8 Stars Who Were Interns First

Can you picture Oprah making coffee?
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 6, 2013 8:03 AM CDT
8 Stars Who Were Interns First
Tom Hanks: In college, he interned for Ohio's Great Lakes Theater Festival, and eventually ended up working there for three years. Since he was getting tons of theater experience, he ended up dropping out of college.   (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP)

Think being forced to make coffee won't get you anywhere in Hollywood? Well, it actually might: The Huffington Post rounds up 17 successful people who started out as interns. Read on for a sampling:

  • Tom Hanks: In college, he interned for Ohio's Great Lakes Theater Festival, and eventually ended up working there for three years. Since he was getting tons of theater experience, he ended up dropping out of college.
  • Oprah Winfrey: She interned at a Nashville TV station, and ended up becoming a full-time anchor-reporter there—the first black female news anchor, in fact.
  • Tom Ford: The designer started out as an intern at Chloe, then became Gucci's creative director before starting his own label.
  • John Krasinski: The Office star was a script intern on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

  • Spike Lee: After graduating from college, the director interned at Columbia Pictures.
  • Betsey Johnson: As a teen, the designer interned at Mademoiselle magazine.
  • Anderson Cooper: OK, so not all of the internships had anything to do with the stars' future jobs. Case in point: Cooper interned for the CIA when he was 19.
  • Sean "Diddy" Combs: The rapper interned at New York's Uptown Records after Heavy D made some introductions.
Click for the complete list, including another Late Night With Conan intern. (More celebrity stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X