher from my own personal life. One of the first teachers who really liked to affirm me was my second grade teacher, Mrs. Kitzman, who took this rambunctious child and didn't sit me down. She said, 'We're going to work with this.' And so she really was one of the first who just accepted me as I was. A lot of things that other people would look at as problems, she said, 'No, this is part of who you are. We're going to work something out for you.' And she gave me my love of reading. She gave me my love of my own voice, and she gave me my own ability to stand in how I do things, which I feel like has gotten me here."

Symone: Miss Young and Miss Vicky

"Oh, my God. I had several favorite teachers, but I think my favorite, her name's Miss Young now. She's still married, but she was my kindergarten teacher. I was kind of a ruckus in Kindergarten, and she would get onto me, but I still felt like I could be myself. She was kind of the first teacher who I felt that way [about]. And Miss Vicky, my preschool teacher. Those are my two. Don't forget to get Miss Vicky in. She'd be mad when we share this!"

Tori Kelly: Miss Karen

"My kindergarten teacher, Miss Karen, definitely had an impact on me. Because I was actually singing, even that young, I was 5, but I was pretty shy. So I don't think I was just singing around my classmates. But she somehow found out that I sang, and I just remember her being just so supportive and encouraging, and she was just the sweetest. She just really stands out for me in my childhood, maybe because also kindergarten's kind of the beginning of your school experience. So, I think she just stands out as one of the teachers who I think I just really loved."

Chris Perfetti: Ms. Hamm

"I can particularly remember an English teacher of mine, Joann Hamm, who handed me my first play. [I was] reading a Tennessee Williams play way before I had even thought of becoming an actor. It's a real act of generosity and a skill to see what somebody needs at such a weird point in their life. [She] was game changing, for sure."

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