Let's imagine a 20-year school reunion in a cold corner of northern Minnesota. Old friends are playing catch up, and one of them is now a teacher. Another is a lawyer. A third just became a mom. And then there is that woman in the corner. She looks awfully familiar. And, hey, is that Justin Timberlake with her? OK, this scenario is totally made up, but theoretically could happen for some residents of small towns like Ely, Minnesota, where Jessica Biel was born.
Celebrity life can often seem like it is all about bright lights and big cities. Filming movies in London, going to premieres in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and, of course, sitting front row at fashion shows in Paris and New York. Celebrities seem so comfortable in their big-city lives that it can be surprising to realize how many of them are from super tiny towns that most of us probably couldn't find on a map (bonus points to anyone who knows off the top of their head where Ely, French Lick, or Cullman is).
It's always hard to know how much anyone is shaped by where they are born, but there is something inspiring about seeing how people from even the most humble places can grow up to have pretty major lives!
Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel comes from Ely, a small town of 3,390 in northern Minnesota. Although her family later settled in Colorado, Jessica still gets press as a Minnesotan. In 2017, Minneapolis' City Pages newspaper ran this headline: "Husband of Ely, MN's Jessica Biel to Perform at Super Bowl." The city of Ely itself is near the Boundary Waters between the US and Canada and is a popular vacation spot in the state.
Chris Pratt
Another Minnesotan is Chris Pratt. He was born in Virginia, Minnesota, which has a population of 8,484. Nicknamed the Queen City of the North for its progressive nature, Virginia is now home to the state's tallest suspension bridge. When he was 7, Chris' family moved to Lake Stevens, Washington, where he began his acting career in school plays.
Dolly Parton
Sevierville in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee is the birthplace of country music superstar Dolly Parton. The town (and its surrounding area) greatly influenced her music and is memorialized in the song My Tennessee Mountain Home. In Sevierville today, tourists can visit a replica of the log cabin where Dolly grew up and then spend the rest of their day at the Dollywood theme park.
Josh Hutcherson
Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson's hometown of Union is far more picturesque than District 12. This small town of just under 6,000 people is in northern Kentucky, just over the border from Cincinnati, Ohio. The nearby Big Bone Lick historic site is home to impressive prehistoric fossils as well as modern-day bison. But there weren't enough opportunities for the budding actor, so the family moved to Los Angeles when Josh was just 9 years old.
Matthew Perry
Could he be any more of a small-town boy? Well, actually yes. Although Matthew Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts (population around 8,000 when Matthew joined its ranks), he moved to the much larger city of Ottawa, Canada, while still a toddler.
Martina McBride
Martina McBride learned to love country music in the tiny town of Sharon, Kansas, which is home to just 147 people today. Her family owned a dairy farm, and her father made cabinets but was also a musician — so music was a part of her life from the start. This tiny town saw Martina's debut in her father's band, The Schiffters.
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder's small-town roots are right there in her name! The actress was born in Winona, Minnesota. She is the most famous resident of the town, which is located along the Mississippi River in southern Minnesota, near the Wisconsin border. Her family moved to California when she was 10, but she revisited the town in 2020 while filming a Super Bowl commercial highlighting her Minnesota roots.
Scottie Pippen
Scottie Pippen may or may not have been the tallest person to come out of Hamburg, Arkansas, but he is certainly the most famous. Hamburg is the county seat in the middle of the state with a population of only 2,683. However, it was big enough to contain all 12 of the very tall Pippen children, of which NBA player Scottie was the youngest — and the tallest. And there was even room for Scottie's career to begin on the Hamburg High School basketball team.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is arguably one of the most famous people in the world. But her life story started humbly. She's been candid about her difficult upbringing, which began as the daughter of a single teenaged mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi, where she lived until she was 6 years old. This small town saw Oprah's first speaking engagement at her grandmother's church when she was only 2.
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood began her singing career in the small town of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Fifty miles from Tulsa, Muskogee isn't known for its music scene. But that didn't stop Carrie from finding opportunities to get on stage. She sang at her church, local talent shows, and other community events. She remained in Oklahoma for college, working a variety of jobs before finding her way to nearby St. Louis for an audition for American Idol.
Miranda Lambert
Lindale, Texas, may be the exception to the phrase, "Everything's big in Texas." This town of just under 3,000 people is anything but big, but it produced another country queen, Miranda Lambert. Lindale is where Miranda's father taught her to play the guitar and love country music.
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is indelibly linked to New York City in our minds, but she is far from a native New Yorker. She's actually an Ohio girl, hailing from the town of Nelsonville, which has about 5,000 residents and presumably far fewer sex columnists and shoe stores!
Larry Bird
He may have made it big in Boston (population of nearly 5 million people), but NBA legend Larry Bird hails from the much smaller French Lick, Indiana (population of fewer than 2,000 residents at last census). Unsurprisingly, French Lick is most known for having a casino and one very, very famous former resident who plays a pretty mean basketball game!
Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum is the most famous former resident of two small towns. He was born in Cullman, Alabama (population of about 13,000 when he was born), but moved to the slightly larger (around 25,000 residents) city of Pascagoula, Mississippi, when he was 6 years old.
Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen seems like such a natural California girl (she moved to the Golden State when she was 15), but she was actually born in another western state. The social media queen arrived into the world in the small town of Delta, Utah, which is home to around 3,000 souls.
Christian Bale
He may have starred in both American Hustle and American Psycho, but Christian Bale doesn't have small-town American roots. He's actually from a tiny town in Wales called Haverfordwest, though he identifies as English and not Welsh. He had an international childhood, though, moving to England and Portugal before he started his prolific acting career.
