Yahoo Lifestyle 14 Celebs Who Have Super Interesting "Secret" Second Careers, Like Race Car Driving, Clowning, And More
For many people, becoming a famous actor or singer would be a dream come true. However, many who've achieved that dream have set new aspirations for themselves.
Here are 14 celebrities with interesting secondary careers or hobbies:
1.In 2024, Keanu Reeves made his racing debut in the Toyota GR Cup, which is for amateur racers.
In the first race, he placed 25th out of 33, and in the second race, he placed 24th.
Here he is on the track:
2.Frankie Muniz took a break from acting in 2006 and started racing professionally, but three years later, he got a season-ending injury during the ChampCar Atlantic Championship. However, in 2023, he returned to the track as a NASCAR driver.
In 2024, he told AP News, "The only thing I can compare it to is like going to a new school. You can feel like you're the man in one school, and you go to that new school, you're like, 'I don't know anybody. Are people going to welcome me here?' I have a little bit of that feeling. Like even walking in the garage, I don't know if people accept me there yet."
Here he is on the track:
3.Morgan Freeman took up beekeeping in 2014.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he said, "I just got them two weeks ago. I'm new at this...They don't know where the food is, so I have to feed them regularly. I feed them sugar and water..What I've discovered is that I don't have to put on the bee suit or anything to feed them."
In 2019, he converted his Mississippi ranch into a bee sanctuary.
4.Truly fulfilling her role as Queen B, Beyoncé is also a beekeeper.
In 2020, she told British Vogue, "I know it’s random, but I have two beehives. Real ones. I’ve had them at my house for a while now. I have around 80,000 bees and we make hundreds of jars of honey a year. I started the beehives because my daughters, Blue and Rumi, both have terrible allergies, and honey has countless healing properties."
5.David Arquette is passionate about clowns — specifically Bozo the Clown, whom he bought the rights to in 2021. Not only did he love the circus character as a kid, but he also wants to "rehabilitate" people's perception of clowns after the success of the It movies.
In 2023, he told ComicBook.com, "I don't know, my great-grandparents were in vaudeville. So it might be something about that — the traveling sort of circus element. There's something in my blood that I just love that; there's something in the wrestling world that's very kind of circus. I lived in Chicago sort of in a few years early on and fell in love with Bozo the Clown there and then went to the Ringling Brothers and then saw the whole circus, and it just kind of blew my mind. I was like, OK, I love this whole world. So I’ve always loved it."
6.Erykah Badu is a trained doula. Since 2001, she's delivered more than 50 babies — including fellow singer Summer Walker's three.
In 2024, she told Essence, "It's a sisterhood. It's childbirth, it's a ceremony, it's a spiritual walk. And doulas are not created, they are born. You're born with that type of heart and patience, and you're drawn towards the work. I had some very talented and patient mentors, one being Shafia Monroe. Shafia is the founder of the ICTC [the International Center for Traditional Childbearing]. I went through her program after [I'd] participated in 14 births. So, I learned what they call direct-entry midwifery. That means you learn in the field.
I got my certification in 2001 from ICTC where I learned textbook, technical things that I wouldn't have known. You have the instinct, but you learn to speak the language as a birth worker. Because we didn't have that before the late 1900s. We didn't have permission to [be] birth workers. We were doing it, but the '80s and '90s [which was] when we really started to be accepted. So a network is necessary and the network shouldn't exclude the doula.
The doula is the conductor. After pulling everything together, the doula disappears into a corner but still helps and holds space as needed. You become patient. You walk softly. It seeps into your everyday life. You are of service at all times. The greatest among you shall be your servant."
7.Bella Hadid is an avid equestrian. In 2016, she had to give up on her Olympic aspirations following her Lyme disease diagnosis. However, she returned to the sport in 2023 at a competition in Florida.
More recently, Bella has been competing in cutting competitions.
Her love of horseback riding led to her finding love. She met her partner, professional horseman Adan Banuelos, at a horse show.
In 2024, she told W Magazine, "If it wasn't for horses, I'd have never met the love of my life."
8.Mary-Kate Olsen is also an avid equestrian.
She competes in show jumping.
9.As a theater student at the University of Illinois, Nick Offerman worked in the scene shop, and when he began acting professionally in Chicago, he supplemented his income by building props and sets. Then, when he relocated to LA, he began building decks and cabins, which led to a love for old-world furniture joinery. So, he opened Offerman Woodshop, which is still in operation.
He even wrote a book, Good Clean Fun, about working in his shop.
His Parks & Recreation character, Ron Swanson, was also a woodworker.
10.Steve Martin is a banjo player and Grammy-winning musician. He taught himself to play the instrument at 17.
In 2009, he told NPR, "The thing about the banjo is when you first hear it, it strikes many people as 'What's that?' There's something very compelling about it to certain people; that's the way I was, that's the way a lot of banjo players and people who love the banjo are. I'd like to think it's because we're Americans and the banjo is truly an American instrument, and it captures something about our past."
You can hear him playing banjo on Kelly Clarkson's 2023 single "I Hate Love." Listen to it here.
11.At age 38, Seth Rogen picked up pottery. In 2024, he told Q with Tom Power, "I am proud that I took [it] on as an adult. Most adults just don't want to learn new things."
The inspiration came from two things he loves: his wife and weed.
In 2019, he told Interview Magazine, "My wife has been doing pottery since high school, and she’d been trying to get me to do it for a while. Kind of parallel to that, I had an obsession with ashtrays, so they seemed like a good place to start. For one thing, they’re small and kind of easy to make, and because I smoke joints all day, I interact with them a lot. I’m always looking for a little place to rest my joints — a little bed — and I’m always imploring people not to stamp out their joints because it fucks them up. So this became the perfect chance for me to create the exact ashtray I wanted, and then I started making little saucers to rest my ashtray in, which, as it turns out, doubles as another ashtray.”
His hobby grew into a company, Houseplant, which sells ashtrays, other smoking accessories, and home goods.
12.When filming ended on The Boxer, Daniel Day-Lewis spent 10 months studying shoemaking under Stefano Bemer, a master of the craft, in Florence.
They bonded over how passionate they were about their respective lines of work.
13.In 1988, Tom Selleck purchased an avocado ranch.
He also plants wildflowers on his land.
He told People, "I've planted them for years, and they bloom in cycles. When it's coldest, one of them blooms, and then another one comes in. I know it sounds stupid, but I just watch them grow."
14.And finally, Jim Carrey, who's been interested in painting and drawing since he was a kid, is an artist.
He told Signature Galleries, "When I sculpt and paint is when I feel the most present and in harmony with the environment; as if all time has been suspended, all gravity disappears."
Here are some political cartoons of his that were displayed at the Affordable Art Fair in 2019:
Watch him do a live painting on The Ellen Show below:
Which celeb's secondary job or hobby did you find the most surprising? Are there any we missed? Let us know in the comments!
