These celebrities have had a natural talent to display, so it’s not startling that they can do nearly everything once they’re put before a screen. But did you know that for most popular actors, it originated with cheerleading? Whether they supported and yelled at the bleachers, these are the iconic faces that shook poms, you can be sure the masses shouted their lungs as they shouted and cheered at whom they applauded!
Cameron Diaz
First on our list is Cameron. She was just a girl like everybody else before she grew to a popular movie star. During her teenage year, this blondie was a bubbly cheerleader at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. It used green and yellow to display the colors of the university, but later these mannerisms worked successfully for the most audition process.
Cameron Diaz
Diane Sawyer
You ought to be aware that Diane Sawyer was obviously a skilled cheerleader! Strong and beautiful Diane belongs to the Cheerleading Seneca High School team in Kentucky, Louisville, her home state. She spent a few years promoting the Coca-Cola Pavilion at the World Fair, after her debut, and finally moved the character to TV journalism.
Diane Sawyer
Olivia Munn
Upon joining the Air Force, Olivia Munn and her family were stationed in Japan. Olivia moved to Oklahoma after the couple split up. Munn was a cheerleader for Putnam City’s North High School band. She studied journalism at college and discovered her true niche in acting.
Olivia Munn
Ciara
At Riverdale high school, Ciara Princess Wilson wasn’t just another cheerleading member. She’s a captain! Ciara also supports sport and its advantages. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t be as involved as I wanted because it was the year when my music became even more important to me,” Ciara said, describing that she had to give it up as she followed music.
Ciara
Kirsten Dunst
Sure, she played the badass chick Torrance Shipman in the film Bring It On but this actress had insight into the practical cheerleading culture. She was a pom-girl while attending Laurel High School and Notre Dame High School. Before the hit film came out she was in her own high school squad.
Kirsten Dunst
George W. Bush
At Phillips Academy, President George W. Bush was both a friendly captain and a basketball athlete in Andover, Massachusetts. He then ended up going to Harvard Business School and Yale University, and that is when it initiated his political career.
George W. Bush
Eva Longoria
Her big cheerleading achievement today was the Mexican-American phenomenon, Eva Longoria. Longoriand found her passion with performing before the public while playing at Roy Miller High School in Corpus Cristi, TX, as well as at Texas A&M-Kingsville. A visiting LA agent who realized she had identified something incredible.
Eva Longoria
Kathie Lee Gifford
At the age of fourteen, Kathie Lee became a cheerleader at heart. She also entered pageants, aside from cheerleading, and even won Maryland’s Junior Miss Contest in 1970. She graduated in sports and went to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Kathie Lee Gifford
Meryl Streep
Probably one of Hollywood’s favorite actresses is Meryl Streep. She is revered for her on-screen skill and intelligence and elegant disposition, which she gained from cheering at Bernards High School in New Jersey. During her senior year, she was a varied athlete, captured here to be very proud of her accomplishment.
Meryl Streep
Sandra Bullock
Are you guys aware that the performer was originally a cheerleader at Washington-Lee High School at her hometown in Arlington, Virginia, before she was Miss Congeniality’s cool spy? Before finishing high school in 1982, she took part in physical activities and several theatrical productions at the academy.
Sandra Bullock
Steve Martin
This silver-haired comedian used to have a hair of brown waves hanging in the closet and a cheerleader costume. California Garden Grove squad had some of the best cheers and was energetic and humorous, maybe because Steve himself, the comedy legend, created all of them!
Steve Martin
Denise Richards
Denise was a super fit Tomboy while in her youth in Illinois. When she relocated to Oceanside, California, she agreed to replace her appearance and join the cheering squad. She starred in shows including Saved By The Bell and Married With Girls, eventually courting Charlie Sheen, her now-ex-husband.
Denise Richards
Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa grew up as a dancer in southern New Jersey. While attending Eastern Regional High School, the future soap opera actress joined the cheerleading team, yelling spirited sayings to the crowds. She also took drama classes at college, was told to continue acting by her coach, Jim Beckley, and she’s probably happy to follow the recommendation.
Kelly Ripa
Halle Berry
She was just Halle, from Bedford High School in Cleveland, OH, before becoming the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. Berry was a role model student, taking part in cheerleading, scholarships, and the school newspaper. She also received the Prom Queen, and somehow she didn’t peak at high school.
Halle Berry
Jenna Dewan
Kudos to her film Move Up, starring herself and Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan is a performing goddess. However she was a cheering captain in Texas before she was in the film series. She fell in love with and decided to pursue the physicality of the dance parts.
Jenna Dewan
Lindsay Lohan
And after her childhood stardom, Lindsay ended up going to a normal high school in Long Island, NY. She attended both Cold Spring Harbor High School and Sanford H. Calhoun High School and eventually switching to exclusively homeschool, trying a cheering team at both schools.
