Yahoo Lifestyle 16 Celebrities Who Worked "Normal" Jobs While Being Famous
Plenty of celebrities diversify their income sources with ventures like skincare lines and alcohol brands, but some balance their entertainment careers with surprisingly "normal" jobs.
Here are 16 celebs who worked "normal" jobs while being famous:
1.Steve Buscemi worked as a firefighter in Manhattan in the '80s. In the aftermath of 9/11, he returned to the FDNY and worked multiple 12-hour shifts to help locate survivors.
In 2021, he told the podcast WTF with Marc Maron that, after learning about the attacks, he was "anxious" and "depressed." Unable to get ahold of his former firehouse over the phone, he decided to show up at the station.
He said, "I asked if I could join them. I could tell they were a little suspicious at first, but I worked with them that day...I was only there for like five days, but when I stopped going and tried to just live my life again, it was really, really hard."
2.Former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth is "a state-licensed EMT [emergency medical technician] in New York."
In 2012, he told the Guardian, "I probably have over 200 911 calls on my ticket in the last six years alone. I live a very different life away from music."
3.Angelina Pivarnick from Jersey Shore was also an EMT. From 2016-2018, she worked with the FDNY in Staten Island.
On a 2024 episode of her podcast Um Hello?, she revealed that she followed in her aunt's footsteps. For her training, she had to go through an EMT course, pass a state test, then do a paramilitary boot camp.
She said, "Everybody was like, 'We thought you were gonna come in thinking you were gonna get [shit] handed to you on a silver platter. Girl, you worked your ass off!' I'm like, 'Thank you!' Like, they thought I was gonna come in wanting handouts, and they were like, 'You did everything. Like, you did everything on your own.'"
In 2019, she made a guest appearance on the dating show Double Shot at Love to help "save" her former costars DJ Pauly D and Vinny Guadagnino from heartache.
4.Wizards of Waverly Place actor and podcaster Jennifer Stone is also an ER nurse. She decided to pursue nursing after her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis in 2013.
In 2020, she told Deadline, "It still continues to blow my mind — all of the parallels that I have found and continue to learn about [between nursing and acting]. I've been an actor since the age of 6. …For so long, I've developed characters and just explored human nature and what makes people people. I think it strengthens your sense of empathy and it strengthens your area of questioning of why people do what they do. It also leads me to an understanding that people are very much the same. Regardless of your background, circumstances, choices, we're all very much the same — and acting gives you that gift.
In nursing, you come across so many different kinds of people that to be able to view people that way is such a gift. To be able to say, 'I may not know what you're going through because I personally haven't gone through it, but I can only imagine and I'm here to listen. I'm here to empathize. I'm here with you for whatever you need me to do.' I don't know if I would have been able to do that as effectively without being an actor."
5.When Terry Crews was in the NFL, he supplemented his income by painting portraits of his teammates. Each piece of artwork cost about $5,000.
In a 2018 Instagram post, he said, "Painting my teammates after I was cut from teams was how I survived lean times during my time in the [NFL]. [Ken Harvey] paid me for this art but was also one of my biggest benefactors, and actually gave me the money I needed to move to LA and start my career in entertainment. So thankful for the friendship he and his wife Janice gave [my wife] Rebecca and I."
You can see Terry's portrait of his friend Ken here.
6.In 2009, Tony Danza spent a year teaching sophomore English at a Philadelphia high school. His time as an educator was partially chronicled on the reality show Teach: Tony Danza.
In a speech at the "Envision a Bright Future" luncheon fundraiser in 2020, he reportedly said, "After the show got canceled, I spent the rest of the year becoming the teacher my students deserved. Because they only get to take 10th grade English once."
7.While Dylan Sprouse was a student at New York University, he worked as a restaurant host.
In a 2013 Tumblr post, he said, "To clear up the air (which is admittedly pretty rude), I did not take this job because I 'lost all my money.' I am financially secure, and took this job as a way to primarily feed my over bountiful video game addiction.
I also [see] this as a way to try a new experience, working somewhat below the means I’m used to, as well as a way to socialize and get out of the house. I feel most comfortable when I’m working and doing something, to criticize someone [for] that is pretty odd.
I will potentially return to acting someday, but in no way do I think any experience is a step down for me, but rather a new step in another direction."
8.At one point after the end of That's So Raven, Anneliese Van Der Pol "worked in New York in several restaurants."
On a 2023 episode of her podcast Big Name B*tches, she said, "I was really proud of myself; you had to do a lot of multitasking."
