7 celebrities with surprising day jobs before they found fame

It may be hard to think of some of today’s biggest stars working 9-5 jobs like us mere mortals, but they, too, had to find ways to make money before they found fame.

While some chose to work in food services for flexible hours, others found a unique way to earn enough cash to pay their bills.

Jon Hamm will probably never forget his job as a set dresser for soft-core pornography movies, just like Eva Longoria will always remember how to dress the perfect burger.

See below for more celebrities who had surprising day jobs before they found fame.

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Taylor Swift – praying mantis picker

Before Taylor Swift earned billionaire status and became one of the most successful artists in the world, she had a humbling job working on her family’s Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania.

“We all had jobs,” she told Esquire in 2014. “Mine was picking the praying-mantis pods off of the trees, [and] collecting them so that the bugs wouldn’t hatch inside people’s houses… The only reason that was my job was because I was too little to help lift trees.”

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Margot Robbie attends the Chanel Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on March 09, 2026 in Paris, France.

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Margot Robbie – Subway employee

Margot Robbie used to work at fast-food chain Subway, and she was “really good” at making sandwiches. “I think I was really good at it though, because I, you know, would really spread everything out to the edges evenly — the right amount of everything,” she told First We Feast.

However, you won’t find Margot indulging in a foot-long today. “I actually don’t go that often anymore, because I watch them make it badly – and I’m upset,” she told Delish.

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Eva’s chic waves framed her face

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Eva Longoria – Wendy’s employee

Eva Longoria has six years of experience in the fast-food industry, having worked at Wendy’s before she became famous, and the lessons she learned have stuck with her today. “What we learned at Wendy’s was mayonnaise goes on the bun first, to seal the bun, so the bun stays nice,” she said on the Rachael Ray Show. “Then you put the ketchup. And [then] mustard goes on the meat, because it brings out the flavor of meat.”

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Jon Hamm as Andrew “Coop” Cooper. He is dressed in a tuxedo

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Jon Hamm – X-rated set dresser

Before Mad Men, Jon Hamm’s work was of the more X-rated variety as he worked as a set dresser for soft-core porn movies. “I’d lost my catering gig. I was like, ‘I need a job.’ My friend said, ‘You can have my job. I’m doing set dressing,'” he told Esquire in 2018.

“I said, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ She says, ‘It’s not that hard. They’ll hire anybody. … It’s just soul-crushing for me. I can’t do it.’ I said, ‘Soul-crushing: That sounds amazing. I’ll do it.'”

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Whoopi Goldberg – morgue beautician

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Whoopi Goldberg – morgue beautician

Whoopi Goldberg became a licensed beautician before fame and found a job doing “hair and makeup on dead people” when she worked as a mortuary cosmetologist. “It’s a rough gig,” she explained on Oprah’s Master Class. “You have to be a certain kind of person. And you have to love people in order to make them worthy of a great send-off.”

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Steve Buscemi – firefighter

Steve Buscemi was a firefighter for five years after taking the FDNY civil service test when he was just 18 years old. Despite finding fame and fortune, he returned to his former firehouse in Little Italy, Manhattan, after 9/11.

“It was a privilege to be able to do it. It was great to connect with the firehouse I used to work with and with some of the guys I worked alongside,” he said. “And it was enormously helpful for me because while I was working, I didn’t really think about it as much, feel it as much.”

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Terry Crews as Sergeant Terry Jeffords

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Terry Crews – courtroom sketch artist

In 1987, Terry Crews worked as a courtroom sketch artist for the “worst murder case in Flint, Michigan, history.” He explained: “What happened was the sketch artist for the courtroom was not able to come, and they said, ‘Terry, we need you to come in, we need you to do this.’ And I went in and pinch hit it, and I became their sketch artist! It was nuts!”