Every celebrity has an “ordinary job” chapter, even if it rarely makes the highlight reel. Here’s a look at some surprisingly relatable day jobs stars held before their big break.
**Brad Pitt** worked as a limousine driver and once dressed up as a giant chicken for the El Pollo Loco chain to hand out flyers in Los Angeles.
**Johnny Depp** sold pens over the phone via a telemarketing job before music and acting took off.
**Rihanna** worked briefly in retail and considered a career in the police force or psychology before her singing career began.
**Whoopi Goldberg** worked as a bricklayer and a mortuary makeup artist, among other jobs, while raising her daughter as a single mother.
**Madonna** worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts in New York City — and has said she was fired for squirting jelly filling on a customer.
**Kim Kardashian** organized closets for a living, including working as Paris Hilton’s stylist, before building her own media career.
**Taylor Swift’s** first “job” was less conventional — she sold worm-harvesting kits made from her family’s Christmas tree farm as a child, before music took over entirely.
**Jennifer Aniston** worked as a waitress, a telemarketer, and a bike messenger in New York before landing the role of Rachel on Friends.
**Why these stories stick around**
There’s something reassuring about knowing that the people we see on screen once punched a clock the same way most of us do. It’s a reminder that a “day job” isn’t a detour from a dream — for a lot of people, it’s simply part of the path there.
Photo by Rod Waddington, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.