10 Actors You Never Knew Worked At McDonald's

There's been a lot of kerfuffle in the news lately about who did or did not work at McDonald's. Vice President Kamala Harris has talked frequently about her time working at the fast-food chain, and in an attempt to prove she didn't, former president Donald Trump held a campaign stop at a Pennsylvania McDonald's franchise and served meals to pre-vetted customers. The Golden Arches are making a lot of headlines for political reasons, so let's take the two major party candidates out of the equation for a bit and ask: which other famous people worked at McDonald's before they found success as actors or performers?

A fair number of politicians have also worked at McDonald's, like the former speaker of the house Paul Ryan — and even Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos put in some time there — but apparently, a handful of actors served up fries and burgers back in the day too. Here are 10 actors and performers you definitely didn't know worked at McDonald's.

As actor James Franco wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post back in 2015, he moved to Los Angeles with big dreams of becoming an actor ... but he needed a job and a place to live in order to go out for various projects. After dropping out of UCLA, Franco applied to a whole host of jobs before he finally got one at Mickey D's, where he filled out an application and got hired right away. "All I know is that when I needed McDonald's, McDonald's was there for me. When no one else was," Franco wrote, explaining that he used his assigned shift in the late-night drive-through to practice different accents. 

The practice paid off eventually. Franco booked a commercial that ultimately aired during the Super Bowl, which kept him going until he earned wider recognition. Now, we all know that Franco got his start on Judd Apatow and Paul Feig's short-lived cult classic "Freaks & Geeks," made his film debut in a small role in "Never Been Kissed," and then hit the big time with the role of Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" movies alongside Tobey Maguire. Since then, Franco has appeared in "Pineapple Express," "This is the End," "The Disaster Artist" (which he also directed), and a ton of other projects — though he fell from grace significantly in 2021 due to multiple accusations of sexual impropriety.

If you ask Rachel McAdams about her time at McDonald's, she frankly can't believe anyone let her behind the counter. In a 2008 chat with The New York Times Magazine to promote her film "The Lucky Ones," the Canadian actress was quite candid about her time working at an outpost up North: "I worked at the local McDonald's [in Canada] for three years. I'm not sure why they kept me: I am something of a daydreamer and a dawdler, so they would only let me be the 'friendly voice' that greeted you when you entered the restaurant. I was slow. I would be organizing the sweetand-sour packets in the customer's takeout bag while the line snaked out the door. Even at a fast-food restaurant, I wanted everything just so."

McAdams might not have been an excellent McDonald's employee, but she's an incredible actress who has appeared in some genuinely amazing projects, so it's a good thing she booked her breakout role in the 2002 comedy "The Hot Chick." "The Notebook" and "Mean Girls" followed soon after and launched her into the stratosphere, and McAdams never really slowed down after that. In recent years, McAdams has appeared in projects like the charming adaptation "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret," joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the "Doctor Strange" movies, showed off her comedic side in "Game Night," and stepped onstage in Broadway productions like "Mary Jane" in 2024.

The Tony, Emmy, and Grammy-winning actor and playwright behind projects like "Hamilton" and "Moana" once worked at McDonald's — and even penned a song about it. In 2017, Lin-Manuel Miranda posted on X (then known as Twitter) with a clip of a then-new song called "Delivery" and revealed it was inspired by the Golden Arches. "My first job was working the cash register and deliveries for McDonalds," Miranda wrote in the accompanying post. "It was worth it for this song, years later."

Even if you only know him from social media memes making fun of him — and there are plenty — Miranda is a bonafide member of Hollywood's A-list, largely thanks to the success of his musical "Hamilton." A Tony and Grammy-winning smash hit that reimagined the Founding Fathers and their stories — with Miranda himself as Alexander Hamilton in the original cast — "Hamilton" was one of the biggest theater sensations in recent years, even surpassing Miranda's previous Tony-winning musical "In the Heights." He went on to work on soundtracks for "Moana," "Encanto" — including the massive song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" — and the live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid." Miranda also won a Pulitzer for "Hamilton," which might make him the first former McDonald's employee to win that honor.

