15 Famous People Who Have Been Friends Since Before They Were Famous
Hollywood friendships usually look like they started at an awards show, on a movie set, or somewhere involving an aggressively expensive dinner. Some of them, though, go back to school hallways, tiny apartments, improv classes, and years when nobody involved had a publicist. A few of these pairs were already chasing the same dream together. Others simply happened to meet young and stayed close while everything around them changed. That history makes the friendship feel a little different once both people become household names, because there is always someone around who remembers the version of you with no red carpet involved. Here are 15 famous people who have been friends since before they were famous.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
They met as kids in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lived a couple of blocks apart, and bonded over acting long before Good Will Hunting made them an Oscar-winning team.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
Fey and Poehler met in a Chicago improv class in 1993, years before either reached Saturday Night Live. Their comedy careers kept crossing paths because their friendship already had.
Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland
Rowland grew up close to Beyoncé and even lived with the Knowles family for a time. The two were singing together years before Destiny’s Child turned them into stars.
Pedro Pascal and Sarah Paulson
Pascal and Paulson met as teenagers in New York in the early 1990s. Decades later, they are still close enough to make their joint red carpet appearances feel like reunions.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire
DiCaprio spotted Maguire while they were both young actors going to auditions and basically decided they should be friends. Somehow, that wonderfully direct approach worked for decades.
George Clooney and Richard Kind
Clooney and Kind became friends while they were both still trying to make it in Los Angeles, years before either one was a household name.
Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert
Carell and Colbert met through Chicago’s Second City comedy scene, back when both were still building careers and performing for much smaller crowds.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Rogen and Goldberg met in bar mitzvah class at 13 and started writing Superbad as teenagers. Their friendship eventually became one of Hollywood’s most productive comedy partnerships.
John Krasinski and B.J. Novak
Long before The Office, Krasinski and Novak were kids in Newton, Massachusetts, playing Little League and attending school together. Novak even cast Krasinski in one of his student plays.
Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow
Before either had much money or industry clout, Sandler and Apatow were roommates trying to make it in stand-up. Their days largely revolved around preparing for that night’s sets.
Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac
Chastain and Isaac met while studying at Juilliard, years before either became an awards-season regular. Their old friendship later made playing complicated couples together much easier.
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele
Key and Peele met doing improv before either became famous. Their friendship eventually turned into one of the most recognizable comedy partnerships on television.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Parker and Stone met at the University of Colorado, where they started making projects together long before South Park turned them into household names.
Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake
Gosling and Timberlake became close while starring on The All New Mickey Mouse Club as kids. They even lived together for about six months when Timberlake’s mother became Gosling’s guardian.
Paul Rudd and Jon Hamm
Rudd met Hamm when they were still young and nowhere near household-name status. Hamm has said they knew each other from the time he was about 18, and they later ended up in the same struggling-actor circle in Los Angeles.