yahoodareSome celebrities are a little bit more open about their religious views than others. Actress Mayim Bialik once spoke out about being religious in Hollywood. She herself who is Jewish, told Fox News in a published August 2015 interview, “I think in general it’s never going to be trendy to be observant or religious in Hollywood circles“.
Take a look at these 20 celebrities who decided to share their stories and insights into their religion.
1. Demi Lovato
Demi was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico but was raised in Dallas, Texas. She is a singer, songwriter, and actress. Her career really took off after she played a role in the 2008 Disney movie Compatriot. She grew up in a Christian home, and she regularly attended church where she learned about God and Christianity. She first opened up about her religion back in 2013 to Life and Style magazine. She had said that it was less about religion to her and more about her personal relationship with God. To this day, she and her band pray before every performance.
2. Stephen Colbert
Born in Washington D.C on May 13, 1964. He grew up in Charleston, South Carolina where he was the youngest of 11 children. After his father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash, he became very introverted. He later found a way to express himself through acting. He played in a few plays at school, and later went on to attend college at Hampden-Sydney College of Virginia with the intentions of majoring in Philosophy. However, after reconsidering, he transferred to North Western University where he enrolled as a Theater major. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a conservative correspondent, as well as a show Strangers which was picked up by Comedy Central.
He may be most well known for taking David Letterman’s place on the Late Show after he retired in 2014.
Colbert grew up Catholic and openly talks about his beliefs. He is now Christian and regularly attends church and teaches Sunday School.
3. Denzel Washington
On December 28, 1954, Denzel was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the son of a Pentecostal minister and his mother was a beauty shop owner. In addition, he has two siblings. Around the age of 7 or 8, he played in a talent show at his local Boys & Girls club. When his parents separated, he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school. He went on to later attend college at Fordham University. At first, he did not thrive academically, so he chose to take some time off. After some time he chose to go back to Fordham where he decided to pursue acting.
He has made a feature debut in the comedy A Carbon Copy from 1981, and was cast on the TV show St. Elsewhere which aired from 1982-1988. A few hit movies he played a role in include Philadelphia, Man on Fire, The Book of Eli, American Gangster and Flight. He has also won Oscars for the roles he played in the movies Training Day and Glory.
Washington had an interview with Michael Hainey for GQ Magazine and spoke with him about how he had an “intense encounter” with the Holy Spirit in his twenties. He reads the Bible every day as well as his Daily Word. He has attended the same church for the past 30 years and is deeply devoted to his faith. Being that his father has his own church and was a minister, it was not hard for him to remain faithful to his religion. In a 1999 interview he said, “A part of me still says, ‘Maybe, Denzel, you’re supposed to preach. Maybe you’re still compromising.’ “I’ve had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I’ve been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.”
4. Natalie Portman
Natalie was born June 9, 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel. When she was a young girl her parents immigrated to the United States where the first lived in Washington D.C. They later settled down in Long Island, New York, where Natalie then went to Syosset High School. At 11 years old she was working at a local pizza shop where she was noticed by a Revlon representative who suggested that she pursue a modelling a career. She found modeling to be a bit mundane and decided to steer her efforts towards acting. A short time after she started working with the Usdan Theatre Arts Camp where she appeared in several local productions.
She made her film debut in Luc Besson’s 1994 movie, The Professional. Her career seemed to take off after she played a role as Al Pacino’s troubled daughter in the film, Heat in 1995. She also had a role in Black Swan which aired in 2010.
Portman grew up with two Jewish parents, and since then she has remained faithful to that religion. She has said however that she sometimes loses touch with her religion when she’s not in Israel, but she wants to raise her future children to the same faith.
5. David Archuleta
Born December 28, 1990, in Miami, Florida where he lived until the age of six with his parents. They relocated to Salt Lake Valley, Utah where he spent the rest of his childhood. In 2003, David won the title of Junior Singer on the show Star Search. Following the show, he appeared on The Jenny Jones Show & The Early Show.
He earned his ticket to fame when he made it to the final auditions on American Idol Season 7 where he finished as runner-up. He eventually ended up signing a deal with Jive Records in June of 2008.
Archuleta is Mormon, and he is a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is so dedicated to his faith that although his music career was blossoming, he has decided to put it on the back burning for two years so he can perform evangelical duties as a missionary at his church.
