9 Celebs Who Worked at McDonald’s Before They Were Famous
McDonald’s has been a first job for many people, including more future stars than you might expect. Before the movie sets, concert stages, talk shows, and award shows, some familiar names spent time under the Golden Arches. Some have remembered the job fondly, and a few have laughed about not being very good at it.
Here are nine celebs who worked at McDonald’s before they were famous.
Mark Hamill
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Long before he became Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Mark Hamill had a very normal teenage job. In a post on X, Hamill said his first “real” job was at a McDonald’s in Annandale, Virginia, when he was 16.
Jay Leno
Wendy Perl/NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
Jay Leno also worked at McDonald’s before becoming a late-night TV fixture. According to Business Insider, Leno worked at a McDonald’s in Andover, Massachusetts, and later said the job helped teach him how a business operates. Leno’s McDonald’s job has also been included in Cody Teets’ book Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald’s, which profiles well-known people whose careers began at the chain. Years later, Leno became one of the most famous hosts in late-night television.
Shania Twain
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Shania Twain‘s road to country-pop superstardom also included time at McDonald’s. In a 2023 interview reported by People, Twain said she worked in several departments but especially liked the drive-thru. Twain also said she worked at McDonald’s after school during the week while performing onstage at night on weekends.
Pink
Virginia Sherwood/NBC/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Pink worked the drive-thru at McDonald’s before she became one of pop’s most powerful live performers. In an interview reported by PopCrush, Pink said it was important to her family that she make her own money. She joked, “I was a drive-through girl at McDonald’s. I had a Janet Jackson microphone — I had power.”
James Franco
Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection
James Franco‘s McDonald’s job came during a difficult early stretch in Los Angeles. In a 2015 essay for The Washington Post, Franco wrote that he worked there after leaving school and trying to make it as an actor. Franco credited the job with helping him get by before acting work arrived.
Sharon Stone
Everett Collection
Before Basic Instinct made her one of the most talked-about movie stars of the 1990s, Sharon Stone had a much more ordinary job. In a 2021 interview about her memoir, The New Yorker referenced Stone writing about being a “fry girl” at McDonald’s.
Jeff Bezos
David Ryder/Getty Images
Before Amazon, Jeff Bezos also worked at McDonald’s. In a 1999 profile, Wired reported that Bezos spent a summer as a fry cook at McDonald’s when he was a teenager. Bezos later remembered paying attention to the company’s systems and automation, including the machines and buzzers that helped workers keep the food moving.
Jason Alexander
Before he became George Costanza on Seinfeld, Alexander starred in a 1985 McDonald’s commercial for the McDLT, as noted by The A.V. Club. The commercial featured Alexander singing and dancing about the burger’s famous “hot side hot” and “cool side cool” packaging.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar also did not work at McDonald’s, but her story about a fast-food commercial is too memorable to leave out. As a child, she appeared in a Burger King commercial that mentioned McDonald’s by name, and People reported that McDonald’s sued Burger King, the advertising agency, and Gellar, who was only five at the time.
Did you ever work at McDonald’s? Tell us about your experience in the comments!
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July/August 2026
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