Famous People Who Used to Be Teachers

Many household names in society began their careers as teachers in primary schools or secondary schools. Being a school teacher gave them strong communication skills, a calm presence and deep knowledge in their subject area. As we'll see, these skills lead to fame, including in books, film and music.

This article explores famous people who were teachers. This includes writers, actors, musicians and leaders who all worked as former teachers. We will cover what they taught, the impact of these teaching experiences on their career, and the lessons we can learn. Their stories show it's possible to jump from the classroom to the spotlight and may also motivate you to become a teacher, educating and inspiring young people.

Stephen King worked as a teacher at a Maine high school. He was an English teacher at the school Hampden Academy in Maine. Even at this stage in his life, King had an interest in writing. He would teach and mark essays during the day, and then draft short stories at night.

His classroom experiences trained him to capture the readers attention quickly and avoid dull content. He was also inspired by the fears, jokes and pressures of his teenage students, details that make settings in his novels feel real. King is too famous to go back to teaching, but has always spoken famous of his time as an educator.

Orwell served in the Burma Police, with his mother growing up in Burma and his grandmother still living in Moulmein. He then moved back to England and eventually became a teacher at the Hawthorns High School, a school for boys in Hayes, west London. The pay was low, and the days were strict. However, he benefited from his time here, as he could watch authority at work in the private school. Orwell observed that rules shape behaviour and language can carry power.

Orwell went on to teach at Frays College in Uxbridge. We can imagine the teacher's insistence on plain truth in his clear, spare writing style. For example, in "Animal Farm" and "1984".

Famous for books like The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown studied at the preparatory school Phillips Exeter Academy. He then returned and taught English at the school. He learnt the art of pacing from lesson planning: start with a hook, introduce a problem, and reveal the answer.

He learnt from marking homework what confuses readers and where clarity is crucial. The chapters in his books often end on a cliffhanger, and you find yourself turning the page in the same way that a class leans in for the next hint. Furthermore, his work as a teacher inspired his recurring character Robert Langdon, who is a Harvard professor and features in several of his most notable works.

Angelou was a poet and writer when she was a young adult. She is particularly famous for her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", which she wrote in 1969. She trained as a teacher after her fame and became the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

She guided students through literature, history, and voice. Teaching impacted her writings and presence in public speeches. He had a measured pace, careful word choice, and utmost respect for her audience. She also stayed close to young readers, still looking to realise their own stories.

Before being catapulted to fame with the X-Men films, Hugh Jackman worked as a gym teacher for a brief time in Uppingham School, England. He learnt to read the room quickly and keep the attention of his class. We see this pacing in his time on stage and film work. Jackman has credited teaching with keeping his energy grounded. He also learnt to project warmth while leading from the front.

The American actor Jonathan Daniel Hamm is famous for Mad Men (2007 - 2015) and a multitude of films, including The Town (2010) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). After graduating, he returned to be a drama teacher at his old high school, John Burroughs High School.

His lessons were focused on presence, eye contact and making clear choices. These tools can be the same in his later work as the character Don Draper in the TV series Mad Men. He also learnt patience with rehearsals and feedback as a teacher, and he used this experience in audition rooms and long shoots. A testament to his ability as a drama teacher is that one of his former students is Ellie Kemper, who was the character Erin Hannon in The Office (2009 - 2013).

Jon Hamm has said that he "might still" go back to teaching when he spoke on NBC's "Sunday Today" in 2017.

One of the most popular actors of his generation, Benedict Cumberbatch volunteered as an English teacher to Tibetan monks in India during his gap year. He had to learn to explain ideas to students with different first languages by stripping each point to its core. He would then build the concept back up gradually. He credits this experience with "purity of purpose" in his acting roles, which we see in his precise, layered performances. For example, Sherlock Holmes' quick turns.

Byrne was a History teacher and a Spanish teacher before his acting career took off. He taught at Ardscoil Eanna in Crumlin, Dublin.

His time teaching History trained him to use facts, motives, and stakes as emotional context for his acting work. He developed characters from what they believe and their past experiences. Teaching a classroom led to his noted calm, assured screen presence.

Crystal worked as a substitute teacher on Long Island long before his stand-up gigs and film roles. He sharpened his comedic timing and crowd reading from his time as a substitute teacher, often a challenging position where students can challenge the temporary teacher. He learned to win the room without resorting to shouting, which became a key feature of his hosting style.

Neeson did teacher training for two years in Newcastle. trained to be a teacher in Newcastle. As part of this training, he did a placement at St Mary’s College in Fenham. He learnt to have a strong presence and give clear instructions. This became a common part of his screen persona: projecting quiet authority, followed by decisive action.

Neeson's teaching career was short-lived. He was threatened by a student with a knife and punched the student in self-defence. This led him to leave the profession and pursue acting.

While studying at the American College of Switzerland in the 1960s, Stallone dabbled in teaching. He worked as a PE teacher at a Swiss boarding school for girls. During his time at this American College in Switzerland, he learnt discipline and pacing from coaching drills, the importance of keeping order in the class, and how to motivate other people. We can see these traits clearly in Rocky, which he wrote and starred in.

