Singers That Became Successful Actors

You won't find someone with a more dedicated fan base than the Queen Bey. While Beyonce is still one of, if not the, biggest musicians in the world right now, she's had a pretty solid movie career ... especially when you look at her filmography and see that she started her film career with a made for MTV movie called Carmen: A Hip Hopera. A hip hopera. I'm really shocked that this genre didn't catch on.

Beyonce went on to appear in Austin Powers in Goldmember and the Pink Panther remake, but her biggest role was in the movie Obsessed, where she plays a woman married to Idris Elba, who is being stalked by Ali Larter. Beyonce continues to be a hugely popular musician, but it's not like her movie career is anything to scoff at.

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Mariah Carey has a powerful voice and a dedicated fan base, but that wasn't enough to save Glitter. Often listed on "worst movies ever" lists, Glitter was about a girl trying to make it the music business. Real stretch. After Glitter, Carey stayed away from major movie roles, only making a few brief cameos in smaller films. It wasn't until Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire that Mariah made her return. The film was a success, and Carey's performance was praised. She returned to theaters with a role in The Butler, playing the mother of the titular butler. Turns out, Mariah Carey does better in movies where she isn't basically just playing herself.

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1995–2002 Justin Timberlake was a member of the group N*SYNC. Today, Timberlake is more than a singer — he's a full blown celebrity. Since the release of The Social Network in 2010, where he showed he had some actual acting chops, Timberlake's been balancing a successful singing career with a pretty solid acting career. He even reunited with N*SYNC along the way (for about 10 seconds).

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Lady Gaga is a great singer, but she's always been a performer. Gaga is still mainly a musician, but she's made some acting appearances. She popped up in Muppets Most Wanted and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. And while neither of those appearances made it seem like she'd give up singing for acting, it was just announced that Gaga has been cast in the fifth season of American Horror Story. Not much is known about her role or how big it will be, but it seems like it will be pretty prominent. If she was just popping up for a quick cameo, they probably wouldn't announce it this far in advance. My guess is that she's going to be playing a very normal person who wears regular clothes and enjoys doing nice things. That's what American Horror Story is about, right?

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Sure, Fantasia technically won the third season of American Idol, but let's be honest — Jennifer Hudson was the real winner. Starting her acting career with Dreamgirls, Hudson's performance was nominated for basically every award ever. I think Dreamgirls even netted her a couple of Student of the Month awards. Since then, Hudson's juggled a singing and acting career pretty successfully. She was one of the first contestants to prove that winning the competition isn't necessarily the most important part of American Idol. Also, William Hung first appeared in the third season of American Idol, and his career went better than some of the winners of the show. Basically, just get on American Idol in some capacity and hope for the best.

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When Mandy Moore first popped up, she was marketed as another teeny-bopper along the lines of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. She then moved away from that image to something a bit more innocent and picking up small acting roles here and there. But Moore didn't hit anything major until A Walk To Remember, a movie that proved you were a complete monster if you didn't cry.

Mandy Moore has continued to appear in movies and TV, and she's put out a number of albums. Even though her career never got as big as some of the other pop stars of her time, she's worked pretty consistently for over a decade now. She also survived dating Zach Braff, which is a pretty huge accomplishment all on its own.

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