Successful Stars Who Came From Humble Beginnings

What are some of the best measures of success? As far as the entertainment industry goes, the hallmark indicators are pretty simple: wealth, connections, and status. How much natural talent someone has, of course, can make or break even the most interesting of people. When in doubt, kindness and a good personality can help a person go far. At the end of the day, though, the most successful stars who immediately pop into people's heads are the ones who continue to leave some pretty big shoes to fill. 

While "nepo babies" — people who get opportunities, more likely than not, because of who their parents are — have become a hot topic of discussion, not every famous person in Hollywood climbed the ranks because of who they knew or how much was in their bank account. In fact, more present-day celebrities than you may realize came from the most humble of beginnings. Some had little to work with pre-fame, while some had, at one point in time, nothing at all. 

Once upon a time, Selena Gomez was a child actor with especially close ties to Disney. Today, she's one of the wealthiest musicians, actors, and businesswomen out there — and the most followed woman on Instagram, a title she's held for years. 

Gomez's net worth is more than one might think, something extra special to brag about for someone who didn't grow up with a silver spoon in her mouth. Gomez's mother, Mandy Teefey, was only 16 years old when she gave birth to her; Gomez's father was 17. It's unclear when the former high school sweethearts got married, but they divorced in 1997.

Before Teefey remarried in 2006, she struggled to raise Gomez financially; the pair have spoken about this period of time extensively over the years. "I remember my mom would run out of gas all the time, and we'd sit there and have to go through the car and get quarters and help her get gas, because she never liked to ask my grandparents for money," Gomez once described (via Daily Mail).

Juilliard alum Jessica Chastain's career took off in 2011, the year she starred in six films. Since then, she's performed her heart out in a number of successful blockbusters like "Interstellar" (2014) and "It Chapter Two" (2019), with a plethora of awards (such as the Academy Award for best actress) to show for it.

Chastain is another successful A-lister who didn't grow up living nearly as comfortably as she does now. Chastain, who has four siblings, was raised by her then-single mother, Jerri Hastey, in California. Like Selena Gomez's mother, Chastain's mother was a teenager when she was born; with five children in total, the family experienced financial strain and food insecurity until Hastey remarried.

"We did not have money. There were many nights when we had to go to sleep without eating. It was a very difficult upbringing," Chastain once told The Irish Times. "Because of my mother, I do always try to think about how something must be for someone else. I'm not so interested in myself. I'm interested in other people."

Depending on who you ask, Viola Davis is the epitome of natural acting talent. Another Juilliard graduate, Davis has won so many prestigious awards that it can be hard to keep track of them all. On top of the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a best supporting actress Oscar, Davis is an EGOT and triple crown of acting winner.

With all the accolades Davis has received over the years, it's hard to imagine how different her childhood was from the way she lives today. Davis was born on a former plantation in South Carolina and, by her own account, grew up in extreme poverty and general instability. When Davis was 2 years old, for example, she went to jail with her mother after the latter's arrest during a civil rights protest. 

Davis has discussed her childhood hardships in multiple interviews, both before and after the release of her 2022 memoir, "Finding Me." In 2016, Davis said on "The Jess Cagle Interview" (via People), "Most of my uncles and cousins, they're farmers ... My grandmother's house was a one-room shack." She added, "[There was] no running water. No bathroom. It [was] just an outhouse."

Before Cardi B broke into the rap scene with her single, "Bodak Yellow," she was a popular cast member on VH1's "Love & Hip Hop." When her debut song became a hit, it took no time at all for Cardi B to rise in the music ranks. Today, her net worth is estimated to be around $100 million. 

For someone worth so much, Cardi B has quite the "rags to riches" story. The list of tragic details about Cardi B's life is a long one. Key moments that shaped her humble upbringing include: her family's financial difficulties, her dysfunctional relationship with her parents, her bullying in school, and the controversial decisions she made to earn money. 

Cardi B has talked about her early life extensively since her TV debut, especially growing up in Highbridge, a neighborhood in the Bronx. "I got jumped in the sixth grade real bad and after that, it changed me," she told i-D Magazine in 2018. "In middle school and high school, it doesn't matter how tough you are ... you ain't nobody if you ain't in a gang."

Dolly Parton may be best known as a country singer, but she's actually a full-fledged Renaissance woman. Parton doesn't just sing and write music: Her acting career, philanthropic efforts, and business ventures have been just as successful. 

Considering how glamorous Parton is, it's hard to reconcile that before she found fame, her life was the complete opposite. At the time of her birth, her parents had three children (they eventually had 12 in total) and lived in Pittman Center, Tennessee — population 500 in 2010. Parton was born in a one-room cabin that had no water or electricity. The family didn't have any money, so her father paid the doctor who delivered her with cornmeal instead. 

