In 2022, a fan of HBO’s Euphoria unknowingly sparked a collective investigation into celebrity family trees when she tweeted a discovery she had made about Maude Apatow: “Wait I just found out that the actress that plays Lexie is a nepotism baby omg. Her mom is Leslie Mann and her dad is a movie director lol [Judd Apatow],” the Gen-Zer wrote.
Soon after, other netizens began searching to uncover who else on their TVs or social media feeds was a "nepo baby"—the child of a celebrity—reigniting the debate of talent and merit versus VIP industry shortcuts.
Now, it’s time to shine a spotlight on the celebrities who were entirely self-made. The following actors, singers, and hosts have been recognized for their talent and have made millions without a famous surname paving the way.
Read on to discover 25 celebrities who rose to the top despite being born into poverty.
#1 Dolly Parton
The Jolene singer has described her family as being “dirt poor.”
Dolly grew up in a house with no electricity or running water in Pittman Center, Tennessee. Her parents, Avie Lee Caroline and Robert Lee Paterson, had twelve children, and Dolly was the fourth.
Her parents paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal. In 1972, Dolly wrote Dr. Robert F. Thomas, a song dedicated to him and other rural healthcare professionals.
“I'm proud of my hillbilly, white trash background,” Dolly told Southern Living. “To me, that keeps you humble. That keeps you good. And it doesn't matter how hard you try to outrun it — if that's who you are, that's who you are."
Image credits: NBC / Getty
#2 Céline Dion
Born into a working-class family in the Canadian province of Quebec, Céline is the youngest of 14 siblings.
Growing up, the superstar shared a bed with three or four of her sisters and wore their hand-me-downs.
As a baby, she slept in a drawer. “My mum was brilliant enough to put a pillow in a drawer for a baby to sleep in. We were safe and warm and taken care of. Three or four of us in the same bed was normal to us. We weren’t poor, but we never had money, ” the Queen of Power Ballads told Vanity Fair.
“We were given love and affection and support. What else did we need?”
Image credits: Monica Schipper / Getty
#3 Selena Gomez
Selena’s mother, Mandy, had her at sixteen years old. The Only Murders in the Building star recalls having to search for quarters to pay for gas during her childhood.
“I remember my mom would run out of gas all of the time and we’d sit there and have to go through the car and get quarters and help her get gas,” the 32-year-old told Hollywood Life.
“I remember having a lot of macaroni and cheese but my mom never made it seem like it was a big deal. She was really strong around me.
“Having me at 16 had to have been a big responsibility. My mom gave up everything for me, had three jobs, supported me and sacrificed her life for me.”
Image credits: / Getty
#4 Misha Collins
Misha’s family was sometimes homeless and lived off food stamps, he revealed to Forbes when asked about the inspiration behind his non-profit organization Random Acts in 2018.
“I still remember vividly what a profound impact a relatively small act of kindness from a stranger had on our family during those times,” the Supernatural actor said.
“I still relish the meal we bought with a $14 gift certificate to Abdow’s Big Boy that a stranger handed to my mom when our car had broken down, as we were hitchhiking in the winter. That act of generosity has stuck with me for decades, and I feel as if I’m still trying to pay it forward.”
Image credits: Gary Gershoff / Getty
#5 Viola Davis
Born in South Carolina to Mae Alice Logan, a maid, and Dan Davis, a horse trainer, Viola is the second youngest of six children.
At nine years old, the actress moved with her family to Central Falls, Rhode Island. “We were on the periphery. And we lived in abject poverty and dysfunction, which is a horrific combination. And feeling like you are the only one being black, being on the periphery, belief system becomes almost imperative,” Viola said of her Catholic upbringing.
“I grew up in apartments that were condemned and rat-infested, and I just always sort of wanted to be somebody,” the Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award winner told Harper’s Bazaar.
Image credits: Amy Sussman / Getty
#6 Mary J. Blige
“The people I knew sat around drinking and cursing and living in denial. These were my role models. Life was about surviving—getting money any way you could,” the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul told Oprah Winfrey in 2006.
Mary was born in the Bronx, New York City, to a nurse, Cora, and a jazz musician, Thomas. After her father— a Vietnam War veteran who suffered from alcoholism and severe PTSD—left the family in the 1970s, the singer and her mother subsided on Cora’s earnings as a nurse.
Image credits: Dave Kotinsky / Getty
#7 Halle Berry
In 1989, when Halle moved from Ohio to New York to pursue an acting career, she worked as a waitress and bartender. Before that, she briefly lived in a homeless shelter and then a YMCA after running out of money in the Big Apple.
Her financial situation improved later that year when she was cast as Emily Franklin in the ABC sitcom Living Dolls, a spin-off of Who’s the Boss?