6. Mark Wahlberg
Wahlberg grew up the youngest of nine children in an Irish Catholic family in the Boston district of Dorchester, Massachusetts. At 14 years old, he dropped out of school and started living on the streets. Two years later he went to prison for 45 days for playing a role in a beating of a Vietnamese man. His older brother Donnie, who was part of the band New Kids on the Block decided to take him under his wing to help him find some sort of direction in his life. He then landed a two-year contract with Calvin Klein sometime after. He got his breakthrough role in the Basketball Diaries in 1995. Since then he has played in many movies and climbed the ladder to fame.
Wahlberg says that above being an actor and producer, religion plays a big part in his life ever since he was a child. He, his wife, and their four children try to go to church twice every Sunday. He does not try to hide his Irish Catholic background but does not try to push it on anyone. He has said that once he began focusing on his faith, wonderful things started happening in his life.
7. Mayim Bialik
Mayim was born December 12, 1975 in San Diego, California. She then relocated to Los Angeles where she was raised by both of her parents and attended both public and religious schools.
She began her acting career in the 1980’s, however, her breakout role was on the television show Blossom. She appeared as a guest on several shows following the ending of Blossom, but she decided to focus on her studies instead. She earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, Hebrew and Jewish studies in 2000, and then continued on to the university’s Ph.D. program in neuroscience. She finally completed her studies in 2007. In 2009 she returned to the screen and landed a role on the tv show Big Bang Theory.
Both of her parents are first-generation Jewish-American who raised her in Reform Judaism. Today she describes herself as an “aspiring Modern Orthodox”. Through her studies, she decided to take a more traditional approach to her religion. She has spoken out and said that following this religion can be difficult or close to impossible in Hollywood, but she does what she can.
8. Stephen Baldwin
Stephen Baldwin was born May 12, 1966, making him the youngest of six children. He grew up in the suburb of Massapequa on Long Island, New York. He attended Alfred G. Berner High School. Throughout his teenage years, he studied opera and showed some talent as a singer. After graduating in 1984, he attended The American Academy of Dramatic Arts located in New York and began his acting career.
After many years of partying, Baldwin decided to leave that all behind to become a born-again Christian. After quite a few events throughout life, he watched his wife be led to faith, and after the 9/11 attacks, he felt that he was truly touched by God. “Baldwin told God that if he was willing to reveal himself to the actor in a way that proved he was real that Baldwin would do whatever God asked of him. He said that God kept his end of the deal and the rest is, well, history.”
10. Richard Gere
Richard Gere was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 31, 1949. However he moved and grew up in Syracuse, New York. He studied at the University of Massachusetts, became a pop musician, and later went on to gain experience as an actor. He had received acclaim for an off-Broadway appearance in Killer’s Head. He then made his big-screen debut with a small role in Report to the Commissioner. Other films he played a role in include, Yanks, American Gigolo, An Officer and A Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Chicago and Shall We Dance?.
In regards to religion, he was raised as a Methodist but he felt that something was missing. He was first introduced to Buddhism when he was in college as a philosophy major. It greatly appealed to him, and it led him to study with several teachers, including the Dalai Lama. He has continued to follow this faith ever since.
11. Beck
Beck was born into a very artistic, Scientologist family in 1970. Living in Los Angeles, California he began to play in local coffeehouses sometime around 1990. He released his first hit single, Loser, from his album Golden Feelings in 1993. In 1994, he released his third album, Mellow Gold, which was also quite a hit. Three other albums followed from 1996-2014.
Beck has been involved in Scientology most of his life and his wife Marissa is also a second-generation Scientologist. In March of 2005, Beck publicly acknowledged being affiliated with Scientology in an interview published in The New York Times. His father has been a Scientologist for 35 years so he grew up in and around it, and supports the core beliefs.
12. Mel Gibson
Born in Peekskill, New York, on January 3, 1956. During his younger years he moved to Australia and went on to pursue a film career. After appearing in the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon film series, he eventually directed and starred in the Academy Award-winning Braveheart and directed The Passion of the Christ.
Growing up in an extremely large family of 11 children, he was raised Catholic. He belongs to small part of Catholicism called Catholic Traditionalism. He believes that men and women are different, not equal. He also does not believe that the holocaust ever happened. Aside from a number of controversial issues, he believes the same standard Catholic beliefs. Abortion is wrong and so is birth control.
13. Gene Simmons
He was born on August 25, 1949 in Haifa, Israel. He first decided he wanted to be in a band while in middle school, when he would watch girls go crazy over The Beatles on TV. He was in quite a few bands before co-founding KISS with Paul Stanley in the 1970s. Simmons later pursued other interests including fashion, publishing and acting. He starred in the A&E reality TV show Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
He was raised Jewish by his mother who is a Holocaust survivor. Although he follows this faith, he is rather suspicious of religion altogether.