Crow taught music at an elementary school in Missouri. She was a teacher before she became a famous musician and used her experiences to enrich her music. She prepared engaging lesson plans, maintained a steady tempo in class, and made sure students were focussed on her. This mix of structure and warmth is a staple of his performances, where she breaks up her set with easy conversation. She also learnt to read a crowd and improvise the energy of the set when she needed to react.

Flack was an American singer and pianist famous for emotive ballads that mixed R&B, jazz, folk, and pop. Her songs include "Killing Me Softly with his song". Her mother, Irene, was a music teacher, and she became a music teacher in North Carolina.

Teaching trained her about the importance of phrasing and space in music - the pause that lets a lyric land. It kept her focused on clarity, using simple words, deep feeling, and no waste. You can hear the teacher's patience in her musical phrasing, where she often gives each note room to breathe, rather than rushing into the next phrase, bridge or chorus.

May was a substitute teacher at Stockwell Manor Comprehensive School in London long before achieving fame as the co-founder and lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. He was a science teacher, specialising in Physics and was also a Maths teacher. This was a brief position while he pursued his PhD in Astrophysics.

May enjoyed the challenging role of teaching, and his step-by-step thinking was refined by explaining tough ideas to his students. He encouraged students to draw pictures to understand problems, which his dad had taught him. He more generally used visual aids, such as diagrams and charts, to make complex figures more relatable.

The famous singer Garfunkel briefly worked as a teacher from 1971 to 1972, teaching mathematics. His time in front of a classroom taught him to listen first and speak second - a habit that benefited his duet work. habits that shaped his duet work. He specialised in teaching geometry to high school sophomores.

Simmons was briefly a sixth-grade teacher in New York City. He left after six months to pursue his music career, eventually becoming the bassist for the hard rock band KISS. He realised that he wanted to be noticed by bigger crowds, stating "Forty people wasn't enough. I wanted forty thousand".

Obama was awarded a BA in Political Science from Columbia University and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. The following year, he began lecturing in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. His work as a lecturer required building arguments that were clear, fair and engaging to people who disagreed. This served him well when he was on the campaign trail as a politician.

He learned to invite questions, anticipate counterpoints, and land a message in plain language. We see this in his speeches, which are delivered calmly, with a measured pace and a strong close. For example, his speech in Boston after the Boston marathon bombing in 2013.

Johnson was another former president who taught Mexican-American children at Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. This school was segregated, and the children had faced real barriers. The teaching requires patience, advocacy and a belief that he can better the children's lives and the schooling system.

LBJ saw how funding, class size and expectations shape outcomes in education. This time in a classroom helped drive his push on civil rights and education, working with Mexican-American students who faced real barriers. The job demanded patience, advocacy, and a belief that systems can change. He saw how funding, class size, and expectations shape outcomes. Later, that classroom view helped drive his push on civil rights and education. He significantly advanced federal support for education in 1965, giving funding to schools in low-income areas.

The inventor, scientist and engineer Bell was a teacher for the deaf. He taught students who were profoundly deaf, having been impacted by the deafness of his mother and wife. Bell experimented with sound, breath and the mechanics of speed.

The classroom was both educational and also functioned for him as a lab. He refined methods, tracked results and explained complex ideas to families using simple language. His aim was always to better the lives of deaf children, who typically fall behind in education.

The loop of observing, testing and simplifying fed into his inventing. His instinct to make ideas audible and useful became the direct pathway to his most important invention: the telephone.

Wozniak is the co-founder of Apple. One of his lifetime goals was to teach at an elementary school because of the importance a teacher has in students' lives. After founding Apple, he eventually taught computing to children from fifth to ninth grade. He designed hands-on projects to help students visualise abstract ideas, such as simple circuits that light up. Planning lessons helps Wozniak see areas that learners struggle with and look for solutions.

If you're interested in passing on your own expertise, consider one-to-one tutoring. It's a great way to test the waters and see if teaching is for you. You can select your subjects and set weekly availability that fits around work, study, or another activity.

You can develop skills that you can apply to a future career: clear explanations, good pacing, planning, and reading the room. There is nothing more satisfying than inspiring and making a difference to a learner.

Creating a tutor profile is straightforward. TeachTutti handles the admin and supports you with student bookings. You are paid weekly for lesson claims, including late lesson cancellations. TeachTutti also have an integrated video conferencing solution so you can teach virtually through the platform. See how tutoring works with TeachTutti, from creating a profile to accepting your first booking.

The link between the classroom and the world stage is more common than it seems. Skills you pick up teaching translate well to a wider audience: speaking clearly, pacing yourself, and showing empathy to the audience. You learn how to plan, perform and improvise in the moment, attributes that lend themselves to a variety of professions: writing a novel, performing on stage, running a political campaign.

If you feel the urge to create, start where you are. Don't overcomplicate and delay - whether it's to teach a lesson, write a page, or play a short set. Regardless of the discipline, they all require communication, preparation and consideration of the audience. As we have seen, teaching is a strong place to begin your journey and develop life skills.