Despite her family's meager lifestyle, Parton has always looked back on things fondly. "My own dad could not read or write, and he seemed so crippled by that, but Daddy was so smart," Parton told ABC News in 2018. "[Mama] used to tell us all of the stories from the Bible and make them beautiful like Joseph and the coat of many colors."

If you watched movies throughout the 1990s and 2000s, you know that Jim Carrey used to be absolutely everywhere. From "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" (1994) to "Bruce Almighty" (2003), there was a time when it seemed like hardly any major comedy film went without Carrey's larger-than-life presence. 

For someone who once delivered one of the funniest graduation speeches made by a celeb, though, Carrey experienced significant hardship in his youth. When Carrey's father lost his job, the family suffered another hard blow: the loss of their house. Carrey, who was around 14 years old at the time, lived in a tent outside with his brother. He ultimately dropped out of school at 16 to support his family. 

Carrey isn't one to talk about his personal life, although he briefly discussed his experience with homelessness during a "Comic Relief" appearance in 1992. "I grew up in Canada, so I thought we'd just gone camping," Carrey joked (via YouTube). "They didn't want me to know what was going on anyway, because they were embarrassed. It's a very embarrassing thing."

No matter how old you are or what walk of life you're from, there's an extremely high chance that you've heard of Oprah Winfrey. Nicknamed the "Queen of All Media," Winfrey's talk show career has rewarded her beautifully: she was once the richest Black woman in the world — and one of the richest women in general — with an approximate $3.4 billion net worth as of this writing.

Winfrey's incredibly lavish lifestyle might make headlines today, but her life wasn't always so glamorous. Winfrey's mother was a single teenager when she was born and experienced financial difficulties. Winfrey was largely raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi, who wasn't particularly well-off either. Winfrey moved in with her father as a teenager, which finally gave her more stability. 

Winfrey's childhood has been discussed by length since she's become successful, including the makeshift clothes she wore and the isolation she experienced due to her family's dysfunction. According to a 2005 profile by The Observer (via The Guardian), Winfrey was nicknamed "Sack Girl" at one point due to the potato sack dresses she wore. She also reportedly kept a cockroach as a pet. 

Daniel Kaluuya was a steadily on-the-rise actor in England before he hit the career jackpot in Jordan Peele's "Get Out" (2017). Since then, Kaluuya has carved quite a successful career out of playing serious roles; he won his first Academy Award and BAFTA in 2021. 

Although Kaluuya was born in London, he certainly didn't come from a privileged family. His mother, a Ugandan immigrant, lived with her children in hostels until Kaluuya was 2 years old; as a child, he was estranged from his father, who lived in Malawi. Kaluuya's mother eventually moved them to a council estate — public housing in the United States — where he subsequently grew up. 

Kaluuya has talked about his childhood and dealing with hardship several times over the years, including in a 2016 interview with The British Blacklist. "I was poor, so if I failed [at acting], what did I have to lose? I don't think I could have been any poorer — I was eating McDonald's sauces," he revealed. 

Before there was Eminem, there was Marshall Mathers, an unassuming boy with big dreams. Through hard work and a boatload of talent, Eminem has long established himself as a successful rapper, music executive, actor, and entrepreneur. His current net worth is estimated to be around $300 million. 

If you've seen "8 Mile" (2002) and/or listened to Eminem's early music, then you already know that Eminem's childhood was anything but easy. Before Eminem and his single mother settled down in Detroit, they frequently moved around Missouri and other parts of Michigan. Eminem was routinely bullied in school, had a contentious relationship with his mom, and lived in poverty.

Eminem has never shied away from his harsh upbringing, marked by a tangible lack of love across the board. "[A]s far as father figures, I didn't have any in my life. My mother had a lot of boyfriends," Eminem told Rolling Stone back in 2004. "Even growing up as a kid, being the new kid in school and getting bullied, getting jumped. Kids are f***ed up, kids are mean to other kids. School is a tough thing to go through."

Mila Kunis was just 14 years old when she was cast on "That '70s Show." Since then, she's continued to work hard in Hollywood with roles across various genres. Outside of her continuously growing resume, she's voiced Meg on "Family Guy" since 1999.

Kunis, whose full name is Milena Markovna Kunis, was born and initially raised in present-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Her family, who are Jewish, left the Soviet Union for the United States in 1991 just before the USSR's collapse. With no understanding of the English language and only $250 to her family's name, Kunis was thrown into the California public school system within days. 

