Actors Who You Forgot Are Singers Too
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In the golden days of American cinema, actors were expected to be masters of their crafts — catch that? Not craft, but crafts. If they harbored dreams of seeing their name in lights, then they had better be prepared to act, dance, and sing for their supper. Nowadays, things have definitely changed, and we don’t expect our actors to be delivering Grammy-winning performances or our singers to be dipping their toes in the dramatic — which makes it all the more impressive when they do. From Scarlett Johansson to Robert Downey Jr., we’d forgotten these stars had singing talent to match their acting skills, and it’s a blast from the past to revisit their musical stylings.
There are plenty of working actors today, famous and not-yet-so-famous, who call themselves multi-hyphenates — Lady Gaga has proudly crossed over from singing into acting with her lead role in A Star Is Born, and recent rumblings indicate Selena Gomez is hoping to make a similar transition. Stars like Emily Blunt or Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, seemed perfectly happy to hide their singing talents away for their long, successful acting careers before dazzling us with a final act reveal.
It’s fun to discover new talents in celebrities we’re already excited about watching, and we guarantee you’ll want to check out these music careers you forgot existed. Read on for all the actors whose singing skills you may have overlooked.
A version of this article was originally published in February 2021.
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Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson first dabbled in music in her 2021 appearance in musical-movie Music, which was written by Sia. The actress, who is perhaps best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in Almost Famous or her iconic rom-com hit How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, officially stepped into music in 2024 with two new singles, Talk About Love and Live Forever.
Zendaya
Acting, dancing, singing, being a fashion icon; we don’t think there’s anything Zendaya can’t do. Most recently, the Emmy-winning actress made everyone gasp as she surprised fans with a performance of “All for Us” and “I’m Tired” with Labrinth at Coachella. She can really do it all!
Lily James
Lily James, who already showed off her singing chops in Cinderella and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, just released a new single for her upcoming movie What’s Love Got To Do With It? “It was an absolute pleasure working in the studio with both [composer] Nitin [Sawhney] and Naughty Boy,” James told Daily Mail. “Music plays a huge part in the film, and I’m thrilled to contribute to this amazing single alongside some incredible artists.” Could this be the start of a new career direction for James?
Jeremy Renner
Marvel’s very own Hawkeye can do much more than throw arrows, he can sing too! In addition to a few singles, Jeremy Renner’s first EP The Medicine dropped in March 2020.
Hailee Steinfeld
At just 14 years old, we knew Hailee Steinfeld was the real deal when she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in True Grit. Since then, Steinfeld’s proved she can do much more than acting and that she’s an incredible singer too! In addition to some hit singles like “Let Me Go,” “Love Myself” and most recently “Coast,” she also released her EP, Half Written Story, in 2020.
Hugh Laurie
After learning how talented Hugh Laurie is, you’ll be left wondering why House never had a musical episode. Laurie has released two blues albums over the years: Let Them Talk and Didn’t It Rain.
Robert Pattinson
Following his stint in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Robert Pattinson was sure he was going to head into the music business.
“I really thought I was gonna do music at that point,” he shared with GQ in 2022. “I don’t know where I had the, kind of, belief in that because there was absolutely no one saying that there’s a music career on the table. But I was doing a lot of gigs, constantly doing open mics all the time. And then…I ran out of money, basically.”
Fortunately, Pattinson was cast in the Twilight films, for which he got to show off some of his music talents with two songs on the movie’s soundtrack.
Jared Leto
Jared Leto rose to fame on the ’90s teen drama My So-Called Life. But once the series wrapped, he and his brother, Shannon, formed the group Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band has put out albums since the early 2000s, all while Leto’s been building his impressive acting career, winning an Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club along the way. One of the band’s most famous songs is their 2009 single “Kings and Queens.”
Emmy Rossum
Long before she was Fiona Gallagher on Shameless, Emmy Rossum was training at Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus. Once her acting career took off, Rossum was still able to put her singing skills to use with her role as Christine Daaé in the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. Three years later, she released her first album, followed by another in 2013.
Actors Who Sing: Emily Blunt
Oppenheimer‘s Emily Blunt has captivated us with her work in period pieces, modern romances, and adventure films — but where she really shined the brightest is when she sang in the cinematic adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods as the Baker’s Wife and as the titular character of our collective youth, Mary Poppins, in Mary Poppins Returns.
Eddie Murphy
One of, if not the, most successful comedic actor of our time, Eddie Murphy has a repertoire filled with modern day classics. The man who brought us Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop (I, II, and III), 48 Hours (I and II), Boomerang, the Shrek trilogy, iconic stand-up specials that set the bar for what comedy could be, and years on SNL, can also sing.
