20 Stars Who Lived in Their Cars Before Becoming Famous, Ranked

Before winning two Grammy Awards, Tori Kelly experienced housing instability as a child in Southern California when her parents lost their house and the family briefly lived out of their vehicle while getting back on their feet.

During a mid-2000s spiral that cost her a Manhattan apartment rented from actor Michael Rapaport, Natasha Lyonne spent stretches living on the streets and in parked cars before getting sober and reviving her career with Orange Is the New Black.

When Lilly Singh first drove to Los Angeles to pursue entertainment before her digital channel took off, she could not afford rent and spent nights sleeping in her car and showering at friends' apartments between shoots.

Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, as one of 12 children before becoming a first-round NFL draft pick and Super Bowl champion, Michael Oher endured frequent evictions that left him sleeping in parked cars and on classmates' couches.

At age 30, Australian actor Sam Worthington sold nearly everything he owned for 2,000 dollars and was living out of his car in Sydney when director James Cameron cast him as Jake Sully in the 2009 blockbuster Avatar.

Before topping the Billboard 200 chart, Atlanta rapper Dominique Jones left his mother's house as a teenager and spent months sleeping in his car while hustling on the streets of Oakland City.

Fleeing relentless school bullying in Connecticut at age 15, future celebrity photographer David LaChapelle survived in New York City by crashing in parked cars and abandoned buildings until Andy Warhol gave him his first job at Interview magazine.

Before Fall Out Boy's 2005 multi-platinum breakthrough From Under the Cork Tree, bassist Pete Wentz and his bandmates gave up steady housing and lived out of their touring van and cars while playing tiny VFW halls.

After moving from Mullumbimby, Australia, to the United States at age 16 with money saved from cleaning hotel rooms, Iggy Azalea ran out of funds in Los Angeles and slept in her car while recording her early mixtapes.

In her early twenties, Tiffany Haddish lived out of her compact Geo Metro for months, intentionally parking on well-lit streets in Beverly Hills at night until comedian Kevin Hart gave her 300 dollars to get a motel room.

In the late 1980s, after his first marriage ended and comedy gigs dried up, Steve Harvey spent three years living out of his 1976 Ford Tempo, using an Igloo cooler as a refrigerator and washing up in hotel and gas station restrooms.

After sinking his entire 12,000-dollar savings into a 1992 Atlanta stage production that failed at the box office, future billionaire studio mogul Tyler Perry was evicted and lived in his car for months between odd jobs.

At age 18 in San Diego, singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher was fired for refusing her boss's sexual advances and could not pay rent. She lived in her car for a year, singing at the Inner Change coffeehouse until Atlantic Records signed her.

At age 15, future two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank and her mother Judy drove from Bellingham, Washington, to Los Angeles with 75 dollars and lived out of their Oldsmobile Delta 88 while calling casting agents from street payphones.

At age 19, Chris Pratt accepted a one-way ticket to Maui, Hawaii, where he slept in a fleamarket van painted with the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine logo and waited tables at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company until actress Rae Dawn Chong discovered him.

After leaving Kent State University in Ohio, Drew Carey drove west and ran out of cash, living inside his tiny Datsun sedan and selling plasma for food money before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1980.

In early 2002, on the very day she moved from Texas to Los Angeles, Kelly Clarkson's apartment building burned down. With no money left, she slept in her car for several days before returning to Texas to audition for the first season of American Idol.

During his teenage years in Aberdeen, Washington, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain spent periods sleeping on friends' porches, in hospital waiting rooms, and inside his beat-up 1965 Plymouth Valiant before recording Bleach.

After being evicted from his New York City apartment in the early 1970s with just 106 dollars to his name, Sylvester Stallone slept in his car and at the Port Authority Bus Terminal before writing the screenplay for Rocky in three days.

When his father Percy lost his accounting job in Ontario, Canada, 12-year-old Jim Carrey and his family lost their house and lived for eight months inside a Volkswagen camper van while the kids worked night janitor shifts at a tire factory.