Zac Efron tells TeenNow magazine that he wasn’t the cool guy in school. He was the nerd.

Of course if you know Zac, you already know this.

Zac’s intelligence off stage has propelled his career as much as his talent, being brilliant with excellent career decisions. We just think the guy is going to become such a major leading actor because he’s such a class act. And now being a “nerd” is clearly paying off.

“I wasn’t really the cool guy in school. I wasn’t the skater dude or anything. I tried really hard. I got good grades. I was in advanced classes, if anything, you’d probably call me a nerd. I was the short kid in school. I didn’t get much attention from the chicks. I was like, 5′6″. But as soon as I left and started working, then I started to grow up a little bit.”