Image credits: Presley Ann / Getty
#8 Rosario Dawson
When she was five, the Seven Pounds actress moved into a reclaimed building in New York City after her family was approved for an affordable housing plan.
The abandoned apartment, which she shared with her then-22-year-old mother and 2-year-old brother, had no electricity or running water.
"We had cast-iron stoves, plastic for windows, and plywood for a door. You had to bring buckets upstairs to shower,” Rosario told The Columbus Dispatch.
“It was quite an experience being so poor. But it was also a powerful experience. It made me the woman I am today and informs my activism.”
Image credits: Daniele Venturelli / Getty
#9 Kelly Clarkson
The Texas-born singer’s family lived "prepay check to prepay check," she told the Dallas Morning News in 2015.
“I always used to hate when people would be like, ‘Money doesn't buy everything,’ when you are little and poor. Rich people say that. Not poor people. I don't know one poor person that's going, ‘Money doesn't buy happiness.’ It pays you to get out of eviction notices,” said Kelly, who rose to fame after winning the first season of American Idol in 2002.
Image credits: Debra L Rothenberg / Getty
#10 Jim Carrey
Jim and his brother John worked as janitors and security guards at a tire factory in Ontario, Canada, in exchange for living in the house across the street with their family.
Prior to that, the Carreys lived in a van and at campsites around the Canadian province when the family became homeless.
Speaking on The Howard Stern Show in 2003, the actor and comedian said he was put in a position where he “tried to be the adult and take care of everything.”
When he worked as a janitor at age fifteen, he would often release his anger by punching a wall. “Every day, my father would come to relieve me from my eight-hour shift and there would be a new hole in the wall in the office shaped like my fist.”
Image credits: Steve Granitz / Getty
#11 Shania Twain
The Ontario-born star grew up poor and would often go to school with an empty stomach. "It's very hard to concentrate when your stomach's rumbling," Shania told ABC News in 2011.
Though the country musician was jealous of other children’s lunches, she never asked anyone for help.
"I would certainly never have humiliated myself enough to reach out and ask for help and say, 'You know, I'm hungry. Can I have that apple that you're not going to eat?' I didn't have the courage to do that."
Image credits: Jason Kempin / NBC / Getty
#12 Jessica Chastain
The Miss Sloane star often went to bed hungry during her childhood.
“I did grow up with a single mother who worked very hard to put food on our table,” Jessica told The Irish Times.
"We did not have money. There were many nights when we had to go to sleep without eating. It was a very difficult upbringing. Things weren’t easy for me growing up.”
Her harsh childhood experiences shaped her attitude and made her more empathetic. “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.”
To pursue acting, the Oscar winner worked at a performing arts school in exchange for taking classes since "there was no way my family could afford it,” she told People Magazine.
Image credits: Steve Eichner / Getty
#13 Leighton Meester
Growing up, the Gossip Girl alum appeared on commercials for Bloomingdale's, Stern's, and Limited Too.
"I worked a lot, even though I was just a kid. It seemed normal to me," Leighton revealed during a 2012 interview for Marie Claire.
When she moved from New York to Los Angeles at age 14, she and her mother survived on modest checks from the actress’s grandfather and fees from her modeling gigs.
"I couldn't relate to kid stuff. 'Jimmy doesn't like me!' Who cares? I was worried we didn't have gas money or food. Those were my concerns."
Image credits: Dave Benett / Getty
#14 Daniel Kaluuya
“I was poor, so if I failed, what did I have to lose? I don’t think I could have been any poorer. I was eating McDonald’s sauces,” the Oscar winner told the British Blacklist about his financial situation before fame.
Daniel and his mother lived in hostels when he was two years old until they moved to a home in Camden, London.
“She was on benefits for a long while, which is what Americans call welfare,” the Get Out actor shared.
His first job was as a runner for a shopping channel. “I showed up on my first day in a suit, because that’s what I thought professionals did—and then everyone said, ‘Get me a coffee.’ So I was getting people a coffee in a suit, which was very interesting.”
Image credits: Jon Kopaloff / Getty
#15 Oprah Winfrey
The iconic talk show host spent her early years living in rural poverty with her grandmother in a house without running water.
Oprah was bullied at school and given the derogatory name “Sack Girl” for wearing overalls made with potato sacks.
After being sent to live with her mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Oprah was raped by her cousin at age nine. She ran away from home four years later after suffering years of sexual abuse by her cousin and other family members.
Image credits: Paul Morigi / Getty
#16 Tyler Perry
Tyler was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Willie Maxine Perry, a preschool teacher, and Emmit Perry Sr., a carpenter.
“I love when people say you come from ‘humble beginnings,’” the actor, filmmaker, and playwright told Forbes in 2022. “[It] means you were poor as hell. It also makes success sweeter. Ownership changes everything.”
