10 Celebrities Who Were On Game Shows Before Fame

Read on to find out which stars appeared on game shows…

Before Aaron Paul made it big, he was an overly enthusiastic contestant on The Price Is Right. While attending a taping with a group of friends, he was called down to Contestant’s Row where he came closest to guessing the price of a desk. He made it to the Showcase Showdown round where he unfortunately overbid on a prize package by only $132. Looking back, he says the whole thing was “incredibly embarrassing.”

“It was one of my finest performances, you know. I mean, I was wearing a full-on costume. I had a CBS bumper sticker on my back. I was a walking billboard for their network and I’m like, ‘I gotta get picked.’ I was just trying to give them as much energy as possible,” Aaron recalled in a BUILD series interview.

He continued, “I was standing in line at 4:30 in the morning to make sure I get into this damn place and I have a Big Gulp. I went to 7-Eleven, I filled it up with six cans of Red Bull, which is very dangerous. I mean, I look like I’m on drugs on The Price Is Right.”

In 2003, Glen Powell was a teen contestant on the Discovery Kids show Endurance. The series, which was similar to Survivor, involved teens living in a remote location and taking part in various mental and physical challenges. Glen’s season was held in Mexico but he was eliminated almost right away.

“It’s really pretty hard for me to talk about to be honest with you. I’ve never talked about this publicly ever,” Glen joking said on The Late Show. “The really sad part is, I wanted to be on the show really bad and I got kicked off on the first episode.”

While Meghan Markle wasn’t a game show contestant, she did appear on Deal or No Deal. Before making a name for herself in Hollywood, Meghan worked as a briefcase model. While she says she’s “thankful” for the experience, which allowed her to pay her bills and gave her health insurance, she didn’t like being  reduced to the archetype of “bimbo.”

“It was solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains. I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks,” Meghan said on her Archetypes podcast. “I was surrounded by smart women on that stage with me, but that wasn’t the focus of why we were here and I would end up leaving with this pit in my stomach. Knowing that I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage. I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance.”

She continued, “There were times when I was on set at Deal or No Deal and thinking back to my time working as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, and being in the motorcade with the secretary of treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain. Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite.”

Before becoming a major player in the music industry, Simon Cowell appeared on the British game show Sale of the Century in 1990. Simon’s appearance on the show, where he answered trivia questions, was a last minute invite from a family member who worked on set. He ended up winning only £20 worth of cooking utensils.

“It was an accident, I didn’t audition,” Simon said on The Jay Leno Show. “‘My sister-in-law, ex-sister-in-law, I might add, after this — was like a host or something on this particular show and then one day a contestant didn’t show up and she said, ‘Would you like to be on?’ never thinking years later this would come back to haunt me.”

British singer Olly Murs appeared on Deal or No Deal before becoming famous and ended up turning down a ton of money. Olly risked it all when he said no to a £22,000 offer from the banker and walked away with just £10. He tried to redeem himself later on a celebrity special but didn’t fare well once again.

“I was always good with money but I turned down £22,000 on Deal or No Deal in the hopes of winning £250,000. What an idiot — 22 grand would have been life-changing. I walked away with a £10 note in my pocket. I was devastated. Later I went on the show as a celebrity and won 50p. Between two shows half a million was up for grabs, and I won £10.50,” Olly shared.

Back in 2005, Lady Gaga appeared on the MTV prank game show Boiling Point. The series, which secretly filmed contestants to see if they’d lose their cool in an infuriating situation, involved Gaga eating at a restaurant. As the waitress did increasingly annoying things, Gaga eventually reached her limit and didn’t walk away with any money.

When Kirstie Alley was an aspiring actress working as an interior designer in Los Angeles, she appeared on several game shows. In 1979, she signed up for Match Game and ended up appearing on two episodes where she won a total of $6,000. The following year, she was cast on Password Plus appearing opposite celebrity guests Lucille Ball and Dick Martin. She took home $800.

Before Vanna White was turning letters on Wheel of Fortune, she actually appeared on a game show herself. In 1980, Vanna was a contestant on The Price is Right when she first moved to Los Angeles. During the episode, Bob Barker jokingly told Vanna to stop looking at herself in the monitor. She didn’t end up winning anything.

“When I moved to LA in 1980, I was on Price Is Right and met Bob Barker. Thank you Bob for introducing me to the game show world!” Vanna later wrote on Instagram.

Television personality Drew Pinsky, AKA Dr. Drew, made his first TV appearance on Wheel of Fortune in 1984. He ended up incorrectly guessing several letters and even hit the dreaded Lose a Turn slot. In the end, he didn’t walk away with any major winnings.

When Kelly Packard was just 11-years-old, she appeared on Card Sharks during Young People’s Week. During the episode, Kelly shared that she wanted to be an actress in the future — a dream that came true less than a decade later. To top it all off, Kelly ended up earning $3,200 while on the show.