Before They Were Famous: The Shocking First Roles of Hollywood Stars

Every renowned actor or actress we admire today start­ed somewhere—often far from the glit­ter­ing red car­pets and block­buster pre­mieres. Many began with small roles, back­ground parts, or even in projects that few would asso­ciate with their lat­er star­dom. These for­ma­tive roles, though some­times over­looked, laid the ground­work for their impres­sive careers and show­cased ear­ly glimpses of their tal­ent and deter­mi­na­tion.

Anya Tay­lor-Joy in Atlantis(2013–2015)

Before sky­rock­et­ing to fame with The Queen’s Gam­bit, Anya Tay­lor-Joy honed her craft in the British  TV series Atlantis. The show allowed her to devel­op a strong screen pres­ence and ver­sa­til­i­ty, act­ing along­side sea­soned per­form­ers. Her role in this fan­ta­sy adven­ture, though mod­est, was a cru­cial step­ping stone that intro­duced her to a wider audi­ence and helped cul­ti­vate her unique blend of inten­si­ty and grace.

Get your first look at Star­gate (2025) in this epic teas­er trail­er star­ring Dave Bautista and Anya Tay­lor-Joy — a sci-fi adven­ture you won’t want to miss.

Jenna Ortega in CSI: NY(2004–2013)

Jen­na Ortega’s career began at a young age with appear­ances in pop­u­lar pro­ce­dur­al dra­mas like CSI: NY. These ear­ly gigs allowed her to explore dra­mat­ic sto­ry­telling with­in a pro­ce­dur­al con­text, sharp­en­ing her act­ing skills. Start­ing so young gave Jen­na the expe­ri­ence need­ed to tran­si­tion smooth­ly into more com­plex roles in both tele­vi­sion and film as she matured

Cameron Monaghan in Malcolm in the Middle(2000–2006)

Cameron Monaghan’s ear­ly career was marked by comedic roles, includ­ing recur­ring parts on Mal­colm in the Mid­dle. His nat­ur­al comedic tim­ing and charm helped him stand out, prov­ing he could han­dle both humor and dra­ma. These years shaped his abil­i­ty to bal­ance lev­i­ty with depth, traits that would lat­er define his per­for­mances in dark­er, more intense roles.

Olivia Cooke in The Secret of Crickley Hall (2012)

Olivia Cooke took an ear­ly step into the world of sus­pense and mys­tery with The Secret of Crick­ley Hall. Her com­pelling per­for­mance in this haunt­ing dra­ma show­cased her capac­i­ty to car­ry com­plex emo­tions and con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to a story’s atmos­phere. This ear­ly expo­sure helped her gain cred­i­bil­i­ty in both British tele­vi­sion and inter­na­tion­al film cir­cles.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kick-Ass (2010)

Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s break­out role came with Kick-Ass, but his ear­li­er career includ­ed small­er parts where he steadi­ly built his range. Play­ing the vig­i­lante Dave Lizews­ki required a mix of youth­ful inno­cence and action-hero brava­do, and it was this per­for­mance that cement­ed his place as a ris­ing star capa­ble of han­dling lead roles in major films.

Zoey Deutch in The Suite Life on Deck (2008–2011)

Start­ing on the Dis­ney Channel’s The Suite Life on Deck, Zoey Deutch learned to mas­ter the art of light­heart­ed, comedic roles that appeal to younger audi­ences. This foun­da­tion gave her the tools to tran­si­tion suc­cess­ful­ly to more dra­mat­ic and mature char­ac­ters in films, prov­ing her adapt­abil­i­ty and range

Timothée Chalamet in Sweet Tooth (2008)

Before cap­ti­vat­ing audi­ences world­wide, Tim­o­th­ée Chalamet’s ear­ly work includ­ed roles in shows like Sweet Tooth, where he began explor­ing his emo­tion­al range. These ini­tial appear­ances pro­vid­ed a plat­form to refine his craft and pre­pare for his lat­er crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed per­for­mances that com­bine vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty with strength.

Danielle Campbell in The Poker House (2008)

Danielle Campbell’s ear­ly career was shaped by dra­mat­ic, emo­tion­al­ly charged roles such as in The Pok­er House. Tack­ling heavy themes from the out­set, she demon­strat­ed a matu­ri­ty beyond her years, impress­ing cast­ing direc­tors and audi­ences alike and lay­ing a sol­id foun­da­tion for her grow­ing fil­mog­ra­phy.

Florence Pugh in The Falling(2014)

Flo­rence Pugh’s debut in The Falling intro­duced her as a ris­ing tal­ent with a pow­er­ful screen pres­ence. The film’s atmos­pher­ic ten­sion and com­plex nar­ra­tive allowed her to show­case her abil­i­ty to por­tray nuanced and deeply emo­tion­al char­ac­ters, set­ting the stage for her sub­se­quent rise to inter­na­tion­al star­dom.

Expe­ri­ence Flo­rence Pugh’s haunt­ing break­out per­for­mance in The Falling (2014) — a cap­ti­vat­ing role that marked the begin­ning of her rise.

Brendan Fraser in Airheads(1994)

Known for his lat­er block­buster hits, Bren­dan Fraser’s career began with come­dies like Air­heads. The film high­light­ed his nat­ur­al comedic instincts and charis­ma, traits that made him a beloved fig­ure in Hol­ly­wood. This ear­ly work pro­vid­ed Fras­er with a plat­form to devel­op his unique blend of humor and heart.

Sydney Sweeney in Criminal Minds (2005-present)

Syd­ney Sweeney’s long-run­ning pres­ence on Crim­i­nal Minds gave her an ear­ly foothold in a pro­ce­dur­al dra­ma with a devot­ed fan­base. Her abil­i­ty to engage audi­ences in emo­tion­al­ly intense sto­ry­lines paved the way for her break­out roles in larg­er projects, demon­strat­ing her tal­ent and ded­i­ca­tion.

Mackenzie Foy in Til Death(2006–2010)

Macken­zie Foy’s ear­ly career on the sit­com Til Death helped her mas­ter the tim­ing and dynam­ics of com­e­dy, giv­ing her valu­able expe­ri­ence on set. These years helped build the con­fi­dence and skill set nec­es­sary for her to tran­si­tion into major film roles in the future.

Pedro Pascal in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)

Before becom­ing a house­hold name through roles in Game of Thrones and The Man­dalo­ri­an, Pedro Pas­cal made mem­o­rable appear­ances in cult  TV shows like Buffy the Vam­pire Slay­er. This expe­ri­ence allowed him to blend charis­ma with inten­si­ty, help­ing him become one of the most ver­sa­tile actors of his gen­er­a­tion.

Kaya Scodelario in Skins(2007–2013)

Kaya Scode­lario gained recog­ni­tion through the provoca­tive British series Skins, which tack­led youth­ful angst and com­plex social issues. Her raw and authen­tic per­for­mance cap­tured the atten­tion of audi­ences and crit­ics alike, estab­lish­ing her as a fear­less actress will­ing to take on chal­leng­ing roles.

Logan Lerman in The Patriot(2000)

Logan Lerman’s film debut in the his­tor­i­cal dra­ma The Patri­ot marked an aus­pi­cious start. Work­ing along­side indus­try vet­er­ans, he demon­strat­ed a nat­ur­al abil­i­ty to hold his own in seri­ous dra­mat­ic set­tings, set­ting a strong prece­dent for his future lead­ing roles.

Watch Emma Roberts in every unfor­get­table scene from Blow — a high-def­i­n­i­tion high­light reel you won’t want to miss.