Tyler lived in his car for three months while he worked on his 1992 play, I Know I’ve Been Changed, inspired by his story as a child-abuse survivor.
Image credits: NBC / Getty
#17 Maisie Williams
The Game of Thrones actress was raised in a three-bedroom council house, a form of British public housing, outside of Bristol, England.
Initially, Maisie’s ambition was to become a professional dancer. At the age of ten, she was accepted into a performing arts school, but couldn’t take classes because her family couldn't afford it.
Two years later, she landed the role that would forever change her life: the fan-favorite, Arya Stark. Her mother now owns the council house Maisie grew up in.
Image credits: Variety / Getty
#18 Steve Harvey
Before making a name for himself on television, the Family Feud host worked as a boxer, autoworker, insurance salesman, carpet cleaner, and mailman.
In the eighties, Steve was homeless for three years and slept in his Ford Tempo while trying to make money doing stand-up shows.
“It was crushing,” the 67-year-old comedian told People. “I realized, ‘You’re on your own. You have nothing or no one.’ All I knew was that I could make people laugh.”
Steve resorted to stealing fuel from gas stations to get to his gigs. In his first year, he made just $3,000 as a comedian.
Image credits: Erika Doss / Getty
#19 Sarah Jessica Parker
The Sex and the City star’s memories of her impoverished childhood are tied to very specific moments.
“We didn't have electricity sometimes. We didn't have Christmases sometimes, or we didn't have birthdays sometimes, or the bill collectors came, or the phone company would call and say, 'We're shutting your phones off,'" SJP told The New York Times.
"I wouldn't change any of it, for anything ... for the most part, we had everything we needed. Not always, but for the most part,” the actress later added.
Her mother, a nursery school teacher, often took Sarah and her siblings to free public institutions, such as the theater and ballet, to immerse them in cultural activities.
Image credits: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
#20 Camila Alves Mcconaughey
Camila left her native Brazil for Los Angeles at the age of 15. After arriving in the US, she worked as a house cleaner and waitress while learning English and saved money to move to New York to pursue a modeling career.
The model and designer, now signed with the Spanish agency Uno Models, has walked the runways of brands like Carolina Herrera, Valentino, and Mango.
Image credits: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
#21 Leonardo DiCaprio
Speaking with the LA Times in 2014, Leo shared that he “grew up very poor” and recalled there being "crime and violence everywhere" in his Hollywood neighborhood.
"It really was like Taxi Driver in a lot of ways," he described, adding that prostitutes and people smoking crack and shooting heroin were common sights.
The Wolf of Wall Street actor was beaten up at school for having a naive outlook on life. “I was 15, and I said to my mom, ‘I want to be an actor. Please take me to auditions.’ Because I had to get out of that public school system.”
Image credits: Emma McIntyre / Getty
#22 Demi Moore
Demi’s upbringing was defined by constant motion. The Golden Globe winner moved 30 times throughout her childhood, with stops in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Washington State before her family finally settled in Southern California.
“We weren't dirt poor, but we didn't have a lot of money. I entered this career having no background or connection to acting. I had so little I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking the risk,” she told The Guardian in 2007.
Demi enrolled in acting classes after being inspired by her neighbor, German star Nastassja Kinski.
Image credits: Sonia Moskowitz / Getty
#23 Hilary Swank
Hilary wasn’t allowed to hang out with her friends outside of school because their parents did not want them to be around a lower-class child such as her.
“The negative part of it was learning about class at such a young age, not from my friends, but from my friend’s parents, who would say, 'You aren’t to hang out with her.' At 6 years old, to have a parent say, 'You’re not welcome in our home, you need to go,” the Boys Don’t Cry actress told Together Magazine.
At fifteen, Hilary and her mother moved from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Los Angeles so that she could pursue a career in acting. The two lived in a car while her mother made just enough money to rent an apartment.
Image credits: Victor VIRGILE / Getty
#24 Cardi B
The rapper, born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, worked as a stripper in New York City to escape poverty and domestic violence. Through stripping, Cardi was able to earn enough money to get an education.
Her parents had “poor jobs,” the WAP singer said during a 2016 interview with Global Grind. “They real good people and everything, I was just raised in a bad society."
Image credits: Bravo / Getty
#25 Mariah Carey
Mariah described her family as “broken and dysfunctional” during a 2020 interview on CBS News.
“When I say without money, I mean, like, we really didn't have much of anything!" the singer-songwriter said.
The Grammy winner grew up poor in an all-white neighborhood in Huntington, New York. She described her small rundown house as a “shack.”
When asked about her success, the Obsessed singer said: "I always knew that I would do this, and it was just a matter of when it was going to happen.”
Image credits: Wagner Meier / Getty