Legendary actress Andie MacDowell has been a Hollywood staple for decades ... but before she was famous, she worked at McDonald's. As she once told NPR host Terry Gross, she actually worked at the same McDonald's as her own mother — and she watched as her mother was fired from the fast-food chain for showing up to work intoxicated, an experience she eventually brought to a project with her own daughter (to help inform her performance).

You probably know MacDowell from the beloved comedy "Groundhog Day," where she starred alongside Bill Murray, but she's also appeared in a huge variety projects including but not limited to "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "St. Elmo's Fire," "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Magic Mike XXL," "Ready or Not," and the Hallmark Channel original series "The Way Home." MacDowell's daughter, Margaret Qualley, is also an actress — who recently acted with MacDowell's "St. Elmo's Fire" co-star Demi Moore on the body-horror flick "The Substance" — and when MacDowell played Qualley's unstable onscreen mother in the Netflix original series "Maid," she was able to recall her and her mother's time at McDonald's to help inform the role. "My mother's not Paula," McDowell told Gross, referring to her "Maid" character. "But understanding the complexity of mental illness was something that I'm versed in. I've done my homework. I didn't have to go searching for it because I've been searching for these answers for a while."

Was the Force with Mark Hamill while he worked at McDonald's? Only he knows for sure, but the "Star Wars" star has discussed the fact that he spent some time at Mickey D's before getting famous. On X (formerly known as Twitter) in 2019, Hamill revealed some of his early jobs, writing, "If you don't count paperboy, the time I was hired to play Santa's helper in a department store or the countless backyard puppet/magic/ventriloquist shows I did... My 1st real job WAS at McDonald's in Annandale Virginia when I was 16." (The actor, who loves having fun with his most famous role, added a photoshopped image of him working behind a McDonald's counter in full "Star Wars" regalia along with the hashtag "#TheFriesOfSkywalker.")

Hamill barely needs an introduction, but just in case, he's the guy who originated the role of Luke Skywalker in George Lucas' first "Star Wars" film, which has since been retroactively titled "A New Hope." Hamill led the rest of the trilogy along with Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher and ultimately reprised his role in J.J. Abrams' sequel trilogy, appearing alongside franchise newcover Daisy Ridley in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," and he's also done extensive voice work (as the Joker in multiple acclaimed "Batman" projects, perhaps most notably). Hamill also showed up in Mike Flanagan's phenomenal Netflix miniseries "The Fall of the House of Usher" in 2023, and he even found time to appear in one of the best cameos on the comedy series "What We Do in the Shadows."

Actress Sharon Stone hasn't really gotten into a ton of specifics regarding her time as a "fry girl" at McDonald's outside of her 2021 memoir "The Beauty of Living Twice," but she did tell USA Today that she learned some very important lessons working there. In an interview to promote her book, Stone said she learned "some really good lessons – hard work, showing up, being there on time and paying your dues. And I was doing this in the '70s. There weren't job-place rules protecting young girls. I learned a lot about self-defense and how to take care of myself while keeping a job. That has served me well." (She also pointed out that basically everyone in Hollywood comes from humble beginnings: "When I was at Elton John's wedding, someone said to me, 'Clark Gable didn't come from Park Avenue, Sharon. We're all just a bunch of kids from nowhere who had a dream and look where we are.'")

Stone's first two films with Paul Verhoeven — "Total Recall" and "Basic Instinct" in 1990 and 1992, respectively — skyrocketed her to fame and acclaim and made her a major sex symbol in the process (everyone knows about that "Basic Instinct" scene). Throughout the years, Stone has appeared in projects like "Casino" (which netted her a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama), "The Mighty," "Broken Flowers," "The Disaster Artist" (with fellow McDonald's alum James Franco), and "The Laundromat," and she won an Emmy in 2004 for her guest turn on "The Practice."

