24 Celebs Who Are So Good At Their Hobbies That They Could Be Famous For That, Too

    "Vanilla Ice was ranked 6th in the world in jet ski racing."

    Morgan Sloss
    by Morgan Sloss

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Recently, Reddit user u/PossibilitySea7292 posed the question, "What famous people have a side skill so large that they could be famous for that, too?"

    CBC

    And who knew people could have so many talents?! Here are some of the top-voted responses:

    We also included responses from this Reddit thread.

    1. Lucy Liu

    closeup of her
    Gilbert Flores / Variety via Getty Images

    "She is a compelling, awesome, and accomplished sapphic painter under the name Yu Ling!"

    —u/darangatang

    2. Vanilla Ice

    closeup of him
    Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

    "He was ranked 6th in the world in jet ski racing."

    —u/DankVectorz

    "He was a competitive motocross racer as well."

    —u/climb-it-ographer

    3. Gerard Way

    closeup of him singing on stage
    David Wolff - Patrick / Redferns via Getty Images

    "The lead singer of My Chemical Romance, and he wrote The Umbrella Academy comic book series. Both very famous in their own regard."

    —u/ilovecaffeinatedtea

    "Yeah, this one is legitimately wild to me. I had always known him for MCR and only recently found out that there is a whole generation of people that know him only as the writer of Umbrella Academy."

    —u/theBirdsofWar

    4. Hugh Laurie

    closeup of him
    Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images for WarnerMedia

    "He is an accomplished jazz pianist."

    —u/chickenkev

    "And a pretty damn good singer. Did a couple of records in the 2010s of blues standards that were pretty good."

    —u/AH2112

    5. Terry Crews

    Rich Fury / Getty Images

    "He is actually a really talented artist. He used to do courtroom sketches. They sort of show it in some Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes."

    —u/carolstilts

    "He first went to Western Michigan on an art scholarship, but then he tried out for the football team and earned a football scholarship."

    —u/Squirrel_Q_Esquire

    6. Natalie Portman

    closeup of her
    Roy Rochlin / Getty Images

    "She was working her way toward a research career in neuroscience when the acting career took off. She got into Harvard on academics (earned high As on an academic course load all through high school), and she's co-authored scientific research papers."

    —u/doublestitch

    7. James Cameron

    closeup of him at an event
    Kevin Winter / Getty Images

    "Fairly well known, but James Cameron seems to only direct movies to pay for his deep sea exploration."

    —u/MalcolmLinair

    "Imagine becoming one of the best to ever do something, just as a hobby to fund the actual hobby you're interested in. Most of us can't even get the main quest right, where as people like Cameron are doing main quests as a hobby. Some people are just built different."

    —u/Silverwidows

    8. Jack Johnson

    him on stage with his guitar
    Jana Legler / Redferns

    "He was a competitive surfer, then got injured and instead became a chart-topping musician."

    —u/RelativelyOldSoul

    9. Jamie Foxx

    Axelle / FilmMagic

    "This man should be studied. He is a top-tier actor, he sings like an absolute angel, he is an amazing stand-up comedian, and his impressions are spot on!"

    —u/lellaa

    "He's also a classically trained pianist, for which he went to college on a scholarship. And the director and producers of Ray did NOT know that before casting him as Ray Charles."

    —u/dimsum4you

    10. Steve Martin

    closeup of him in a suit
    Jon Kopaloff / FilmMagic

    "Actor/comedian but also a well-known, serious banjo player."

    —u/Bally_3

    "He has won three Grammys for it, so yeah, he's a bit serious."

    —u/straighttoplaid

    "He also won two Grammys for comedy albums. And he's an Emmy winner and Oscar winner for writing."

    —u/EdBear69

    11. Geena Davis

    closeup of her in a blazer dress
    David Livingston / Getty Images

    "She almost made the 2000 Olympic archery team."

    –u/OldPolishProverb

    "She's also a member of Mensa and founded a research organization that studies diverse representation in media."

    –u/missbunnyfantastico

    12. Idris Elba

    closeup of him in a suit
    Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images

    "Idris Elba has a career as a DJ if he ever wanted to give up acting. I think he's been doing both for nearly the same amount of time, maybe DJing even longer than acting."

    —u/hamsolo19

    "I got into his music after hearing some of his tracks in Phantom Liberty. Dude is really good."

