A funeral director, kinesiologist, and more: You won't believe the careers celebrities almost had

We’re always asking ourselves the dreaded what-ifs, thinking about what we could have done or said in a crucial moment, or where we might be if something hadn't changed. The truth is you can never know where you’ll be in the future, and that’s certainly true for many of these stars who had begun on a path quite different from the one they’re on now. Check out this gallery to see what some of your favorite stars could have been doing if they hadn’t found fame.

0 / 32 Fotos

Natalie Portman - Would you lie on a couch and open up to Portman about your childhood trauma? The child actress actually left acting to pursue a psychology degree at Harvard, where she co-authored a scientific paper on the neuroscience of child development. But Hollywood already had its tendrils around her, and she was pulled back in not long after.

1 / 32 Fotos

Channing Tatum - Before Tatum started his career as a model for brands like Armani, eventually working his way up to speaking roles in commercials, and later acting in films, he was a stripper. If you’re interested in how that would’ve worked out, see 'Magic Mike' (it would’ve worked out well).

2 / 32 Fotos

Angelina Jolie - If her Hollywood career didn't work out, Jolie was planning on becoming a funeral director! After trying (and failing at) modeling, Jolie went through a tough time when her grandfather passed, and she didn't like the way his funeral was arranged. So she dropped out of acting classes and reportedly enrolled in at-home courses to study embalming.

3 / 32 Fotos

Lisa Kudrow - Though she's now synonymous with the aloof Phoebe, Kudrow was once on her way to becoming a biologist, earning a degree from Vassar College. She could've been well on her way to “unlocking all the mysteries of humanity" through biology, as she once explained to Public Radio International, her motivation for pursuing the subject.

4 / 32 Fotos

Jonah Hill - The blossoming director majored in Music and Sports at The New School in New York, and in an alternate universe where he was more passionate about his major, he might've been a cellist with a mean swing, or a quarterback tenor with the nicest-sounding play calls.

5 / 32 Fotos

Sofia Vergara - One day at the beach, a young Vergara was taking a break from studying dentistry in university when a photographer entered stage right and changed everything, putting Vergara on her way to be a model and actress. If she had kept to her original path, going to the dentist suddenly wouldn't seem so bad after all.

6 / 32 Fotos

Gerard Butler - Butler was a great student and was offered a place to study law at Glasgow University. During his time as a student, he became President of the university law society, and after graduating he secured a job at a law firm. The lawyer life didn't satisfy him, however, and he instead realized his killer combination of both brains and beauty.

7 / 32 Fotos

Kourtney Kardashian - If she wasn't famous for her socialite status and reality TV show, the eldest Kardashian sister might've used her bachelor's degree in theater arts from the University of Arizona to become an actress. Well, to be fair, her theatrics have probably been put in good use on her family's reality show.

8 / 32 Fotos

Ken Jeong - This hilarious actor actually became a practicing doctor before he realized he had a passion for screens a bit bigger than heart monitors. He earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina, and began a career as a physician, and a very serious one at that, he told TV Guide Magazine.

9 / 32 Fotos

Harrison Ford - The actor was actually working as a carpenter in the offices where the casting call for 'Star Wars' was being held. If a producer and friend of his didn't get him an audition, he might still be a carpenter.

10 / 32 Fotos

America Ferrera - Imagine the 'Ugly Betty' star as a diplomatic service or government research officer, a public affairs consultant, or an intelligence analyst. Earning her degree in international relations at the University of Southern California took over a decade because of her big acting break, but the star contends that she still uses what she learned in her regular life.

11 / 32 Fotos

Will Ferrell - Ferrell is known for his physical humor when he’s acting, but he could’ve gone down a path where the body is taken a bit more seriously. Before going off to act, he earned a degree in sports information from the University of Southern California, a subject which was discontinued eight years later and had a high dropout rate, as the actor recounted while delivering a commencement speech there in 2017.

12 / 32 Fotos

Rebel Wilson - Can you picture this actress seriously addressing a court, or deposing someone? The 'Pitch Perfect' favorite actually graduated law school in 2009 at the University of New South Wales.

13 / 32 Fotos

Kate Middleton - The Duchess of Cambridge studied art history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, which tends to lead to jobs involving managing or curating art galleries or museums, but, of course, Prince William changed all that.