14. Orlando Bloom
Born on January 13, 1977, in Canterbury, England, Orlando Bloom studied acting as a child before he was cast as the heroic Legolas in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bloom also found major success starring in three films of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with Johnny Depp. He’s landed other roles in big-screen fare, including Troy, Elizabethtown and The Three Musketeers.
Although Bloom was raised in the Church of England, he chose to convert to Buddhism officially in 2004. Since his conversion he has built his own Buddhist retreat in Malibu, California.
15. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah is very big in the media. She was born in a rural town in Mississippi on January 29, 1954. In 1976, she moved to Baltimore, where she hosted a hit television chat show, People Are Talking. Following, she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show. She then later became the host of her own program, The Oprah Winfrey Show. The show aired for 25 seasons, during 1986 to 2011. Within that same year, Winfrey launched her own TV network, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Oprah grew up Baptist, but these days she considers herself a Pantheist, which can easily be related to New Age religions which is right up her alley. She has promoted the views and writings of New Age spiritualist, Eckhart Tolle and has held seminars on the web, given speeches discussing it, and talked about it on her shows to the extent that some believe she may be trying to start her own religion.
She has quoted saying, “One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live. There are many paths to what you call God.”
16. Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry was born September 13, 1969, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Throughout his childhood he suffered many years of abuse from his father. He dropped out of high school and eventually earned his GED. He help several jobs before discovering his true passion. In 1992 he directed, produced, and starred in the musical I Know I’ve Been Changed. His 2000 play, I Can Do Bad All by Myself , which brought to life the character Madea, who would appear in several successful films. He has also developed several television shows, including House of Payne, and acted in recent films as Gone Girl (2014).
He attended church with his mother on Sunday’s which provided him with refuge. He is devoutly Christian, and it shows in all of his work. He openly speaks of his beliefs and has no problem playing roles where the character talks about believing in God or being Christian.
17. Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York. He discovered his interest in acting during high school. His career took off with his role in Risky Business and Top Gun. Cruise later earned recognition for his work in the well known film Jerry Maguire and the Mission: Impossible franchise. He also was targeted by the tabloids for his marriages to actresses Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.
Cruise is one of Hollywood’s most outspoken members of the Church of Scientology. He joined in 1986 while he was married to then-Scientologist Mimi Rogers. He has publicly said that Scientology helped him overcome his dyslexia. When speaking of behalf of Scientology, he emphasises the religion’s programs in education, as well as drug addiction recovery and criminal rehabilitation. Scientology is strongly against prescribing anti-psychiatry drugs.
18. Dave Chappelle
Chappelle was born on August 24, 1973, in Washington, D.C. He began making appearances in films such as Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Half Baked in the mid-1990s. In 2003, he landed his own show on Comedy Central, Chappelle’s Show. He received two Emmy Award nominations for the extremely popular and controversial show, which often addressed race relations. In 2006, he suddenly quit the show and moved to a farm located in Ohio.
Chappelle was raised by a Unitarian Universalist minister, however he chose to convert to Islam in 1998. Roughly seven years later he told Time magazine, “I don’t normally talk about my religion publicly because I don’t want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way.”
19. Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen was born, August 3, 1940, in Dayton, Ohio. He is an American actor who got his start on the New York stage, never had formal training. He may be best known for his role as Captain Willard in film Apocalypse Now (1979). In 1999, he landed the role of President Bartlet on the TV series The West Wing, which he won numerous awards for. Sheen also starred in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie.
Sheen restored his Catholic faith after having conversations with Terrance Malick, who was the producer of the film he stared in, Bad Lands. He does not follow strictly however, seeing as he believes in same-sex marriage.
20. John Travolta
Travolta was born on February 18, 1954, in Englewood, New Jersey. He dropped out of high school when he was 16 to pursue an acting career. He became a star as Vinnie Barbarino in the TV series Welcome Back Kotter, followed by the highly successful films Saturday Night Fever and Grease. After being out of the spotlight for awhile, he made a comeback in 1994 with Pulp Fiction.
Travolta has been a part of Scientology since the 1970’s. He says he and his family have done so well with it, and claims that it has saved his life several times. He has also opened up and talked about how it has helped him survive the loss of his son Jett who passed away at the young age of 16.
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