16 Stars Who Got Their Start on Broadway: From Anna Kendrick to Viola Davis

After honing her skills in community theater, Anna Kendrick formally debuted on Broadway in High Society when she was 12. She played Dinah Lord, which earned her her first Tony nomination, becoming the third youngest nominee of all time.

Kendrick also scored a Theater World Award through the debut Broadway project.

Speaking about the beginning of her career, she told NPR all about her journey.

"I can't now say what it was that originally drew me to performing, because it's very possible that at 6 it was just that I wanted people to be looking at me and paying attention to me," said Kendrick. "Then it sort of transformed into something that was really meaningful for me. ... It became the way that I learn about myself and the way that I learn about other people."

The Broadway musical 13 kicked off Ariana Grande's career before she became an actress and multi-awarded musician.

"She was as gifted a singer at 14 years old as she is now," the musical's composer Jason Robert Brown told Grammy.com. "They learn something about how they want to perform from it and it directs them forward."

In her interview with Complex, the "we can't be friends" singer opened up about her experience in 13 and how the musical helped her expand her range.

"I was just in the ensemble, I barely had any lines, but they gave me all the highest harmonies. I was belting my ass off the whole time and it was incredibly challenging and wonderful," Grande shared. "My favorite thing about doing 13 was that [Jason Robert Brown], who wrote the score, loved to push people to their limits vocally and I loved that."

Before starring in hit films like The Godfather and Annie Hall, Diane Keaton debuted in the 1968 Broadway musical production of Hair.

Regarding her "success and longevity in the business," the Sleeper actress told AARP why she thought directors and audiences had been interested in her for a long time.

"I understand my great good fortune. That's what I understand," Keaton said during an interview. "There was an aspect to me that was, I think, a little more, I don't know … I wasn't what you'd call 'a real actress.' I was more, well, not quite there. It just wasn't me. Shoot, the whole thing is so strange to even think back on."

Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo made his Broadway debut in the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He was initially cast as a replacement, but his performance led him to more Broadway roles and TV gigs.

In 2022, Matarazzo returned to the stage in Dear Evan Hansen.

"Words could never express how truly honored I am to be a part of this company," he said in a statement. "This show has taught me so much about myself and to be able to participate in any capacity, let alone on Broadway, makes me want to melt. I am ecstatic to be back on stage and eternally grateful for the opportunity."

Idina Menzel joined the cast of the 1996 Broadway production of Rent. Her role as Maureen scored her a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Following her debut as a stage actress, she transitioned into film and television, starring in hit flicks like Glee and Enchanted. She also notably worked as a voice actress for Elsa's character in the Frozen franchise.

After dropping out of Dwight Morrow High School at 17, John Travolta's life changed when he landed a role in the Broadway production of Grease.

"I did the road company of Grease and the Broadway show but I wasn't in the lead role, I was in a supporting role called Doody," Travolta recalled during his appearance on Live With Kelly & Ryan. "But my daydream was to be in the film and I really had strong postulates to be in that movie and five years later, boom! It happened in the part that I really wanted, which was Danny."

Tom Moore, who directed the original Broadway production, noted that Travolta's audition was "completely unfocused" and was "all over the place." Still, he showered Travolta with compliments.

"He had a terrific voice. He was immensely charming. And he was very attractive. He looked like a French movie star," Moore continued.

Kristen Bell surprised Broadway fans with her breakout performance in the musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. She later appeared in the 2002 revival of The Crucible.

Although she appeared in several Broadway productions, she revealed to Refinery29 that she once needed to turn down a role because she "had to uproot her kids" who were in school.

Meryl Streep is known for her roles in hit films such as The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Adaptation and Into the Woods.

But before scoring accolades for her TV and film performances, Streep marked her stage debut in Trelawny of the Wells in 1975. Her costume in the production is on display at the Museum of Broadway.

"[Meryl Streep] probably doesn't even know it still exists," costume curator Michael McDonald told Vanity Fair.

In 1968, Morgan Freeman joined the all-Black production of his Broadway debut, Hello Dolly!.

"If you stop working on stage, you sort of stop working hard at acting," he revealed in an interview. "Movies don't really call for as much as the stage does. You have to pump it out on stage."

While Freeman also made his debut in the film industry afterward, he kept returning to Broadway to appear in several productions.

Nick Jonas joined Reba McEntire in the 2001 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun. His role as Little Jake became his first-ever role before appearing in films and TV shows.

As The Jonas Brothers member started his career on stage, he told Variety that Broadway became his "first love."

"Our Broadway residency was an incredibly unique and fulfilling experience, and we saw our catalog really lends itself to building a show around," Jonas said.

Sarah Hyland joined an off-Broadway production of Annie years before she debuted in Grey Gardens when she was 16. She later established her empire and became known for her role on Modern Family.

Even S-- and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker got a head start on Broadway before starring in different films and TV shows.

In 1976, she made her debut in the production of The Innocents before starring in the Broadway musical Annie. While she started focusing on her TV and film projects, she revealed on Watch What Happens Live in October 2016 what she thought about doing a Broadway project again.

"Sure, if someone had the chutzpah to ask me to do it," said Parker. "I would love to do another musical, but I would like to do a new musical. Something that I got to help sort out."

Skylar Astin scored the role of Georg in the Broadway and off-Broadway production of Spring Awakening. His performance soon helped him launch a career as an actor and singer.

Astin's most notable projects include Grey's Anatomy, Glee, Hamlet 2 and Pitch Perfect 2.

In 1994, Taye Diggs joined the cast of the Broadway rock musical production of Carousel before starring in Rent and Chicago. He marked his return in the Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the 2014 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival, in 2015.

The 18th EGOT winner, Viola Davis, graced the stage of Broadway for the first time in the 1996 production of Seven Guitars.

She told CBS how the gig helped her learn something important about herself.

She said, "During Seven Guitars she has a monologue that absolutely is like an aria. And [August Wilson] said he would always watch it, and he would always say, 'Viola, you are just so beautiful.' And — I don't know. I never felt feminine. I never felt like I could fit into that sort of confines of what it meant, or the stereotypical ways of what being a woman was about until I did Seven Guitars."