"I blocked out second grade completely. I have no recollection of it. I always talk to my mom and my grandma about it. It was because I cried every day," Kunis told the LA Times in 2008. "I didn't understand the culture. I didn't understand the people. I didn't understand the language."

Leighton Meester will forever be remembered for introducing us to Blair Waldorf on "Gossip Girl," although she's done a lot more besides play a mean girl. Between a music career and a series of philanthropic efforts, Meester is more of an all-arounder celeb than most may realize. 

To get the full picture of Meester's stunning transformation, we have to go back to the start: her birth, which was impacted by an unusual circumstance. Meester was born in 1986 in Texas — while her parents were serving federal prison sentences. Meester spent the first three months of her life with her mother in a halfway house. After that, Meester lived with her grandparents until her mother's release. 

Meester has talked about her parents' criminal pasts several times over the years and how the events shaped her childhood. "I couldn't relate to kid stuff. ... I was worried we didn't have gas money or food. Those were my concerns," she told Marie Claire in 2012. Meester added, however, "I've always handled what was given to me by life. I consider myself lucky. I was never lied to. And I was loved."

From "Family Feud" to "Judge Steve Harvey," there doesn't seem to be a program that Steve Harvey can't host. With his classic sense of humor, good timing, and a great personality for television, Harvey has won dozens of awards — and achieved an approximately $200 million net worth to boot. 

Decades before Harvey's messy divorce cost him $30 million, he was an ordinary person from a typical working-class family: His mother, a Sunday school teacher, and his father, a coal miner, raised their children in the small town of Welch, West Virginia. Every summer, Harvey performed manual labor at his grandfather's farm; he went to Kent State University for a time, but ultimately flunked out. 

Harvey struggled to break into the world of comedy as a young adult; for several years, he was homeless, lived out of his car, and relied on as much help from others as he could get. On a 2013 episode of "Steve Harvey," Harvey emotionally reunited with Rich and Becky Liss, a couple who helped him significantly. "I got money now, Rich ... I've been looking for you for years, man," Harvey said (via YouTube).  

There's a lot that can be said about Sylvester Stallone and the massive career he's carved out for himself. As an actor, Stallone has starred in at least oneNo. 1 box-office hit every decade since the 1970s; the only other person who can brag about the same achievement, FYI, is Harrison Ford. 

Stallone had it hard from the jump: Nerve damage occurred during his birth, which ultimately gave him his iconic look and slightly slurred speech. Between bullying in school and contentious relationships with his parents, nothing in Stallone's early life came easy. Before "Rocky" (1976) made him famous, Stallone was temporarily homeless with little to no money.

Stallone was so down on his luck, in fact, that he sold his dog to try and save both of their lives. According to The Economic Times, Stallone sold his bullmastiff, Butkus (who has his own IMDb page), outside a 7-Eleven gas station in a desperate attempt to make something work. When "Rocky" got the green light and things started to turn around, Stallone paid $15,000 to get him back. 

Who hasn't heard of Céline Dion at this point? The "Queen of Power Ballads" remains one of the best-selling artists in history, and for good reason. Between her classic song "My Heart Will Go On" and an array of business ventures, Dion's legacy is a strong one on multiple fronts. 

If there's one thing to know about Dion, however, it's that her childhood was not luxurious in the slightest. Born outside of Montreal to ahardworking TV personality mother and butcher father, Dion was the last one to join the family in 1968 — their 14th child. At the time of Dion's birth, her eldest sibling was already in her 20s. 

Resources were spread so thin in the Dion household that for some time, Dion didn't have her own bed, let alone a spot in one of the bedrooms. Instead, she slept in a dresser drawer. "My mum was brilliant enough to put a pillow in a drawer for a baby to sleep in," Dion explained to Vanity Fair in 2011. "Three or four of us in the same bed was normal to us. We weren't poor, but we never had money."

Grammy winner Harry Styles shot to fame in the early 2010s as a member of the boy band One Direction. After the band's indefinite hiatus in 2016, Styles launched his solo career and has been making headlines — and a lot of revenue — ever since. 

Long before Styles became a fashion icon (and even longer before he dated some seriously famous women), he was an ordinary resident of Holmes Chapel, England — a village roughly 20 miles outside of Manchester with an approximate population of 7,000. As a teenager, Styles worked at W. Mandeville Bakery, a fact he immediately brought up during his "X-Factor" audition. 

In 2013, Styles returned to W. Mandeville for the One Direction movie "This Is Us," where he worked one last honorary shift. At the time, his former boss, Simon Wakefield, told The Mirror, "He was the most polite member of staff we've ever had. Customers really took a shine to him. ... He was a really hard worker."