He’s released five (music) albums starting in 1985 with single “Party All the Time” which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It’s still very much a non-guilty pleasure.
Robert Downey Jr.
Oscar-winning Oppenheimer star Robert Downey Jr. released an album of eight original compositions and two covers back in 2004. We’re partial to the opening track, “Man Like Me.”
Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell is really known for her voice (her acting voice, that is), and for good reason. She voiced the hidden narrator on Gossip Girl, she’s acted in TV hits like The Good Place and Veronica Mars, and in films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall…but back to that whole voice thing. She’s also the voice of Anna from Frozen and Frozen 2, the mega-popular film series that finally brought her singing chops to light.
Nicole Kidman
This Australian megastar is such a talent that it’s really not all that surprising that she can also sing. I mean, we challenge you to name a film or TV mini-series she’s been a part of where you weren’t blown away by her performance. Go ahead. We’ll wait.
In her HBO monster hit The Undoing, she sang the theme song, a haunting cover of The Mama and The Papa’s “Dream A Little Dream of Me.”
David Hasselhoff
No list of actors who sing would be worth its weight in salt without the inclusion of The Hoff. Yes, he’s a legend because of The Young and the Restless, Knight Rider, and Baywatch, but with his 1988 single “Looking for Freedom” he reached new heights of fame, particularly in Germany, with a song so big he performed it live at the Berlin Wall on New Year’s Eve in 1989.
Rita Wilson
Surely you know Rita Wilson as an actor from films such as Sleepless in Seattle, It’s Complicated, and Volunteers, or as a one of the producers of the highest grossing independent film of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She’s also a singer-songwriter who’s released four country-tinged albums starting with 2012’s covers project AM/FM which includes a lovely version of Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman.”
Scarlett Johansson
She’s won a Tony (in 2010 for her performance in the revival of A View From the Bridge), is a bonafide superhero (thanks to her role as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and has been appearing in critically acclaimed films since she was 12 years old. But did you know she also has two albums? Yup. Her solo LP Anywhere I Lay My Head (an album of Tom Waits covers) came out in 2008 and the following year she and Pete Yorn released their collaborative collection Break Up which is 100% worth checking out.
Zooey Deschanel
You probably know Zooey Deschanel from her Globe-nominated performance as Jess in the TV hit New Girl and in films such as 500 Days of Summer, Almost Famous and Failure to Launch. But, in addition to acting, Zooey is one half of indie pop band She & Him (She’s the She, M. Ward is Him). They’ve released six albums in total – three original, one of covers, and two for Christmas (A Very She & Him Christmas and Christmas Party).
Zoë Kravitz
It was inevitable that Zoë Kravitz would become not just a star but a multi-hyphenate by virtue of her parentage (Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz) but she has proven herself to be a formidable actress with commendable performances on TV in Big Little Lies and High Fidelity and in films like the Divergent series.
She’s also the frontwoman of R&B electropop duo Lolawolf, named for her younger half siblings (awww), Lola and Wolf, who have released two albums, including 2020’s Tenderness.
Donald Glover
From writing on TV for 30 Rock to starring in Community and Atlanta to films such as Magic Mike XXL and a little-known series called Star Wars where he portrayed a young Lando Calrissien, Donald Glover has proven to be a serious talent.
He records under the pseudonym Childish Gambino and has released six albums to date. “This Is America,” his Grammy Award-winning single and music video, is a poignant critique of gun violence and racism in the U.S. that debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts.
Jada Pinkett Smith
She’s been acting in TV and film for 30 years (Menace to Society, Set It Off, the Madagascar films) and is most recently known for hosting The Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch with her mom and daughter. But did you know she’s also the lead singer in a nu metal band?
Yup. Jada’s band Wicked Wisdom has been around since 2002 and has toured with Britney Spears and Ozzy Osborne. Know anyone else that can say that?
William Shatner
To one generation, he will always be Captain Kirk. To another, he’s Denny Crane of Boston Legal. And yet to another, he’s the Priceline spokesman.
He is all of these things, but he is also a man who has released what might be the strangest set of spoken word albums ever, starting in 1968 and continuing to his latest album, Blues, which was released in 2021. Included in his catalog are covers of U2’s “In A Little While” with Lyle Lovett, Robert Johnson’s classic “Sweet Home Chicago” with Brad Paisley, and the unforgettable opening to his 2004 William Shatner Has Been LP which opened with Pulp’s “Common People.”
