Vin Diesel

1

When Vin was 7, a play director caught him and some friends breaking into a theater. She cast them in her upcoming production and gave them $20 and a script for Dinosaur Door instead of getting them in trouble.

Justin Bieber

2

Pretty sure most of us have heard this one before but the Biebs was discovered by music manager Scooter Braun while he was searching for another artist on YouTube. Braun proceeded to call every school in that part of Ontario until he got a response from Bieber’s mother.

Tracy Chapman

3

When Tracy Chapman was a student at Tufts, her classmate stole one of her demos and sent it to his father, a big-time music executive. He listened to the tape and later signed Chapman to his label.

Gisele Bündchen

4

At 13 years old, Bündchen signed up for a modeling course to get a free trip to São Paulo. While she was on the trip a modeling agent scouted her at a McDonalds and offered her a gig.

Rosario Dawson

5

When a commercial was shooting outside her apartment, Dawson sat on her front porch until the directed asked if she would like to be in a movie. Screenwriter Harmony Korine had written a character and had not cast it yet, electing to go with Dawson instead.

Anya Taylor-Joy

6

Imagine walking your dog one day when someone stops you and asks if you want to be a movie star. Fortunately for Taylor-Joy, she was not abducted or introduced to the adult film industry and was actually approached by famous Storm Model Management scout Sarah Doukas, who also discovered Kate Moss.

Pamela Anderson

7

If anyone ever assumed that Anderson got her jobs due to her good looks, they were right. Anderson was attending a BC Lions football game when she was put on the jumbotron. She was wearing a Labatt shirt and became a spokesmodel for the brand soon after.

Mandy Moore

8

A FedEx delivery driver overheard a 13-year-old Mandy Moore singing and sent a copy of her demo to some friends at Epic Records. The chance encounter at an Orlando recording studio led to her first big deal.

Nick Jonas

9

Before the Jonas Bros. took off and Nick was only 6, someone overheard him singing at a hair salon with his mom. They gave her a manager’s card and he went on to become a broadway star at the age of 11.

Jason Statham

10

Who would have thought that Jason Statham’s first gig would not even be acting? Statham made a living selling knockoff jewelry on the street corners of London when a modeling gig put him in contact with director Guy Ritchie. Ritchie wrote him a part as a black-market jewelry dealer and we have not been able to get rid of him since.

Marilyn Monroe

11

Monroe was working in an aircraft factory when a touring army photographer took her picture. She began working as a model for the photographer and his colleagues soon after, ultimately quitting her factory job, divorcing her husband, dying her hair blonde, and changing her name.

Alden Ehrenreich

12

Imagine making a video for a friend’s bat mitzvah and then having to show that to Steven Spielberg. Fortunately for Alden he had no idea as he said he probably wouldn’t have done it if he knew who was going to be watching it.

Toni Braxton

13

Ok, we all like to sing in the car, right? Well Braxton was singing to herself at a gas station when songwriter Bill Pettaway overheard her. He helped Toni and her sisters land a record deal as the Braxtons and her career had begun.

John Wayne

14

Wayne had a job moving props and filming equipment at Fox when filmmakers, most notably John Ford, started casting him as an extra instead. Ford introduced him to fellow director Raoul Walsh and Wayne landed his first starring role.

Katherine Heigl

15

Katherine Heigl was only 9 when she modeled for her aunt’s haircare product that she invented. The photos were sent to a New York acting agency. Heigl experienced some success as a child model and commercial actor before booking her first big screen role in That Night.

Haley Joel Osment

16

Osment was just a child when a pair of women running a casting table took his photos hat a local Ikea, thus leading to his first commercial role. From that role the casting director of Forrest Gump got in contact with them and Osment became one of the biggest child actors of the later 90’s and early 2000’s.