25 Celebrities Who Got Their Big Break in Commercials

Before the Oscars and the billion-dollar franchises, many of today's biggest Hollywood names made a living pitching burgers and shampoo in 30-second spots. Commercials were, after all, where many actors would find their first screen work and a paycheck. It was also a way to kickstart their career and pad their résumés. Watching them in retrospect, it's hard not to see the star quality that was hiding in plain sight.

Before his breakout role in Titanic, a teenage Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted in a commercial for Bubble Yum bubble gum in the late 1980s. He was already doing commercial work to supplement small TV roles, building camera confidence long before anyone in Hollywood knew his name. It's a strange thing to watch now, knowing where he ended up.

In 1989, a shirtless Brad Pitt was featured in a commercial for Pringles. The clip has since become one of the most shared celebrity throwbacks on the internet. Back then, he was doing background work and whatever on-camera jobs he could get in Los Angeles. Thelma & Louise was still two years away.

Ben Affleck's debut appearance in a commercial took place in 1989 when he was seen in a Burger King advertisement. There, a woman accidentally called him instead of the restaurant and asked him to deliver a salad. He doesn’t. Affleck was just 17 at that time, and when the video was featured on Good Morning America in 2016, Affleck watched it alongside the hosts and laughed along with everyone else.

Years before The Matrix, Keanu Reeves was seen dancing in a Corn Flakes commercial back in 1986. Reeves was living in Los Angeles at the time and taking on whatever work came his way. It was one of his earliest documented appearances in front of the camera. The dancing, it turned out, was useful practice for the stunt-heavy career that followed.

Drew Barrymore was four years old when she appeared in a Pillsbury cookie dough commercial in 1979, two full years before her breakthrough in E.T. Barrymore's family had deep roots in Hollywood, but commercials gave her the initial time on the screen. By the time Spielberg cast her, she already had more camera experience than most child actors her age.

Sarah Michelle Gellar was only five years old in 1982 when she made a television commercial for Burger King that directly called out McDonald's burgers by name, an unusually aggressive move for the fast food industry at the time. McDonald's sued Burger King, the agency that created the commercial, and even Gellar herself. Burger King ended up taking the ad down but Gellar had already made an impression.

Courteney Cox was the first person to say "period" on national television in 1985 during a Tampax commercial. That was way before Friends made her famous. The ad was regarded as pioneering for its direct language, and Cox reportedly even received fan mail for it. She was still years away from Monica Geller, but she was already making television history.

Steve Carell was in a television commercial for Brown's Chicken, a chain of restaurants in Chicago, in 1989. He followed that by participating in a television commercial for McDonald's in 1990. The commercials preceded any significant acting roles, and Carell later described those early gigs as formative, teaching him how to stay natural in front of the cameras. The Office was still fifteen years ahead.

In the early 80s, a teenage Jack Black made a video game ad for Activision, showcasing his crazy energy right from the beginning. The same chaotic, slightly unhinged enthusiasm, which he showed in his roles in movies like School of Rock and the Tenacious D film, was already fully present in this short advertisement for a video game. Some people come fully formed.

The year 1990 saw Tobey Maguire, who was just fifteen then, make a commercial for Atari Lynx, where he snuck into a school bathroom to play with the hand-held console. That very year, he also appeared in the commercial for Tropicana Twister, breaking the fourth wall to suggest adding broccoli as a flavor. Spider-Man was still more than a decade away, but Maguire was already putting in work.

In 1991, Paul Rudd was seen in a commercial for the Super Nintendo. The clip is remarkable because he looks the same as he does now. This commercial predated his breakout role in Clueless by about four years. Paul Rudd is known for looking forever young, and this commercial gets recirculated every few years as fresh evidence.

Before the Mickey Mouse Club and before "...Baby One More Time," Britney Spears did an advertisement for Maull's BBQ Sauce as a kid. Britney Spears had been performing in church choirs and local productions in Louisiana when a talent agent spotted her. It was one of her earliest professional gigs. Who would’ve known that the pop superstar trajectory could have its start in a barbecue sauce spot?

A pre-teen Mila Kunis made an appearance in a Lisa Frank commercial in 1993 where she joyously displayed Lisa Frank's colorful stickers and school supplies. She was about ten years old, and the ad clearly shows the kind of bright energy that would land her a role on That '70s Show just a few years later.

Tyrese Gibson's career kickstart is owed to a Coca-Cola commercial from 1994 where he sang the song "Always Coca-Cola" on a city bus. The commercial played nonstop at the time, establishing Tyrese Gibson as a recognizable face and allowing him to go on to model and make music. For him, that commercial was the beginning of everything.

Long before The Wire and Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan starred in commercials for Toys "R" Us, Modell's Sporting Goods, and Nickelodeon. The commercial work came before the television roles that launched his acting career. Judging by those commercials, the seriousness he would carry into his film work is already visible.

In 1989, a teenage Mark Ruffalo was in a Clearasil commercial, where he expressed his horror at seeing a pimple before applying the miraculous product. It’s not a subtle performance, but Ruffalo went on to earn Academy Award nominations and play the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which suggests the Clearasil commercial didn’t define him.

Child actor Elijah Wood took part in a Pizza Hut commercial before any of the film roles that would make him recognizable. He had already been pursuing acting seriously as a young child, and commercial work gave him the earliest screen credits. Of course, The Lord of the Rings was still a long way off when he was pitching pizza onscreen.

Kristen Stewart was seen in a Porsche commercial in her very early years, where she played a little girl going to school with her father. At this time, she had not yet broken into the movies with Panic Room, but she was already showing signs of the quiet, observational quality that would later define her performances, even in a car commercial where the car was supposed to be the focus.

Wesley Snipes was in a Levi's commercial in the 1980s before he ever made it big in films, taking on commercial work as part of the early grind of building an acting resume. By the time Jungle Fever and New Jack City arrived in the early 1990s, he was already an experienced on-camera performer.

Seth Green was in a Rally's fast food restaurant commercial at the beginning of his career, one of several commercial gigs he took on before landing television roles. He had been acting since childhood and used commercial work to stay visible and working between larger opportunities. Austin Powers and Family Guy were still years away, but the comedic instincts were already there.

Jason Bateman had acted in a cereal commercial for Golden Grahams as a child star. He was already working in Hollywood at a very young age. He went on to land television roles throughout the 1980s before the career lull and eventual comeback that made Arrested Development and Ozark possible.

At twelve years old, Alfonso Ribeiro was seen dancing in the famous Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial that aired in 1984. It was one of the most viewed ads of its time, and it gave Ribeiro national exposure before Fresh Prince of Bel-Air turned him into a television star. Dancing alongside Michael Jackson was, as starting points go, a memorable one.

Jennifer Lawrence played in a promotional commercial for MTV's My Super Sweet 16 in the early 2000s, portraying a fictional rich teenage girl throwing a lavish party. This was one of her earliest times working in front of the camera, before Winter's Bone and The Hunger Games. Lawrence has talked about those early commercial days as a period of figuring out how acting really worked.

According to Regina Hall herself, her first acting job was a McDonald's commercial. She went on to become one of the most reliably funny and versatile actresses working in Hollywood, with a career spanning comedies and dramas across three decades. Like many others, her acting career began with fast food.

In 1997, Amy Adams was in a commercial for the now-defunct Commercial Federal Bank that featured a parody of Grease, a strange and specific premise for a regional bank ad. At the time, she did only dinner theater in Colorado, and the commercial was one of her first on-camera credits. Two years later, she made her big-screen debut, and by 2005 she had her first Oscar nomination.