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Stars, they’re just like us.
Before making it big in the entertainment industry, many of today’s biggest stars worked everyday jobs in different fast food restaurants to make a living.
Actors such as Eva Longoria, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie got their start working in fast food, as did musicians Shania Twain and Gwen Stefani.
Here are some celebrities who worked normal jobs before breaking into the industry.
Pitt, Robbie and Longoria are three of the stars who worked in fast food prior to getting famous. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures; Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for RH; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
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Eva Longoria
Longoria got her start working at a Wendy’s throughout her high school years. (Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
“Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria recently shared she worked in fast food all throughout high school.
During a recent appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” Longoria revealed she worked at Wendy’s from the age of 14 until she was 17.
“My whole high school was in fast food. I think every kid needs to work in fast food,” she said on the show. “I did everything at Wendy’s: mopping floors and changing the salad bar, to Wendy, I was Wendy.”
She went on to tell Hudson that she enjoyed working at the fast food joint because she “loved earning a paycheck” and “not having to ask for money” from everyone.
“And that idea that if I work, and I earn, and if I work more, I earn more. Like I could gauge how hard I wanted to work that week or not. So I do think there is value in working in fast food.”
Brad Pitt
Pitt worked at El Pollo Loco before becoming one of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men. (Dave Benett/WireImage)
Brad Pitt once proudly dressed as a chicken to celebrate the grand opening of El Pollo Loco.
The “Fight Club” actor confirmed he once worked for the fast food restaurant during an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2019, telling the audience, a “man’s got to eat.”
While he couldn’t remember how much he got paid for his work in the chicken costume, Pitt recalled that he “got flipped off a lot.” DeGeneres later joked that “everybody should start dressed as a chicken outside of a restaurant” if they aspire to have a career like Pitt’s.
The actor went on to star in many blockbuster hits, including “Troy,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and most recently, “F1: The Movie;” he won an Academy Award in 2020 for his work in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
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Gwen Stefani
Stefani’s job at Dairy Queen ultimately led to the formation of her band, No Doubt. (Christopher Polk/Billboard/Getty Images)
Gwen Stefani start in fast food ultimately changed her life.
The singer first shared that Dairy Queen her first job during a 2017 interview with Marie Claire. She later elaborated on her time working at the chain restaurant during an episode of “The Voice” in 2023.
“I would be back there, and they’re like, ‘If you make a mistake, it’s OK. Just put it in the freezer. You can have it on your break,'” Stefani recalled them telling her. “I was like, ‘Oops! Oops!’”
The fast food chain not only gave Stefani her first job, but was also the birthplace of the band that made her famous. It was while working at Dairy Queen that she met John Spence, who formed No Doubt with Stefani’s brother Eric.
Spence was the original lead singer of the band, with Stefani singing backup. However, after he died by suicide in 1987, Stefani took over as the band’s frontman.
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan worked at a local coffee shop while trying to make it as a singer. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
“Pink Pony Club” singer, Chappell Roan, worked at a small coffee shop while working to make it as a musician.
Roan worked at Scooter’s Coffee in Missouri, where she grew up before achieving mainstream success in 2024 with her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” which was released in September 2023.
During an interview with popular YouTuber, Nardwuar, Roan described “working the drive-through” and wearing the headset as “awesome,” saying she “had a great time” while working there during the pandemic, but admitted that “look[ing] back at that time, and I’m like, that was f—ing hard. That was hard.”
“The hardest thing is being on headset and having someone at the window while you’re taking an order, typing it in, and giving the correct change at the same time,” she explained. “So you’re talking to two or three different people at once, and you’re making drinks.”
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Shania Twain
Twain worked at McDonald’s to support herself and her siblings. (Jo Hale/Redferns)
Shania Twain shared in a February 2023 interview with ET Canada via People that she once worked at McDonald’s to support herself before making it big as a country star.
The “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” singer shared that while she “worked in several departments,” she “loved the drive-thru.”
“I always love, like, ‘Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order please?’ It’s just very quiet rhythmic, and I like to serve. I like to make people happy,” she said. “The drive-thru was always particularly fun because you could speak to the people on the other side without seeing them.”
Twain told the outlet that she “learned a lot” about good service while working at the fast-food giant, adding that the job wasn’t always easy because she was balancing it with being “on stage at night on the weekends.”
Things came full-circle when Twain partnered with McDonald’s in 2025. (Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Everything came full-circle in August 2025, when it was announced that Twain had partnered with McDonald’s Canada, jazzing upside menu items, calling them Shania’s Sides.
“This collaboration feels like a homecoming for me,” Twain said in a statement. “I fell in love with McDonald’s fries while working as a crew member in Toronto, so being able to dress them up with my personal touch was surreal. Whether you’re enjoying your All Dressed McShaker Fries, or gearing up for a big moment, life is just more exciting when you’re all dressed up.”
Nicki Minaj
Minaj used to work at Red Lobster as a waitress. (Taylor Hill/WireImage)
Rapper Nicki Minaj worked a lot of jobs before making it big in the music industry.
During an appearance on the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Minaj shared that she used to work at an office and as a waitress, saying she worked as a server everywhere, before saying, “I probably waited on people in this audience for a matter of fact,” adding, “If you’ve ever eaten at Red Lobster, I probably took your order.”
“That’s what made me wanna hurry up and follow my dream, because I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is not for me. I gotta hurry up and get out of here before it’s too late,'” Minaj said about working at the chain restaurant.
Eventually, Minaj broke into the mainstream music scene with her debut album, “Pink Friday,” which featured one of her biggest songs of all time, “Super Bass.”
Margot Robbie
Robbie previously worked at Subway. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing)
Prior to breaking through in the entertainment industry with her role in “Wolf of Wall Street,” Margot Robbie worked as a sandwich artist at Subway.
Robbie elaborated on her experience working at the fast food chain during her appearance on “Hot Ones,” saying the craziest sandwiches she made were “probably the ones I made for myself because I wanted to try every different variation.”
“I think I was really good at it though, because I would really spread everything out to the edges evenly, the right amount of everything,” she said. “And now when I go to Subway and someone just kind of throws it on right in the middle, like puts a ton of sauce there, it just kills me.
She added that she doesn’t really “go that often anymore because I watch them make it badly.”
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Amy Adams
Adams worked as a hostess at Hooters before making it big as an actress. (Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter)
Amy Adams is a six-time Academy Award-nominated actress, but worked as a hostess at Hooters prior to starting her acting career.
During an interview with THR’s Awards Chatter podcast, in January 2019, Adams said she doesn’t mind being asked about it, but said “it just makes me laugh,” saying “it’s a great thing to teach kids” that you could spend “three months in orange shorts and you have to talk about it forever.”
“It was a really good job because, at the time, minimum wage was $3.85, and they were willing to pay $7 to the hostesses and that for me—saving up for a car and being a dancer—I ran around in tights and a leotard all day long anyway,” she said. “I learned that there was a difference between dance class and Hooters very quickly.”
She received her first Oscar nomination in 2006, for her supporting role in the movie “Junebug.”
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Madonna
Before becoming the Queen of Pop, Madonna worked at Dunkin’ Donuts. (Nicholas Hunt)
Prior to becoming the Queen of Pop, Madonna was living in New York and trying to make it as a dancer while taking odd jobs.
She discussed her early days in New York during a 2015 interview on “The Howard Stern Show“, saying she was able to attend school by getting “a partial scholarship to the Alvin Ailey School” and later “started just making little bits of money” by getting a job.
“And then I was taking jobs. I did everything. I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts. I was a hat chick,” she said.
“I could be the CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts. Dangit.”
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Lori Bashian is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital.