    —u/parasseux

    13. Viggo Mortensen

    closeup of him in a suit
    Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images

    "He is fluent in English, Spanish, Danish, and French and can function in a lot of others. He paints, released many albums, is an incredibly accomplished horseman, and has written a book of poetry. He still writes poetry. He's had his photography in an exhibition, surfs, often did all his own stunts, and picked up sword fighting really easily in LOTR. Love this guy."

    —u/LividAd5306

    14. Brian May

    closeup of him playing guitar
    Jordi Vidal / Redferns

    "He is the world-level guitarist for the band Queen as well as many solo projects. He also has a PhD in astrophysics and is taken seriously as a researcher in interplanetary dust. The PhD is not honorary; his dissertation is titled 'A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.' He is a visiting researcher at Imperial College."

    —u/javanator999

    "All of Queen were extremely talented outside of music. John Deacon studied electronic engineering and created the Deacy Amp. Roger Taylor studied dentistry, then got a Bachelor of Science in Biology after finding dentistry boring. Freddie Mercury was an accomplished artist and even designed the famous Queen logo."

    —u/Lucius_Funk

    15. Hedy Lamarr

    Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images

    "Laid the groundwork for Bluetooth."

    —u/cutratestuntman

    "For a lot of radio transmission actually. She did it during WW2 to have jam-free radios."

    —u/biffbobfred

    "The frequency-hopping technology is used today by cell phones, WiFi, etc."

    —u/Anileh

    16. Will Ferrell

    closeup of him in a suit
    Dominik Bindl / WireImage

    "If you watch the end credits for The Producers, all the German songs are actually being sung by him."

    —u/ohsupgurl

    "One of my favorite moments in film is when he sings Por Ti Volare at the Catalina Wine mixer at the end of Step Brothers. I love it."

    —u/t_portch

    17. Shaquille O'Neal

    closeup of him in a suit
    Rich Fury / Getty Images

    "He is pretty well known amongst EDM fans for being a dubstep DJ."

    —u/ThePhoenixus

    18. Aldis Hodge

    Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

    "Aldis Hodge is an actor most famous for playing Alec Hardison in Leverage. He's also an incredibly talented watchmaker."

    —u/thirtyflirtyandpetty

    "And he plays the violin! He's a treasure."

    —u/ILootEverything

    19. Nick Offerman

    closeup of him
    Axelle / FilmMagic

    "He is an accomplished woodworker."

    —u/fotodevil

    "He also plays the saxophone, is good at stage combat, and studied and performed Kabuki, which is why Ron Swanson did those things in Parks and Rec."

    —u/lorgskyegon

    20. Jennifer Tilly

    closeup of her at an event
    John Sciulli / Getty Images for The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

    "She has won MANY professional poker tournaments."

    —u/annierarara

    21. Donald Glover

    closeup of him in a suit
    Karwai Tang / WireImage / Getty Images

    "Known for his talents in acting, writing, and producing, Glover is also a successful musician and rapper under the stage name Childish Gambino."

    —u/Wooden-Ambassador347

    "He also did stand-up for a while and was part of a YouTube comedy group that was decently successful."

    —u/TheReflexTester

    22. Nicole Richie

    Lionel Hahn / Getty Images

    "She was a competitive figure skater and almost went pro! She chose college over professional ice skating, but it's sort of wild to imagine we may have not gotten The Simple Life or years of her tabloid antics with Paris and all their socialite friends if she had an Olympian image to keep up with."

    —u/youarelosingme

    23. Rod Stewart

    him performing on stage
    Jeremychanphotography / Getty Images

    "He has an absolutely legendary model train layout. He is highly regarded amongst model train enthusiasts."

    —u/pm_me_ur_demotape

    "So much so that he has separate accommodations for his traveling sets on tour. Always an extra hotel room for his trains."

    —u/SnooMarzipans5903

    24. And finally, Matthew Perry

    closeup of him
    Axelle / FilmMagic

    "Matthew Perry was a nationally ranked tennis player in Canada (top 20 in singles, top 10 in doubles)."

    —u/saucytopcheddar

    "This makes the episode where he let his boss and boss's wife win at tennis funnier in retrospect. RIP, sweet prince."

    —u/mr_popcorn

    Any other celebs with cool or surprising skills? LMK in the comments below!

    Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.