14 / 32 Fotos

Carrie Underwood - After winning 'American Idol,' Underwood returned to Northeastern State University to finish her degree in mass communications, with a focus on journalism. She could've been writing this!

15 / 32 Fotos

Chris Pratt - Pratt was one of those lucky people who was waiting tables and waiting for his big break. If that film director had taken a liking to another waiter, Pratt might've still been waiting. Or, he might've continued making money as a daytime stripper, sleeping on the beach.

16 / 32 Fotos

Cole Sprouse - After 'The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,' this Sprouse twin earned a degree in a major of his own creation, Geographical Information Systems, from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. If 'Riverdale' hadn't come along, he might be knee-deep in virtual cartography.

17 / 32 Fotos

Aziz Ansari - The 'Master of None' star could have been an entrepreneur! He was studying marketing at New York University, with the intention of entering a world focused more on money, when the “finance culture of kids who wanna work at Goldman Sachs” turned him off that path, as he told Paste Magazine.

18 / 32 Fotos

Laverne Cox - Her effortless strut down the New York Fashion Week may have been a big hint, but Cox was well on her way to becoming a dancer before co-mingling with the theater department. She earned a BFA in Dance at Marymount Manhattan College.

19 / 32 Fotos

John Legend - If he wasn't the soulful singer we know him as today, he might've been an equally as soulful writer, or perhaps the professor of everyone's dreams. Legend studied English with African American literature at the University of Pennsylvania.

20 / 32 Fotos

Eva Longoria - It's not hard to fathom that the Latina actress pursued Chicano studies at California State Northridge, as she's done so much for her community alongside her acting career. That being said, her kinesiology degree from Texas A&M University could've put her on a completely different path than the desperate housewife we've come to know and love.

21 / 32 Fotos

Danai Gurira - The famed 'Black Panther' actress had also earned a name for herself on 'The Walking Dead,' but before all that she was studying social psychology at Minnesota's Macalester College. "I was really looking at race, population, gender and how we psychologically function in a way that affects our societal outcomes around those issues," she told Rolling Stone.

22 / 32 Fotos

Mayim Bialik - The 'Big Bang Theory' actress breaks the mold here, as she both plays a neuroscientist with a Ph.D and actually is a neuroscientist with a Ph.D from the University of California. Some might see this as two alternate universes colliding, but it's actually just the power of one incredible woman.

23 / 32 Fotos

Uzo Aduba - The world might not have had award-winning Crazy Eyes if Aduba had continued her path to become a singer. But maybe we would've had a Crazy Voice... She earned a voice performance degree from Boston University's School of Music in 2005, and 12 years later she returned to give a commencement speech.

24 / 32 Fotos

Regina Hall - With a master's in journalism from NYU, the actress could've been a journalist, fulfilling her dream of producing segments for shows like '60 minutes,' as she confessed to the LA Times.

25 / 32 Fotos

Christy Turlington - This supermodel proves all stereotypes wrong, and after completing a Bachelor's degree at NYU in religion and Eastern philosophy, she got a master's in public health from Columbia University, which is enough for her to become an epidemiologist, a health information specialist, a healthcare administrator, or a public health project manager.

26 / 32 Fotos

Sacha Baron Cohen - Instead of the outrageously funny career for which this actor has given us the privilege of witnessing and laughing at from afar, he might've pursued a much quieter career more in line with his history degree from the University of Cambridge.

27 / 32 Fotos

Gabrielle Union - With a degree in sociology from the University of California, Union could've been a guidance counselor, HR representative, management consultant, market research analyst, or a host of related things.

28 / 32 Fotos

Johnny Mathis - In the 1950s, Mathis was a young high-jumper with a passion for music, and he had to decide whether he would try out for the US Olympic team that would go to Melbourne or keep an appointment in New York to record his first album.

29 / 32 Fotos

Rooney Mara - The actress could have been a much less known face had she completely devoted herself to working abroad with nonprofits. She attended New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she focused on psychology and nonprofits, and where she'd get credit for her travels.

30 / 32 Fotos

J. Cole -

The rapper might've been working for someone like himself, as he studied communications and business at St. John's University in New York.

31 / 32 Fotos

A funeral director, kinesiologist, and more: You won't believe the careers celebrities almost had -

Getty Images