Celebrities — they’re just like us! Or, at least, many of them used to be. That’s right, before they were famous, some celebs held down regular jobs because, hello!, booking auditions, coming up with rent money and paying the utility bills had to be done. Here are 20 celebs who started off like the rest of us before raking in the dough.

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Angus Cloud was a server
He may currently be one of the stars of Euphoria (and he may be, arguably, the internet’s new boyfriend), but Angus Cloud was a restaurant server just a few years ago — and you can see it for yourself. As outlined in Glamour UK, TikTok user @just.darleen shared a TikTok of a birthday brunch four years ago — and you can spot Cloud clearing plates from the table in the video.

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Meghan Markle was a calligraphist
Before becoming the Duchess of Sussex and starring on the legal drama Suits, the former actress had such fine penmanship that she used those skills to earn money as a side hustle while also going out for auditions. "I would sit there with a little white tube sock on my hand so no hand oils got on the card, trying to pay my bills while auditioning," she told Esquire in 2013. "I'm glad that in the land of no one seeming to appreciate a handwritten note anymore that I can try to keep that alive."

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Channing Tatum was a stripper
Art imitated life when the star's stripper past — which would make him anywhere from $50 to $150 a night, depending on the crowd — loosely inspired Magic Mike and its sequel, Magic Mike XXL. That's chump change now for the star.

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Cardi B was also a stripper
Cardi B worked as a supermarket cashier before her tardiness got her fired, but before she was let go, her manager told her to go across the street and work at the strip club. "In one day I made more than a week's pay. But I felt a little bit of shame," she told Complex. "I imagined my mother shaking her head. Disgraceful. I had to survive, though." Her plan was to retire from stripping at the age of 25, but by 23 she became a social media personality and well, you know the rest. Okurrr!
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Hugh Jackman was a party clown
"I made my living as a clown at kids' parties for about three years," Jackman told the Daily Mail. "I was Coco the Clown and I had no magic tricks and I remember a six-year-old standing up at a party saying, 'Mummy, this clown is terrible, he doesn't know any tricks' — and he was right." Well, at least it was kind of like having an acting career.

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Jennifer Aniston sold time shares
Like her Friends character, Rachel Green, Aniston worked as a waitress and loved it. But prior to that? Not so much. "I didn't like time-share selling, I hated that job," she told Parade magazine.
See also: The richest actresses on television in 2022.

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Barack Obama served ice cream
Before taking over the White House, the former US president used to work the counter at Baskin Robbins as one of his first jobs. "Scooping ice cream is tougher than it looks," Obama wrote on LinkedIn. "Rows and rows of rock-hard ice cream can be brutal on the wrists." At the time, he was "less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot" but Obama stated the job ultimately taught him valuable lessons about responsibility, hard work and how to balance a job with friends, family and school.
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Brad Pitt worked as a fast food mascot
Like many aspiring actors, Pitt worked for a restaurant chain. However, he didn't work behind the counter or even in the kitchen. Nope, Brad wore a chicken suit outside an El Pollo Loco while trying to get his big break. What a waste, hiding that beautiful face.

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Danny DeVito styled the hair of dead people
Yes, you read that right. The comedian used to work at a mortuary and styled the hair of those who had passed away. "It's a little morbid, but it was only women's hair," he told George Lopez in an interview. "Usually really old ladies... and they didn't talk back!"
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Jon Hamm designed sets for porn films
Back in the day, the Mad Men star dressed the sets of X-rated movies, though the actor has stressed that the films were strictly "soft-core" and an easy way to earn a few hundred bucks a day. "Essentially, I had to move furniture around sweaty, naked people," he told The Sun. "It wasn't a great job but the money was useful. I had to get by — I wanted to be an actor."

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Megan Fox worked at a smoothie café
"I only had one job growing up — I worked at a smoothie café," the actress said during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, adding that she sometimes had to dress up in a banana costume.

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Quentin Tarantino was an usher
Tarantino's been a film buff basically since birth, so it's only natural his first job in the industry was as an usher — but not for the kinds of cinemas you might think. Tarantino worked at an adult theatre in Torrance, Calif. By 21, though, he'd moved out of there for a job more in his comfort zone: at a video store, where he worked for the next five years.

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Chris Rock worked as a busboy
The comedian worked at Red Lobster while working on his stand-up routine. Rock joked to Jay Leno that he couldn't "afford to eat there" because he was only making minimum wage. "A shrimp costs minimum wage," he joked.

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Orlando Bloom was a clay trapper
Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom was 13 when he got his first job at a pigeon shooting range, loading and aiming the clay discs shooters used as targets.

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Johnny Depp was a pen salesman
The actor worked as a pen salesman — and hated every second of it. "You promise them all these things if they buy a gross of pens," he told Interview mag. "It was just awful. I sold one thing [to a customer]... and I was riddled with guilt... so I talked him out of it."
See also: Top 10 cheapest, most frugal celebrities.

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Mayim Bialik was a teacher
The actress was born to first-generation teachers and documentary filmmakers, so it's no surprise she followed in her parents' footsteps. Bialik received her B.S. in Neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish Studies from UCLA in 2000, and earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience seven years later from UCLA, specializing in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in adolescents with Prader-Willi syndrome. She worked as a chemistry and physics teacher as well as a certified lactation educator counselor.

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Russell Crowe was a DJ
Prior to becoming an Oscar-winning actor, Crowe was known as Russ Le Roq. That's right, that was his DJ name when he worked at a nightclub in Australia.

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Kourtney Kardashian was a production assistant
The eldest Kardashian sister may be used to life in the limelight thanks to her family's reality show, but she actually got her start behind the scenes working on movie sets as a production assistant, where she "had to yell 'cut' and 'rolling' all day."
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David Boreanaz was a door-to-door salesman
While Boreanaz loved his job as a ball boy for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the feeling was not the same for his gig as a travelling salesman selling gourmet food door-to-door.

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Patrick Dempsey was a juggler
Dempsey did birthday parties on weekends thanks to a juggling routine he had perfected at the age of 15. In fact, he was so good that he auditioned for the Ringling Bros. circus but they didn't take him. Their loss.
You may also like: 10 gender-bending celebs we love.
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