She said, "The disappointment, the look, the drop of faces when [people] recognized me, was truly gut-wrenching. It's almost like I had to say, 'I'm okay. I'm actually really happy that I don't have to audition and am doing something I know I'm good at.' I know when I clean a table or bring a meal that, I can do that, and there won't be any mistakes. I won't be judged. Essentially, I kind of was judged."
9.Actor and podcaster Devon Werkheiser tried to find his next "big thing" after Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, but he ended up "living pretty modestly on" his savings until they ran out when he was 25. So, he "got a 9-to-5 for the first time in [his] life."
In 2023, he told Business Insider, "Over the years, supporting-role jobs started paying less in the industry, and at the same time I was booking less and less. The only thing I knew to do was to go get some hourly job and start working my way out of my situation."
The experience was part of the inspiration behind his podcast Growing Up with Devon.
10.After emancipating herself from her mother at age 14, Drew Barrymore "needed a job," so she got hired at the Living Room, a coffeehouse near where she lived.
In her 2015 memoir Wildflower, she wrote, "I wasn't great at my job. I wasn't really great at anything. I had only done two things: acted and had wild life experiences. But neither of those prepares you for the real world...
I could tell my boss, who had hired me on the novel idea of having a washed-up former child actor behind the counter, was patient with all my learning curves but was also irritated with me. He came in when I was doing dishes (which, come to think of it, probably helped me realize you actually had to 'do' dishes rather than just put everything in the sink and pray like I did at home), but he walked in and said, very sharply and exasperatedly, 'Don't use the abrasive side of the brush! All the pastry cases are getting scratched and foggy, and you can't see what's inside!'"
11.While Danielle Fishel was a student at California State University, Fullerton, she worked as a gift wrapper at Bloomingdale's.
On a 2022 episode of her podcast Pod Meets World, she said that she was inadvertently recruited for the job when she went to the department store to buy wine glasses as a wedding gift for a former Boy Meets World costar. She wanted to have the present wrapped, but when she went to pick them up, the employee told her they wouldn't be ready until the following day because, despite the store being hours away from closing, she'd already closed the register.
Danielle told her, "I have no problem wrapping it. Can you just give me the materials, and I'll wrap it right here?"
Sitting on the floor, she wrapped it herself. Then, a manager came over. "He looks at me and he goes, 'that's actually really good,'" she said.
The manager gave Danielle his card, and she later applied for the job. After the holidays, she decided to stick around because she had a knack for customer service.
She said, "I had a woman lunge across the counter at me. It was incredible."
12.In 1997, MC Hammer was ordained as a pastor in the Church of God in Christ. Two years later, he began leading a hip-hop gospel prayer service called "Hammertime" at a large church in Northern California.
In 2000, he told the Los Angeles Times, "I ran from being a preacher! I didn’t want to be a preacher. I knew that once I became a preacher that I would be held to more responsibilities. I already had a burden to my community."
13.In 2022, while Pamela Anderson was temporarily living in NYC for her run in Chicago, she reportedly had an unpaid gig as a dog walker because she missed her dogs. Her only client was an Irish setter named Dash.
The arrangement came about because Dash's owner, Jonathan Walland, took the same Crossfit class as Pamela's assistant. He said yes to letting a celebrity walk Dash in Central Park without knowing who it was until she came to his door.
He told the New York Post, "I was excited. It’s Dash’s 15 minutes of fame. It was a wonderful surprise."
14.In 2015, Matthew McConaughey returned to his alma mater, UT Austin, as the Minister of Culture. Four years later, he took up the mantle of professor of practice at the Moody College of Communication.
Several times, he's taught a film production course called Script to Screen, which he developed the curriculum for.
15.Jeremy Renner moonlights as a real estate developer who flips multi-million dollar houses.
In 2016, he told the Robb Report, "With both [making movies and developing real estate], to stay at the top of the ladder, you have to be all in. There's no half-assing it. I see them as similar pursuits. Both can be hugely rewarding, creatively and financially. Both take a sense of daring and risk. Whether you're producing a movie or turning around a property, you're managing people, you're putting out fires, you're problem-solving, you're working to stay on time and on budget, and you focus on the tiny details that add up to greatness."
16.And finally, before the Jonas Brothers reunited as a band in 2019, Kevin Jonas started JonasWerner, a real estate development company that specialized in building custom mansions.
He appeared as a contractor on The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 6.
Have you ever interacted with a performer you recognized while they were working a non-entertainment job? Share your experiences in the comments!
