After you read the following list of which celebrities have worked at McDonald's, you might look a little closer at the smiling faces serving you at your local McDonald's. Could this cool teenage girl at the counter be the next Pink? Could this quiet guy sweeping up my daughter's fries be on his way to the Oval Office or the Oscars? Getty, Business Insider, The Guardian, and etcetera won't report on these 'small fries' now, but they might one day. After all, tons of celebrities have worked the fast food joint in their lives.
McDonald's is all about opportunity and hard work. Everyone should work in food service and retail at least once in their life. These famous celebrities who have worked at McDonald's are no exception. Let's see who may have changed the CO2 cartridge on the soda machine and mopped up spilled mayonnaise in a walk-in.
18 Celebrities That Have Worked At McDonald's
1. Rachel McAdams
Star of the romantic movie The Notebook, Rachel McAdams lacked the speed and concentration to really excel at her McDonald's career of three years. She found her niche as a greeter, using her friendly voice and face.
2. Pink
Rock star Pink worked the drive thru while she was in high school. Not surprising from this Girl Power icon, she loved the financial independence of that Mickey D paycheck and the cool headset microphone.
3. James Franco
James Franco wrote a heart wrenching confessional for the Washington Post about his time working at McDonald's back when was still a struggling actor. "I was given the late shift drive-thru position. I wore a purple visor and purple polo shirt and took orders over a headset. I refrained from reading on the job, but soon started putting on fake accents with the customers to practice for my scenes in acting class."
4. Lin Manuel-Miranda
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Hamilton was a few years away for the Broadway playwright and actor when he got his first job at McDonald's. I guess I missed my shot at ordering my Big Mac, small fry, and large iced coffee from Lin Manuel-Miranda by a few years.
5. Jeff Bezos
Before he invented Amazon, Jeff Bezos lived a simpler life working the morning shift at Mickey D's. Sure, he's a kazillionaire now, but his true value comes from learning how to crack 300 eggs using just one hand during his favorite Saturday breakfast shift.
6. Shania Twain
Aside from speaking French and being a vegetarian, here's another fun fact we love about Shania Twain. During high school, she worked an after school shift at McDonald's and then went to sing in bars at night.
7. Pharrell Williams
If you wanted to explain the theory of karma, Pharrell Williams' McDonald's experience would sum it up. The singer was fired from three different McDonald's locations. He admitted on Late Night With Seth Meyers that his favorite part of the job was the chicken nuggets. In a twist of karmic fate, the Mickey D's jingle we all know, "I'm Lovin' It", was written by Pharrell years later.
8. Andie MacDowell
Actress Andie MacDowell was America's sweetheart in that classic Billy Murray movie, Groundhog Day. So it's not surprising that Andie worked at the all-American fast-food chain too! She's said she enjoyed the coworkers and teamwork aspect of restaurant. That's the difference between a celeb like Andie and me. I would've just enjoyed the cheeseburgers.
9. Mark Hamill
Using two hashtags #MinimumWageMemories and #TheFriesOfSkywalker, Mark Hamill posted to Twitter that he was proud of McDonald's being his first job when he was 16 years old. He's not counting paperboy or the Santa's helper gig that propelled his acting talents towards that far away galaxy as Luke Skywalker.
10. Jay Leno
The comic who took over for Johnny Carson as host of the Tonight Show never forgot his days of working at a Massachusetts McDonald's growing up. Hard work pays off and he went from fry grease to car grease as the owner of one of the most valuable collections of classic cars in the world.
11. Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone is one of Hollywood's most famous beauties. Her big breaks included Total Recall and Basic Instinct. Before Hollywood and modeling, she worked part time as a counter girl at a Pennsylvania Mickey D's.
12. James D'Arcy
James D'Arcy of Homeland fame worked at McDonald's and experienced every fast food night shift worker's nightmare. He was robbed at gunpoint working the register and understandably quit soon after.
13. Star Jones
This lawyer and former host of The View worked as a fry girl when she was a teenager. She credits that job with teaching her responsibility. Monitoring fries is a lot of responsibility! If I were her co-worker, Star would've been slapping my hands out of the fries all day long.
14. Andy Grammer
Country singer Andy Grammer's first job was at McDonald's. Good thing he can sing because the golden arches were the worst job experience for this superstar.
15. Paul Ryan
The former republican speaker of the house talked about what he learned at 16 as a fry cook in a 2012 campaign rally. This politician celebrity also worked at McDonald's. He told the crowd, "When I was flipping burgers at McDonald's, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I thought to myself, I'm the American dream on a path and journey so that I can find happiness however I can find it myself."
16. Macy Gray
Macy Gray started working at McDonald's when she just 14! That actually led to her first big break doing a commercial for the golden arches.
17. Carl Lewis
It doesn't hurt to have the speed of an Olympic runner with how busy the restaurant can get. So it makes sense that Carl Lewis' first job was at McDonald's. He even appears in this cool commercial saying working at McDonald's was his "first race against the clock." PS, look for Macy Gray too.
18. Fred Durst
Before joining Limp Bizkit, he worked the morning shift at a Florida McDonald's. Even though he's now a world famous rock star, I doubt he'll ever forget those mornings. That's the beauty of McDonald's.