Lindsay Lohan
Sally Field
You’d recognise this actress from her association with Forrest Gump or Mrs. Doubtfire, but she posed long before that This star was part of the cheering squad of Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California. She will already be a phenomenon remembered for shows like The Flying Nun and Gidget.
Sally Field
Fergie
Known as Stacie Ann Ferguson, Fergie was her high school cheering squad’s favorite star with her cheerful attitude and pretty features. She was a straight-A student at Glen A. Wilson High School and questioned the idea that cheerleaders are dumb. She later joined the Black Eyed Peas.
Fergie
Cynthia Bailey
This actress worked on a football field before she left the state for an NYC role at 18. Reality TV personality and actress cheered for the local team in Deshler High School’s home state of Alabama. The rest is history for this starlet.
Cynthia Bailey
Gabrielle Union
As a cheerleader in Bring It On, Gabrielle Union captivated audiences, but she had a fantastic year of job experience. The queen was Pleasanton, California’s cheerleading superstar. According to her, the family was very involved in sports when she also said “In my family, if you couldn’t talk Cornhusker football, then you don’t get to have an opinion.”
Gabrielle Union
Renee Zellweger
Zellweger joined a cheerleaders team while attending Katy High School in Katy, Texas. She’s also really interested in the sport’s gymnastics aspect, having already appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to show off her flips and tumbles. You can’t keep this girl!
Renee Zellweger
Stacy Keibler
WWE’s athlete didn’t quite have a fighter’s heart. It was like a dancer’s heart when she was the professional cheerleader of Baltimore Ravens. She switched to WCW in 1999 and until 2001. From there the girl became a wwe wrestler, working solely for WWE.
Stacy Keibler
Jesse James Decker
Cheerleader, singer… Okay, why not? At fifteen, the country singer-songwriter wrote hit songs and held interviews with Nashville labels, but she still yelled weekends with the home team. She now has a lot of hit albums, and she’s even ventured into fashion industry. She could update uniforms.
Jesse James Decker
Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore wore her own cheering ensemble while playing Lana Thomas in 2001’s The Princess Diaries. Yet her knowledge was different as she cheered for the Pop Warner Football Team. After this meeting with the cheery planet, she starred in A Walk to Remember and later, This Is Us.
Mandy Moore
Miley Cyrus
Miley has been performing since born, while most cheerleaders-turned-actors start performing on the stage. She always had a knack on stage, Billy Ray Cyrus’s boy. The Cyrus star, though, was once a cheerleader for the Tennessee Premiere soccer squad in her hometown before becoming Hannah Montana.
Miley Cyrus
Blake Lively
Now it sounds insane, but Blake just got into acting because she figured it’d be fun for her mother and aunt. They were right. But while attending Burbank High School, she left some time on her schedule for peers, homework, and cheering team. She did everything between shooting her first big movie, Traveling Pants Sisterhood.
Blake Lively
Amy Poehler
Maybe Amy Poehler is a top comedian, just on top of the cheer pyramid! SNL’s legend cheered and sung Burlington High School in Massachusetts. She then went to Boston College and went to Chicago, where she learned not only to cheer but also to make people laugh.
Amy Poehler
Danielle Brooks
Danielle Brooks is known in Orange Is the New Black for her lead role, but she was also part of her high school cheer squad back in high school. Eventually, because the short dresses made her feel uncomfortable. She wrote on her blog about her experience later, writing, “Never quit anything again because you’re scared of what others might think of you – unless you become an exotic dancer, the only exception. But even then only quit because you want to.”
Danielle Brooks
Paul Rudd
That Clueless heartthrob was one of the yell leaders at Overland Park High School in Kansas. He was not only adept at hyping an audience, but also Student Council president. The actor learned how to cartwheel, flip, tumble, and lift a stunt while in high school, despite not using film skills.
Paul Rudd
Reese Witherspoon
This Legally Blonde Star was back in the day on top of the world and the pyramid. Long before celebrity invaded her life, Walk the Line star was part of the cheerleading squad of her academy. Here she is, cheering on the generals, in an image posted by Reese.
Reese Witherspoon
Ann Margret
Ann was an accomplished musician, spry dancer, and peppy cheerleader at Winnetka, Illinois’ New Trier High School, born in Sweden in 1941. She grinned happily at cameras and fans before she was famous. The starlet played in pictures like Bye Bye Birdie, Carnal Knowledge, Grumpy Old Men, and The Cheap Detective.
Ann Margret
Sela Ward
Today, stunning Sela Ward may be known for her acting career, but Alabama University knows her as one of their cheering squad’s prestigious alumni. Years before even on screen, the actress chanted for the Crimson Tide football team. She studied fine art and advertising in 1977.
Sela Ward
Alicia Silverstone
Was Alicia Silverstone ex-cheerleader? Just like! This blonde beauty is known to humans in Clueless for her famous role as Cher Horowitz, but her teammates knew her as a base stunter. She cheered for San Mateo High School, home to battle Bearcats! Ah! Ah! Oh! My! Ah! Oh! Ah! Oh! Okay, team!
