Before the red carpets, the awards, and the millions, some of the biggest names in entertainment were working regular jobs to earn a paycheck. Beyoncé was sweeping hair, Nicki Minaj was waiting tables, and Queen Latifah was cleaning bathrooms at Burger King. Everybody starts somewhere. Here is how 12 Black celebrities made money before the world knew their names.
Oprah Winfrey started as a teenager working at a corner grocery store next to her father’s barber shop in Nashville. During a segment of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” recounted by Filmibeat, she recalled, “I wasn’t allowed to talk to the customers, and can you imagine for me? That was very, very, very hard.” At 16, she landed a job that paid her to talk, reading news at a Nashville radio station. The opportunity helped set her on the path toward a career built around connecting with people.
Beyoncé’s first job was sweeping hair at her mother Tina Knowles’ salon in Houston. In a May 2023 Instagram post, she asked, “How many of ya’ll knew my first job was sweeping hair in my mama’s salon?” She also revealed that Destiny’s Child got its start performing for clients while they were getting their hair done. The salon exposed Beyoncé to entrepreneurship at an early age, a connection that later helped inspire her move into the haircare industry with Cécred.
Kanye West, now known as Ye, worked at Gap in Chicago when he was 15 years old. Reflecting on his teenage job in a 2015 essay for Paper magazine, quoted by i-D, Ye explained, “I loved the fabrics, I loved the colors, I loved the proportions.” Despite his interest in clothing, he said he did not work enough hours to qualify for an employee discount. Years later, West returned to the company as a business partner when he launched the Yeezy Gap collaboration in 2020.
Pharrell Williams has called McDonald’s his first and only traditional job, although things did not go particularly well. During a November 2024 BBC Radio 2 interview, Williams admitted, “McDonald’s was my first and only job. I got fired three times. I was eating the chicken nuggets.” He explained that his first two dismissals were due to laziness, while the third happened because he was eating nuggets during his shift. Fortunately, a career in music production turned out to be a much better fit. He would later go on to create the McDonald’s jingle, a full-circle moment for the producer.
Queen Latifah was just 15 when she started working at Burger King. In a 2025 interview with FIRST for Women, published by Woman’s World, she recalled, “Burger King, at 15 years old. My first check was for 87 bucks.” The rapper and actress also took pride in doing the job properly, even when the work was far from glamorous. Speaking with Backstage, she remembered, “I cleaned that bathroom at Burger King when I worked there at 15 like it was my own house!” She credited that approach to the importance she places on work ethic.
Nicki Minaj worked as a waitress at Red Lobster before becoming a rap superstar, but she had a difficult time dealing with customers. During a 2019 appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Minaj explained that a couple left the restaurant without tipping and took her pen. She followed them into the parking lot, banged on their car window, and demanded, “Give me my pen!” After making an obscene gesture toward the customers, she was fired on the spot. Minaj also revealed that she had been fired from several Red Lobster locations.
Steve Harvey worked a string of jobs before finding his calling in comedy, including boxing, automobile manufacturing, insurance sales, carpet cleaning, and mail delivery. During an interview with L’Officiel Arabia, Harvey reflected on those earlier experiences and said his upbringing played a bigger role in shaping his work ethic than the jobs themselves. His career changed after he won an amateur comedy competition in Cleveland on October 8, 1985. However, success did not arrive immediately. Harvey told CBS News that he struggled for years on the comedy circuit and spent three years homeless, living out of his car while pursuing his dream.
Whoopi Goldberg had one of the more unusual jobs on this list. Before becoming a Hollywood star, she worked as a licensed beautician at a funeral home, preparing deceased people for their final services. Speaking on Oprah’s Master Class, Goldberg explained, “I did hair and makeup on dead people.” She had attended beauty school and was qualified to do the work. While the job was emotionally demanding, it provided an income long before Goldberg became an Oscar-winning actress.
Barack Obama spent one of his teenage summers scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins in Honolulu, Hawaii. In a reflection published through the Obama White House archive, he wrote, “My first summer job wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it taught me some valuable lessons.” He identified responsibility, hard work, and balancing employment with school and family as some of those lessons. Obama also recalled how difficult scooping rows of frozen ice cream could be on his wrists. The experience gave him an early understanding of the demands of working life.
Kevin Hart worked as a shoe salesman in Philadelphia before his comedy career took off. His early experience later inspired the development of a television comedy called “True to Size.” According to PhillyVoice, Hart shared his excitement about the project on Instagram, writing, “My younger life revolved around sneakers, from my job as a shoe salesman to my interactions with friends and family.” The proposed series centered on a young Hart working in a sneaker store, reflecting a time when he was still figuring out how to turn his talent for making people laugh into a career.
Taraji P. Henson worked two jobs while pursuing her degree at Howard University. According to The Washington Post, she worked mornings as a receptionist at the Pentagon and spent her evenings as a singing and dancing waitress aboard the Spirit of Washington dinner cruise ship. During a 2012 interview with Parade, Henson recalled, “I was a receptionist.” She added, “I just answered phones and filed. It wasn’t anything important.” Those jobs helped her support herself while attending Howard, where she graduated in 1995 with a degree in drama.
Rihanna was learning how to sell merchandise long before building her own business empire. Growing up in Barbados, she helped her father, Ronald Fenty, sell clothing and accessories. In a 2011 interview with The Sun, her father recalled, “She used to sell stuff on the side of the street like I did.” He explained that Rihanna would arrange hats, belts, and scarves on a rack outside a store. She also bought sweets, repackaged them, and sold them to classmates for a profit. Years later, Rihanna would become a global superstar and expand into successful business ventures, including Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty.
Looking at these early jobs, the pattern is hard to miss. Grocery stores, salon floors, fast food counters, shoe shops, funeral homes, and street stalls were all part of the journey. Some of these celebrities were fired. Others worked multiple jobs while chasing bigger opportunities. Not every experience was glamorous, and not every lesson came easily. But before the world knew their names, they already understood what it meant to earn a paycheck, deal with difficult people, and keep working toward something more.
