8 Celebs Who Worked As Nannies Before Fame

Read on to discover which stars were once nannies…

Before she was famous, Jennifer Garner actually worked for another celebrity. Back then, Jennifer and her roommate were nannies for Stephen Colbert’s young daughter, Madeleine. After meeting on the set of Spin City, Jennifer began working for Stephen — up until she moved to LA for her big break. 

“You started babysitting for me and that’s how you survived as an actress…and then one day you said ‘I got a new agent and [he wants me to go to LA]’…We said, ‘That poor thing’ because you were so nice…We thought, ‘Los Angeles will devour her,’” Stephen admitted on The Late Show.

Long before she was a reality star and entrepreneur, Bethenny Frankel worked as a nanny for Real Housewife Kathy Hilton and her now-famous children, Paris and Nicky Hilton. Bethenny landed the job through her friendship with Kathy’s sister, Kyle Richards.

“Part of the job became coming, in my Ford Probe, to get you and Nicky from Lycée, this sort of fancy French school. And I remember, we’d go with Kyle to the Mobile Mart or the gas station after. And I would take you guys ice skating. Do you remember that? Because you were young,” Bethenny said to Paris during an episode of her podcast, Just B with Bethenny Frankel. 

Before landing his big break, Jesse Tyler Ferguson says that working as a babysitter was his primary way of making money. He explained that he originally started working as a nanny for a friend and then he’d meet other parents at the park who would recruit him for other jobs. 

“I used to babysit. That was my bread and butter before I became a successful actor,” he said on The Late Show with Seth Meyers. “I was an amazing babysitter. I really was a great babysitter. I babysat for a friend of mine who was an actor and I had his daughter Nora and I would take her to the park. I would meet other parents…and they would be like, ‘Do you do this a lot? Do you have time on Thursday?’ So I started getting poached by the parents.”

While D’Arcy Carden was working on getting her big break, she ended up becoming a nanny for Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader. She took care of his two oldest daughters, Hannah and Harper, back when they were just toddlers.

“I was his nanny for their oldest two daughters — that was my full-time job. I was with them every day, and I still am very close with them. The oldest one in particular I hung out with every day, we were like best friends…we would just talk like friends would talk, I think she maybe took after me too much,” she said on Late Night with Seth Meyers. 

Amy Sedaris once worked as a babysitter but admits she was terrible at the job. Looking back, Amy says she would double-book clients because she hated turning people down and when she did show up to jobs, she would ransack the house. 

“I was a horrible babysitter,” she admitted on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “The minute the parents left, I was like, ‘You go to bed now. I don’t care…You go now, right now.’ And then I’d make them go to bed. Of course, I’d eat everything, ransack the place. And then, I was addicted to Barbra Streisand…I would, you know, cut up pictures of Barbra Streisand that were in their gossip magazines.”

Katie Lowes was once a babysitter and personal assistant — eventually landing a job with Connie Bitton. The actress took care of Connie’s son Eyob up until she was cast on Scandal, much to Connie’s disappointment.

“I wanted her to be my nanny so badly and my assistant. She’s just such a phenomenal human and I remember having those conversations. She was helping me with my son, who was then just a baby, and then she said, ‘I got cast in this show called Scandal,’” Connie recalled while speaking to Page Six.

When Chloë Sevigny was just an aspiring actress living in Connecticut, she worked as a nanny and ended up taking care of a young Topher Grace. At the time, Topher admits he had a big crush on the actress.

“I had a huge crush on her when she was my babysitter. Oh my God. I was like, you know, nine or something. But I remember whenever she turned her back, I would blow kisses to her. But only when she wasn’t looking at me,” Topher said on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.

Zach Galifianakis once worked as a nanny when he was an aspiring actor. At the time, Zach says he was in his late 20s and didn’t really like children, so it wasn’t the best fit for him. In the end, he admits it did help prepare him to have his own kids. 

“I was a nanny. The kids were older. I think at the time they were seven and nine, or something along those lines. So I have a little bit of experience with child care,” he shared on The Tonight Show.