Jobs Famous TikTokers Had Before They Went Viral

All you need is one viral video before you can quit your day job.

TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular social media platforms — and fame and fortune could be just seconds away for its 689 million active users. Some famous TikTokers are able to make millions of dollars a year and become so close with a Kardashian that the sisters have to ask if they’re having a secret affair.

Of course, anyone who becomes a household name had a life before fame came knocking. Nicki Minaj was a waitress at Red Lobster, Gwen Stefani worked at a Dairy Queen, Kim Kardashian was Paris Hilton’s assistant and so on.

Just like movie stars, famous TikTokers had careers before going viral. Since most users are Generation Z, though, life “before fame” is usually just math class.

Charli D’Amelio, who has the most followers on TikTok, currently standing at 123.4 million, has become so successful that she (and the rest of her family) has been signed to United Talent Agency, one of the most highly regarded talent agencies in the world. She appeared during a Superbowl halftime show, earned $4 million in 2019 and her family’s reality TV series, The D’Amelio Show, will hit Hulu in September.

She’s also 17 — she started becoming TikTok famous when she was 15.

“My life before TikTok was very normal,” Charli told The Washington Post. “I would go to school, go to dance, do my homework and go to bed. It was pretty much like every other teenager’s life.”

She had a vision board, topped with Jennifer Lopez — who she danced with in the aforementioned Superbowl halftime show.

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Before “Jenny from the Block” became famous, she worked as a secretary in a law firm and slept in the office of her dance studio for a few months. Charli was on her way to dance class. Before class, she “had like seven followers.” After class, she had 2,000.

TV and podcast deals are just one video away! As long as it’s below three minutes.

Keep scrolling to see what the most popular TikTok stars did before they became famous.

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Addison Rae

Addison is now one of Kourtney Kardashian’s best friends and starred in Netflix’s He’s All That. Before going viral on TikTok and launching her acting/singing career, she was a competitive dancer and attended Louisiana State University where she studied sports broadcasting for three months before she quit when her follower count started blowing up.

Zach King

Zach, a Biola film school graduate, became famous by posting cleverly edited videos, starting in 2008 on YouTube. He’s edited videos for huge brands like Chrysler and Ellen DeGeneres.

“I thought, you know I can do special effects. I was in film school, I graduated just a year ago … and I made a pact with myself [to do] one a day for 30 days and just see what happens,” he told Ellen. “My first one took off, my second and third one were also popular, so I just was like, ‘I got the viral video bug in me’ and just kept making them after that.”

Loren Gray

Loren started posting lip-syncing videos on the Musical.ly app, which would eventually become TikTok, when she was 13.

I had like 30,000 followers,” Gray told Interview. “I went to my parents and I was like, ‘I don’t know what this means.’ I’d just turned 13. It was scary, for sure.”

Before fame, Loren lived in a suburb outside Philadelphia and was a typical student. Now 19, she lives in LA, has a budding singing career and her own jewelry brand, “&always.”