Alicia Silverstone
Jayma Mays
Jayma was a high school cheerleader earlier in the day, though she’s Emma Pillsbury, Glee’s high school guidance counselor. She and her teammates are seen sporting blue and yellow while hugging their Wolves, their school mascot. That smile lightens a crowd!
Jayma Mays
Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields is one of the world’s prettiest ladies. She did it all with a smile, whether in the 1980s she posed for the camera or at Emmeline’s The Blue Lagoon. The career-defining grin she acquired from her spirited cheer squad at her private high school, New Jersey.
Brooke Shields
Nene Leakes
Nene Leakes had a long and fruitful career as a reality tv personality in the past decade, but before that, she threw her pom-poms in the air for the home team. Her spunky style on and off the field certainly embraced her, seen here sporting a combination of red and gold colors.
Nene Leakes
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence tried her hand in a variety of media like modeling and acting, but did you know she was once a high school student? Lawrence packed her days with softball practices, basketball warm-ups, field hockey scrimmings, and more besides cheering sessions. She’s capable of everything!
Jennifer Lawrence
Kirk Douglas
Amsterdam High School in Amsterdam, New York, can rightly say that Kirk Douglas, the famous actor, once cheered for winning teams. Over his long life, he filmed over 100 movies. There are typically genres like realistic dramas, old school westerns, and war movies.
Kirk Douglas
Paula Abdul
Paula took as a cheerleader the next step. Not only was she eager to perform at Los Angeles’ Van Nuys High School cheering team, but she was already an honor student. She devoted herself to dance after graduation, becoming a Laker Girl, then becoming a head choreographer, and helping court stars including Jamaal Wilkes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Magic Johnson.
Paula Abdul
Jessica Simpson
Thanks to her cheering days, her cool-girl attitude is incomparable. When attending Richardson North Junior High School in Texas’ home state, she got into the sport. She wasn’t there for long when she dropped out of college at the age of 15 to study music, but she eventually became a cheerleader for Dallas Cowboys.
Jessica Simpson
Snooki
Jersey Shore’s favorite cast member was once daily boy. In Marlboro, New York, her school star started to cheer, but it cost her mental health. “Cheerleading was my life in high school, but it wasn’t always easy for me. I started to be anorexic. There were freshmen who were seventy pounds and I was like, my spot as a flier is going to get taken away. So I ended up starving myself.” Snooki recalled.
Snooki
Phaedra Parks
In Athens, Georgia, Clarke Central High School was where this star and lawyer started her career. She had all the spunk a cheerleader needs in a red, white, and gold uniform. She was especially useful as she later practiced law in adulthood.
Phaedra Parks
Olivia Wilde
Technically, for The Andover, Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy, there was no cheering group, but it had a moving band. Almost the same look and cheering appears to happen, but with a new name, and less stunting. “It is just another form of cheering,” Wilde said.
Olivia Wilde
Kirstie Alley
Before splitting, Alley cheered for Wichita Southeast High School in Kansas. She also had much shorter hair, which was unusual for a cheerleader. However, it must have improved her personality because soon after high school she was cast on the Cheers show.
Kirstie Alley
Kendall Jenner
She may be today’s most famous woman in the world, but she was an inexperienced teen a few years ago. The Kardashian girlfriend, Kendall Jenner, was given some limelight relief. You’ll see her here as a celebrating supporter of her high school in a blue and white dress.
Kendall Jenner
Kathy Griffin
Kathy is a comedian these days, but she used to be a young, entertaining cheerleader. She got her kicks in Oak Park, Illinois, Oak Park, and River Forest High School. Though she turned to comedy later, the spotlight always charmed her.
Kathy Griffin
Dakota Fanning
Dakota was unlike those on this list because, years after an existing actress, she started cheering. She was part of shows like ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Rehearsal, Spin City, Ally McBeal, and more. Campbell Hall School got her on their cheering team. Who the Vikings!
Dakota Fanning
Calista Flockhart
Remember Ally McBeal? And as early as cheering for Shawnee High School in New Jersey’s home state, Calista Flockhart was already winning. Then she graduated and attended Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where she really started to gather momentum.
Calista Flockhart
Michael Douglas
Cheerleading was a predominantly male sport until the 1950s. Choate Preparatory School was where Douglas learned to cheer, chant, tumble, and stunt. As scientist Hank Pym, he preceded another ex male cheerleader (Paul Rudd) in the Marvel movies.
Michael Douglas
Megan Fox
Since breaking hearts at Transformers, Megan attended Morningside Academy in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The bombshell at her school was ridiculed, turning to safety sports. She started watching movies like Teenage Drama Queen Confessions, where she played a cheerleader!
Megan Fox