Out of everyone on this list, British actor James D'Arcy probably has the most dramatic story from his time at McDonald's, which he relayed to The Metro UK in 2012. "Someone brandished a gun at me when I worked in McDonald's, which wasn't great either," D'Arcy said, at which point the interviewer asked for more specifics. "I was behind the till and someone pointed a gun at my face," the actor continued. "He'd come in looking for someone else but that guy wasn't working that night. He came in, pointed the gun at me and ran away. They gave me a 1p per hour pay rise and I left the place soon afterwards."

Luckily, D'Arcy's circumstances definitely improved from there. In 2003, he appeared in a supporting role in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," followed by the horror prequel "Exorcist: The Beginning" and a whole host of other films including "Cloud Atlas," the 2012 biopic "Hitchcock," "Jupiter Ascending," and even Christopher Nolan's Oscar-nominated war film "Dunkirk" in 2017. (D'Arcy reunited with Nolan in 2023 for the Oscar-winning best picture "Oppenheimer," where he played real-life experimental physicist Patrick Blackett.) D'Arcy has also played the role of Edwin Jarvis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and since 2023, he's played a lead role on the AppleTV+ series "Constellation."

In the wake of Donald Trump's campaign event at a McDonald's outside of Philadelphia, comedian and actor D.L. Hughley took to social media to address the former president's time "working" at the fast-food joint — and he didn't mince words. "I worked at the McDonalds on Rosecrans and Central in Compton the minimum wage was 2.65 an hr!" Hughley posted on X. "Almost 50 years later it's 7.25!!" After reprimanding the Republican presidential candidate for not supporting a minimum wage increase that would positively affect McDonald's employees, Hughley also saw fit to wade into the replies. (When someone seemed skeptical that "everyone" has apparently worked at McDonald's, Hughley shot back, "Everyone did d***head!! That's how detached people like you are!!!") Despite this recent post, Hughley doesn't seem to have many fond memories of his time at McDonald's based on another X post from 2015 that reads, "It's funny that McDonalds uses a heart in their commercials, When u consider how many hearts their food has stopped!"

Hughley rose to prominence in the 1990s thanks to his work on BET and a guest role on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" — as a friend of star Will Smith — and went on to appear in shows like "Sister, Sister," "Scrubs," and "Hawaii 5-0" while also leading series like "The Hughley Show" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Hughley competed on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2013, and he served as a guest host on "The Daily Show" in 2023.

Despite being a member of the famous Wayans family, Keenen Ivory Wayans worked as a manager at McDonald's while he was still in high school to help support his huge family. Ultimately, he and his brothers started working on "In Living Color" in 1990 — a sketch comedy series created by Wayans which frequently featured his brothers Damon, Kim, Marlon, and Shawn — and the rest is showbusiness history.

The success of "In Living Color" made the Wayans family industry superstars, and from there, the second-eldest Wayans (the oldest is Dwayne Howell Wayans, a writer and movie producer) was off to the races. Wayans directed "Scary Movie," the influential "Scream" parody that basically birthed a genre of spoof films and released in 2000; he also had an eponymous series "The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show" from 1997 to 1998 and worked as a judge on "Last Comic Standing" from 2014 to 2015.

In a conversation from Cody Teets' book "Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald's," late-night host Jay Leno recalled a moment that showed him just how much attention McDonald's paid to every single detail of each location (via CNBC). "I worked at a restaurant on Main Street for two years, from 1966 to 1968," Leno told Teets before sharing a story about a day where the location's owner and manager, Tom Curtin, was with him. While Leno was getting ready to prep all of the potatoes for fries — "The French fries had to be made from scratch. We had to cut what seemed like a ton of potatoes every day. I had these massive forearms from cutting those potatoes" — he says Curtin noticed another employee's dirty laundry near the potatoes and told Leno they'd have to toss the whole batch. "That was very impressive to me," Leno said. "The standards for quality were quite high. It was one of those life lessons I never forgot."

Everyone knows who Leno is — he's a legendary late-night host who once warred with Conan O'Brien over "The Tonight Show." After leaving "The Tonight Show" for good in 2014, Leno hosted "Jay Leno's Garage" from 2015 to 2022 — showing off his infamous collection of classic cars — and since that ended, he's worked on shows like "You Bet Your Life" and "Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge."