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- James Mackenzie played the titular character of the UK children's fantasy game show Raven long before playing characters in various other shows for adults (River City) and children (Dani's House and Molly and Mack).
- Before being cast as The Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie had small roles in various Hollywood movies, such as a battle rapper in 8 Mile and an overzealous boxer in Million Dollar Baby. Also notable is his appearance with Jeremy Renner, a.k.a. Hawkeye, in The Hurt Locker. Now all the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs is Brian Geraghty and they have the trifecta.
- Mackey also appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
- Several years before becoming known to the world as John Steed, Patrick Macnee played the young Jacob Marley in Scrooge (1951).
- One of the earliest works of Bear in the Big Blue House himself, Noel MacNeal, was You on Kazoo. Yes, he was in that.
- His first puppeteering role was Magellan on Eureeka's Castle, the first Nick Jr. series to become popular.
- In 1983, voice actress Tress MacNeille could be heard singing as "Lucy" on "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Ricky"—And appears in the video as well.
- Michael Madsen made his film debut in WarGames as a missile silo officer, whose disagreement with his superior officer, a pre-West Wing John Spencer, persuades NORAD to replace all missile operators with the WOPR supercomputer system.
- He was also a villain of the week on Miami Vice.
- Tobey Maguire was in The Wizard.
- Bill Maher played a game show host on Married... with Children.
- And played a cab driver along with Paul Rodriguez and Marsha Warfield in D.C. Cab.
- He was also in House II: The Second Story
- Tina Majorino, probably best known for her role as Deb or as Mac, is the Living MacGuffin in Waterworld.
- She was in quite a bit of stuff before taking a break from acting and then starring in Napoleon Dynamite.
- She also starred in the 1994 comedy-drama film Andre.
- Rami Malek, prior to Night at the Museum, Mr. Robot, Bohemian Rhapsody, and even The War at Home, made his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it debut as an extra on Gilmore Girls. He’s also appeared in an episode of Medium.
- Jena Malone had a guest stint on an episode of Chicago Hope (and the aforementioned Roseanne) and starred as the younger version of Jodie Foster's character, Ellie, in Contact in 1997, four years before her breakout role as Gretchen in Donnie Darko.
- Patty Maloney. Because she didn't speak or show her face on Far Out Space Nuts, she likely wasn't immediately recognizable in her many prime-time guest roles of the late 1970s.
- Costas Mandylor was in the film Mobsters along with fellow then-unknown actor named Patrick Dempsey a year before he was Kenny Lacos in Picket Fences and years before becoming Hoffman in Saw.
- Stephen Mangan voiced Bigwig in the 90s Watership Down animated series before becoming Guy Secretan in Green Wing.
- Long before her roles on The Practice and Ghost Whisperer, Camryn Manheim made a non-speaking appearance in the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact, as the young woman standing in the elevator behind Harry Callahan when he confronts the punk that the judge just let off the hook.
- Randolph Mantooth is in the Adam-12 episode "Log 88 - Reason to Run" as a worker accused of theft, a year before being cast in Emergency!. He also appears for a few seconds in the Marcus Welby, M.D. episode "Cynthia" as an intern at the hospital.
- Meghan Markle had a bit part on General Hospital as a nurse in 2002.
- A few years before she was Irwin on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Vanessa Marshall portrayed a character named Becky on Scrubs.
- Vincent Martella, who is the voice of Phineas in Phineas and Ferb, was Greg in Everybody Hates Chris. Sort of an inversion, because Phineas and Ferb started in 2007 and Everybody Hates Chris didn't end until 2009.
- From 1959, here's evergreen emcee Wink Martindale with his recitation of "The Deck of Cards"
. As British audiences bought the record, but never saw his shows, this is still what people in the UK mainly know him for. - Who's that in this 1986 trade show video for ECAD Systems? Itsa ME, Charles Martinet!
- Following the success of Orphan Black, a whole lotta Clone Clubbers have been poking through Tatiana Maslany's filmography. She popped up on a fair number of films and TV shows filmed in her native Canada, including Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, Flashpoint, Diary of the Dead, Cracked (2013) and Alphas.
- Kyle Massey, famous for his roles on That's So Raven and its spinoff Cory in the House, had an early acting role in this Public Service Announcement about teen parenting.
- Voice actor in youth and Otter in adulthood, Tim Matheson had some guest spots on Leave It to Beaver and My Three Sons before either of these.
- Rik Mayall is one of the patrons of the Slaughtered Lamb in An American Werewolf in London.
- Melissa McCarthy, now best known for her roles in Mike & Molly and Bridesmaids, played the reoccurring character Sookie St. James — the best friend of lead character Lorelai Gilmore — in Gilmore Girls.
- She was also the voice of DNAmy on Kim Possible.
- Her first film role was Sandra in Go.
- Eddie McClintock, best known as Pete from Warehouse 13, is Bones' FBI boyfriend.
- Also appeared for five seconds in Sex and the City when they went to L.A.
- Also played Ted's ne'r do well brother in Better Off Ted. Deal With It!
- Also starred in the short-lived, obscure 1999 sitcom Stark Raving Mad. Alongside Neil Patrick Harris and Tony Shalhoub no less.
- Kandyse McClure is yet another Higher Ground alumnus.
- Before his big break in Dazed and Confused, Matthew McConaughey's first on-camera role was in the Trisha Yearwood music video "Walkaway Joe." This is one of her biggest hits, so there's a lot of new realization around his role in the video in the Youtube comments section for it.
- Kent McCord, later of Adam-12, has a bit part in the Dragnet 1967 episode "The Big Explosion" as a cop named Martin.
- The creators of Free Enterprise probably wouldn't have had enough money to cast Eric McCormack after he got his role on Will & Grace so they lucked out in getting him beforehand.
- Before Maureen McCormick was Marcia Brady, she guest starred in the Honey West episode "In the Bag" as a bratty child.
- Years before becoming a familiar face in movies like Thelma & Louise and Happy Gilmore, Christopher McDonald appeared as Lieutenant Richard Castillo in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise".
- Before his Star-Making Role in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Rob McElhenney featured in episodes of Law & Order and ER, an anti-smoking PSA, and a commercial for chocolate drink Yoo-hoo.
- Gates McFadden, before being known for her role as Beverly Crusher, played a secretary in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
- She also had a cameo as Dr. Cathy Ryan in The Hunt for Red October.
- She was also the choreographer for Labyrinth, appearing in a BTS special under her given name Cheryl.
- She made a guest appearance on The Cosby Show (in the season three episode "Cliff's 50th Birthday") under her given name Cheryl.
- She appeared as an audience member in the March 7, 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live who shares a kiss with host Bill Murray in the opening.
- John C. McGinley: Dr. Cox plays a Corrupt Corporate Executive of the Planetary Shield Company in Highlander II: The Quickening.
- For other movies, he had a similar role in the environmental film On Deadly Ground. He was also a member of the S.W.A.T. team in Se7en, one of the leads in the movie adaption of Car 54, Where Are You?, a marine in The Rock, a sergeant in Platoon, Bob Slydell in Office Space, a Jim Rome expy in Any Given Sunday, and he appeared as Charlie Sheen's coworker in Wall Street.
- He also pops up to fix Frasier's toilet...
- He also played an antagonist, "Rig" in Nothing to Lose
- And as Cracked excitedly pointed out, he was a mafioso thug that got violently killed by Sylvester Stallone in the remake of Get Carter.
- Ted McGinley, known as Stan Gable in the Revenge of the Nerds movies as well as "The Patron Saint of Shark Jumping"note , made his film debut in 1982's Young Doctors in Love.
- Before making it big as paraplegic Artie Abrams on Glee, Kevin McHale had minor roles in True Blood, Zoey 101, and, most notably, The Office, in which he portrayed a surly pizza delivery boy kept hostage by Dwight in the episode "Launch Party".
- And long before that, when he was still a little kid, he popped up as a newsboy in the video for Faith Hill's "There You'll Be".
- Ewan McGregor played journalist Alex Law in 1994's Shallow Grave, two years before he was cast as Mark Renton in Trainspotting.
- Making anyone under 30 go "Holy crap!", Ian McKellen showed up in the Playing Shakespeare educational series in the 1970s, and as the vampire in the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 "Heart" video.
- Before Kristy McNichol was cast in Family, her first credited role was in the Love, American Style segment "Love and the Unsteady Steady."
- Before Leighton Meester hit it big with Gossip Girl, she starred in a cheesy Direct to Video Slasher Movie called Drive-Thru.
- Which also featured her future co-star Penn Badgley.
- Leighton's first acting credit is for a 1999 episode of Law & Order.
- She also appeared in two episodes of Veronica Mars, starring Kristen Bell, who was the voice of Gossip Girl.
- Before she became known as Clary Fray, Katherine McNamara played a Romantic False Lead in New Year's Eve, then had bit roles in a string of television series like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Glee. She also played a minor character in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.
- Eva Mendes appeared in one episode of Mortal Kombat: Conquest as Siro's old flame. Since then, she's by far had the most successful career of anyone to appear on that show.
- Before Shawn Mendes broke through in the music industry, he played the young version of Jake in Underdogs. But because the film was put on The Shelf of Movie Languishment, it didn't come out in the United States until after he had become popular.
- Matthew Mercer is one of the most well-known voice actors in the industry with a number of iconic roles under his belt, from Jotaro Kujo to Jesse McCree. Before then, however, he created (and starred in) There Will Be Brawl, a Super Smash Bros. parody (made almost ten years before he joined the roster of Smash as Chrom).
- Although she would later be known as Lt. Van Buren on Law & Order, S. Epatha Merkerson played Reba the Mail Lady on Pee-wee's Playhouse.
- She also played the wife of Joe Morton's character Miles Dyson in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Before reaching wider fame with Normal People, Paul Mescal was the young man going to Bali...haunis in this Denny ham ad from 2018.
- Debra Messing was a Girl of the Week on Seinfeld.
- She also played Donna Abandando's sister Dana in a few episodes of NYPD Blue, where she tries her level best to seduce Donna's boyfriend Det. Greg Medavoy.
- Alyssa Milano played Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in Commando.
- Monster of the Week on Buffy turned most hilarious when Wentworth Miller of future Prison Break and The Flash fame played a swimmer-turned-sea-monster; *creepy voice* fiiiiiiiiiish!
- Before starting her music career, Kylie Minogue appeared on the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda had a guest role in the final season of How I Met Your Mother as Marshall's fellow bus passenger who helps out in giving a suitable rhyme for "Canada" by rapping.
- His first TV role was in an episode of the final season of The Sopranos.
- He also did a lot of work for Sesame Workshop in his early years, with him playing a real estate agent on Sesame Street, as well as composing songs for The Electric Company and playing the role of Mario on the same show. He would later return to these roots in the special Elmo's Playdate, where he made animal sounds with the titular character.
- Before starring in American Housewife, Katy Mixon voiced Petunia Pig in The Looney Tunes Show and a young girl in Minions. She also had parts in Two and a Half Men and My Name Is Earl.
- Alfred Molina was Indiana Jones' treacherous guide Sapito in the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. At one point, he even has spiders crawling all over him.
- And Betty Mahomoody's Dr. Jerk of an abusive husband in the not-quite Lifetime Movie of the Week but theatrical film Not Without My Daughter.
- Dominic Monaghan had a small role as a Soviet sailor in Hostile Waters, 4 years before the release of Lord of the Rings.
- Julianne Moore as Marlene, Claire's friend in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
- A suspicious Chicago doctor in The Fugitive.
- And as Frannie on As the World Turns
- Chris Iller, at the time a cue card hand for the game show Remote Control, decided to bring his camera to work one day and record some video from behind the scenes, which was later uploaded to his YouTube. Making a cameo in this video was one of the guys on audience warm-up detail, a pre-Nick Arcade Phil Moore.
- Rita Moreno, the only actress to win an Oscar, Tony, and Grammy, can be seen as the troubled Dolores Guerrero in the 1950 film So Young, So Bad under the name "Rosita Moreno", plus she gets to show off her amazing singing voice a few years before starring in West Side Story. The film also features two other actresses in this trope—Anne Francis, now famous for Forbidden Planet and Honey West, and Anne Jackson, who has a huge list of film and TV credits.
- Before finding fame on The Walking Dead Jeffrey Dean Morgan appeared in Direct to Video "erotic thriller" Undercover Heat. He plays the aide to the Madam of a high class bordello Fair Cop Athena Massey is sent to infiltrate in a role he certainly must have removed from his CV.
- Before playing the role of Tommy in The Sixth Sense, Trevor Morgan appeared as Cody in Barney's Great Adventure, and also appeared in a 5-episode arc of ER.
- A young Alanis Morissette starred on an episode of You Can't Do That on Television.
- Garrett Morris had a small role as a cop in The Anderson Tapes.
- Also had a role as Mr. Mason in Cooley High.
- Jennifer Morrison had her first role as one of Santa's helpers in the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street.
- Rob Morrow, before being cast in Northern Exposure and then later, NUMB3RS, played a juror on Saturday Night Live.
- He also made an appearance on Fame.
- Viggo Mortensen of The Lord of the Rings has a nonspeaking role as an Amish farmer in Witness.
- And he played Satan in The Prophecy.
- Joe Morton, before playing Henry Deacon, the mechanic-turned-convict in Eureka, and Olivia's father in Scandal, played Scratch's number two in the classic film Crossroads. He transports them to the guitar head-cutting contest against Steve Vai, who plays Jack "Devil Boy" Butler, the one person Eugene Martone, King of the Hobos has to actually fight.
- Also in the early nineties he was involved in some cutting-edge cybernetics research as Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson.
- He was also the first Dr. Hamilton in Smallville. (They later decided that he was a Dr. Hamilton and not the Dr. Hamilton, who was a Recurring Character.)
- Also played a Senator who was left at the altar by Whitley Gilbert.
- And another Senator who was a patient of the week on House.
- And as a hard-ass military man in John Sayles' Lone Star.
- Long before, in 1984, he played the lead role in The Brother From Another Planet.
- He also played Capt. Mc Mahon in Speed.
- Before she was famous, The Matrix and Jessica Jones (2015) star Carrie-Anne Moss was a stalker with Dissociative Identity Disorder in an episode of Baywatch.
- Elisabeth Moss started out as a child voice actress, having roles in such works as It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown, an episode of Batman: The Animated Series and Frosty Returns.
- Anson Mount, later known for playing Black Bolt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, was the love interest in the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads (2002).
- Twin actresses Tia & Tamera Mowry were in an episode of Full House just two years before things took off for them with Sister, Sister.
- Kate Mulgrew played a Damsel in Distress US Army major in the 1985 Box Office Bomb Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins before becoming known as Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. Billy Crystal also wanted to kill her when she was his traitorous ex-wife in Throw Momma from the Train.
- Brittany Murphy was a regular in The Torkelsons revamp, Almost Home. She also guested several times in the first season of Sister, Sister.
- Sean Murray, who plays McGee in NCIS, was Thackery Binx in Hocus Pocus.
- Lorenzo Music, in his days as an associate of MTM Productions and its various shows, was the unseen Carlton the Doorman on Rhoda. He would then have a career as a cartoon voice actor, which included the likes of Adventures of the Gummi Bears, The Real Ghostbusters, and Garfield in a series of specials and Garfield and Friends.
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- Krull features Liam Neeson in a minor role.
- Also, Excalibur, The Bounty and The Mission.
- And in the Miami Vice episode "When Irish Eyes Are Crying" as an IRA terrorist.
- And the Dirty Harry film The Dead Pool alongside another unknown, Jim Carrey.
- And as a ghost in High Spirits.
- Taylor Neff...A spirited little girl who led the movement for Kraft Cheese & Macaroni. She stood firmly by the fact it was the cheese that made it taste better, and made her voice known through sundry commercials of the mid-to-late 80s. Then one day, she found her true calling as a pro figure skater.
- Sam Neill had a supporting role in the Australian movie My Brilliant Career in 1979, before gaining fame as the title character in the series Reilly, Ace of Spies in 1982.
- Eric Nelsen, who played Zeke in the "iDream of Dance" episode of iCarly, later played the Jerk Jock Brett in 13.
- Comedian Bob Newhart put in a few appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
- Fred Newman, a man of many vocal effects as well as voices in Doug, had a job with Nickelodeon long before that as host of talk show Livewire in 1980 (the year of his book, Mouth Sounds) and had a sound-off with Dave in an episode of Out of Control.
- Famously, Jack Nicholson's debut was a bit part as a masochistic dental patient in The Little Shop of Horrors. And now he gets first billing on the DVD box.
- He also turns up, equally unrecognizable, in several other Roger Corman movies before his breakthrough role in Easy Rider, including The Raven, where he typically does lose first billing to the All-Star Cast of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff.
- Leonard Nimoy played a villainous henchman in a first-season episode of Get Smart before he did Star Trek: The Original Series.
- And before that, he was another alien — from Mars! — in the Republic Film Serial Zombies Of The Stratosphere (lampshaded in J-Men Forever).
- He had an uncredited role as an Army sergeant in the 1954 giant ant movie Them!.
- Cynthia Nixon, of Sex and the City, made her debut in Amadeus as Lorl, the maid to the Mozart family who was secretly spying on him for Salieri.
- John Noble in an episode of Stargate SG-1, now known for his role on Fringe.
- And his role as Denethor in The Lord of the Rings.
- Nick Nolte has an uncredited role as a hippie in Electra Glide in Blue.
- Tetsuya Nomura is today best known as the overarching director of the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as being heavily involved in a creative role on most Final Fantasy games from VII onwards. However, even prior to FFVII he still had a role to play on many major projects at Square, initially being hired as a debugger for Final Fantasy IV, a monster designer for Final Fantasy V, the secondary character designer for Final Fantasy VI (he designed both Shadow and Setzer), and worked on field graphics for Chrono Trigger (to the point where he makes a cameo in the golden Developer's Ending).
- Chuck Norris made his first film appearance as the intimidating and hairy-chested opponent to Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon in a superb east versus west showdown in Rome's Colosseum. That being said Chuck was quite well-known in the martial arts world at the time for the championships he had won, which is why Lee approached him for the role, but in the film world he was a nobody.
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- Conan O'Brien was effectively a nobody when he was hired as the host of Late Night, but a few may have recognized him as being a writer for The Simpsons - including being the writer for two of the show's most acclaimed episodes, "Marge Vs. The Monorail" and ""Homer Goes to College". He actually cameoed As Himself in "Bart Gets Famous", as the host of Late Night, despite the episode airing almost 4 months after "Homer Goes to College"
- Renee O'Connor, of Xena fame, had a small role in The Adventures Of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood.
- She is also in the second Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Pilot Movie as Deianira, the lost queen of Troy.
- She played a waitress in the first Darkman movie.
- Ken Ober of Remote Control (and the lesser-discussed Comedy Central Make Me Laugh) is "Alan" in this 1987 Jenga commercial.
- Leslie Odom Jr., before playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton, played recurring Arc Villain Peter Collier in Person of Interest.
- One for lefties—Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. was a producer on The West Wing and played President Bartlet's father in a couple of episodes. Now? "Hey, it's Keith's guest host!"
- Before his Starmaking Role as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation, Nick Offerman played the friend of a patient in the ER Live Episode, "Ambush".
- Masi Oka, best known as Hiro Nakamura from Heroes and Max from the Hawaii Five-0 reboot, had previously played Franklin on Scrubs and had a bit part in Austin Powers in Goldmember, where he insisted the monster was most definitely not Godzilla. In fact, he was set to return as one of the numerous characters who made Continuity Cameos in the Series Fauxnale, but NBC put the kibosh on it since Scrubs aired on a rival network.
- Edward James Olmos played a kidnapper in the Starsky & Hutch episode "The Psychic."
- And he plays a gun smuggler in the Hawaii Five-O episode "Ready, Aim....."
- And a pool-playing Chicano in Aloha, Bobby and Rose.
- Alex O'Loughlin had the memorable role of the obsessive-compulsive serial killer who tries to redeem himself by helping the blind son of one of his victims on an episode of Criminal Minds.
- As a child, Elizabeth Olsen had cameos and bit parts in several of her more famous sisters' Direct to Video tween comedies.
- Terry O'Quinn from Lost. Part of the failure to recognize can be attributed to slightly altered appearance for the role of Locke. In most other roles, he sported a mustache and balding hair, rather than a totally shaven head.
- He was Captain Minardi in Heaven's Gate.
- He was also a dickish Starfleet admiral in the TNG episode " The Pegasus".
- The original (i.e. "better") version of The Stepfather!
- And Howard Hughes (yes, THAT Howard Hughes) in The Rocketeer.
- He played the main character's kidnapped best friend in Blind Fury, which was an early directorial effort of Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Bone Collector, the pilot for Revenge).
- He also played the killer in an episode of Matlock in a Columbo-style mystery (that is, where we're shown right at the start that he's the killer and it's up to Matlock to prove it). This episode is significant to longtime Matlock fans because O'Quinn Killed Off for Real a longtime Recurring Character. It's significant to Lost fans because it also features Daniel Roebuck (friggin' Arzt, people!) as a series regular!
- A general (later the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) on The West Wing.
- His role as Alexander McSween, who deputizes Billy the Kid and the others in the first Young Guns.
- Also played the mayor of the titular town in Tombstone.
- In The X-Files: Fight the Future, O'Quinn is an FBI agent who stays with a detonating bomb rather than try to disarm it.
- The titular character in Willie Dynamite was played by Roscoe Orman, AKA Gordon Robinson, in his feature film debut.
- The ill-fated Heather O'Rourke of the Poltergeist movies appeared in a 1981 episode of Fantasy Island.
- Then enjoyed some hushpuppies in this Long John Silver's commercial.
- Then enjoyed some hushpuppies in this Long John Silver's commercial.
- Jenna Ortega appeared briefly in Iron Man 3 as the daughter of Vice President Rodriguez.
- She also played Isabel on Elena of Avalor.
- Emily Osment in an episode of Friends.
- She also played Cassie in one of the Sarah, Plain And Tall movies.
- She also appeared on 3rd Rock from the Sun, and played Gerti Giggles in Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams.
- Haley Joel Osment may be most famous for seeing dead people who don't know they're dead, and for voicing the famous Keyblade wielder but he made his film debut in Forrest Gump as Forrest's son.
- He and Jonathan Lipnicki played the sons on The Jeff Foxworthy Show.
- In 1962, Kerry Wendell Thornley wrote a Roman à Clef called The Idle Warriors about a strange young man he had known while in the United States Marine Corps. His name? Lee Harvey Oswald. For those who don't know, that's one year before the Kennedy assassination.
- Chris Owen of the American Pie movies was the title character's all-ears friend Troy in Angus.
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- Jared Padalecki was a fifteen-year-old in a car crash on ER.
- And one of the bullies in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003).
- And Dean, the first boyfriend of lead character Rory Gilmore, in Gilmore Girls.
- Elliot Page as Jim Lahey's daughter, Trina, in Trailer Park Boys (several years before his turns in Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Stand and his Oscar nominated role in Juno).
- Keke Palmer from Akeelah and the Bee, True Jackson, VP and Nope was Madea's young troubled foster child in Madea's Family Reunion, as well as a pregnant girl from a broken home in the music video for Ludacris and Mary J. Blige’s song “Runaway Love.”
- Gwyneth Paltrow played the younger version of Wendy in Hook. She also appears in Malice as one of the serial rapist/murderer's victims.
- Danielle Panabaker, before becoming the extremely cold Killer Frost (not so Killer lately), was a firebreathing draconian Wesen in Grimm. She was also the female lead in Sky High, as well as the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th where she is killed off.
- It's startled quite a few people watching reruns of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit when they see Hayden Panettiere in a season 5 episode as a high school prostitute and murderer, especially if they also see her first appearance (in a season 2 episode) as an injury-prone child of a pop star. Imagine watching 'em back-to-back.
- She also played the recurring role of Jessica on Malcolm in the Middle, who in one episode called a classmate "cheerleader scum!"
- And before any of those, there was Remember the Titans. Suffice to say some people (chiefly men) are very uncomfortable seeing her in this movie considering how she looks now...
- And before even that, she voiced Dot in A Bug's Life.
- Either inverted or played straight with Grace Park, who plays GDI's Lt. Sandra Telfair in Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars. People might recognize her for her previous role as Number Eight on Battlestar Galactica, or for her current role as Kono on Hawaii Five-0.
- Prior to his Star-Making Role in Fresh Off the Boat, Randall Park had a brief but memorable role in an episode of The Office (US) as "Asian Jim."
- Before Legend of the Seeker, Craig Parker played Haldir, a minor elf in The Lord of the Rings.
- Jameson Parker, later of Simon & Simon, is the villain of the 1980 Hart to Hart episode "A Question of Innocence."
- Jim Parsons, best known as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, played Tim, the Klingon-speaking "fast-food knight" in Garden State.
- Pedro Pascal made minor appearances in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (he was the "Of Human Bondage" guy in "The Freshman"), Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Without a Trace, CSI, Homeland among others before being well-known as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones and DEA agent Javier Pena in Narcos. He also appeared as The Commissioner Gordon in that failed Wonder Woman (2011 pilot).
- Sarah Paulson played Dr. Caron in Serenity.
- Trisha Paytas shows up as "Fat Jessica Simpson" in the music video for Eminem's "We Made You". (Despite playing a fat joke in the video, they claimed Eminem complimented them on their 'perfect' body, and reassured them that they were 'ten times hotter than Real Jessica Simpson'.)
- Bill Paxton was one of the gang bangers Ahnold mugs for their clothes in The Terminator.
- Speaking of Ahnold, he's an Interceptor in Commando.
- He also appeared in a couple of Pat Benatar music videos.
- Simon Pegg appears as an Easy Company NCO in Band of Brothers.
- That's yet another case which is location-specific — he was already known as a comic actor/writer in the UK by then, though admittedly not as instantly recognisable as he is now.
- So you're watching Breakfast at Tiffany's and Audrey Hepburn's Love Interest seems bizarrely familiar, but you don't know why. Then you realize that if he was aged up about twenty years and given white hair... dear God, it's a young Hannibal! (George Peppard)
- Matthew Perry. Before Friends, he had guest spots on a dozen prime time shows, plus a few failed series. Many fans didn't immediately recognize Chandler as Carol's dead boyfriend from Growing Pains.
- His first big break was in a Fox sitcom initially called Second Chance, then re-tooled as Boys Will Be Boys, minus the original version's supernatural elements.
- Or Brandon's suicidal classmate in Beverly Hills, 90210.
- Jon Pertwee appeared as minor characters in Carry On films before being on Doctor Who.
- Michelle Pfeiffer:
- Her first role was in the Fantasy Island episode "The Island of Lost Women." She was also on CHiPs.
- Her film debut was a minor role in The Hollywood Knights.
- Look for a much younger Regis Philbin in the Get Smart episode "The Hot Line".
- A young Joaquin Phoenix appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Superboy as a Child Prodigy named Billy Hercules.
- Fifteen-year-old River Phoenix is in the Family Ties episode "My Tutor" as a Teen Genius who tutors Alex in math.
- Robert Picardo appeared in Innerspace.
- He was also the guy Rodney Dangerfield's wife is sleeping with in Back to School. And the Obstructive Bureaucrat in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. And the funeral director in Amazon Women on the Moon. The impressive head of hair can make him hard to recognize.
- And he's really, really hairy as werewolf Eddie Quist in 1981's The Howling!
- Chris Pine's first on-screen speaking role was a bit part as a teenage patient in the 2003 ER episode "A Thousand Cranes".
- Matt Pinfield started at MTV with Alternative Nation in 1992. He'd shine three years later when he took the helm of 120 Minutes.
- Ron Pinkard, later of Emergency!, plays a police photographer in the Adam-12 episode "Log 12: He Was Trying to Kill Me."
- Alison Pill voiced Cornflower in Season 1 of the Redwall cartoon before becoming well known for roles such as Kim Pine in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
- A teenage Brad Pitt appeared in a four-episode stint of Dallas (as the boyfriend of one of the supporting characters), as well as guest stints on 21 Jump Street, Growing Pains and Freddy's Nightmares, before his Star-Making Role as J.D. in Thelma & Louise.
- Michael J. Pollard guest starred in the Honey West episode "The Princess and the Paupers" as a member of a rock band.
- One of the ickier episodes of Law & Order revolves around two sisters, one killed by a serial rapist, the other narrowly surviving, turning out to be in league with the killer. Say hello to Ellen Pompeo, best known as Meredith Grey.
- She was also Karen Page in Daredevil.
- Ray Porter has done guest spots in various TV series (including being the third actor to play Dale the Whale on Monk and audiobooks (including various roles in the Audible adaptation of The Sandman, including long-standing DC character Wesley Dodds, who was the first Sandman, and Hector Hall, who's the son of the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl) prior to playing Darkseid in Zack Snyder's Justice League
- Tyler Posey started out as a child actor, playing the son of Jennifer Lopez's character in Maid in Manhattan and a Timeshifted Actor in Into the West. He also had a supporting role in the final season of Lincoln Heights, as the guy Lizzie ends up with, two years before his Star-Making Role in Teen Wolf.
- Markie Post was a behind-the-scenes lady on the 1970s game shows Split Second (1972) and Double Dare (a quizzer, not the kids' stunt show), and later a card dealer on Card Sharks, before her breakthrough role on Night Court.
- Before landing his gig in Parks and Recreation and emerging as a Hollywood superstar in 2014, Chris Pratt had a couple of stints on Everwood (as did a pre-Revenge Emily VanCamp) and The O.C. as well as James McAvoy smashing his face in with a keyboard in Wanted.
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- Jack Quaid, who is known as Hughie Campbell from The Boys (2019), played Marvel, one of the tributes who killed Rue, in The Hunger Games.
- Zachary Quinto, who is Sylar from Heroes and Spock in Star Trek (2009), played a demon in Charmed.
- And prior to both, he hilariously hammed it up playing Tori Spelling's Gay Best Friend on her show So Notorious. Watching that show and then Heroes back to back makes for an especially hilarious experience.
- And before that, he was a flamboyant director in an episode of Lizzie McGuire.
- And he was the forgettable Adam Kaufman in season 3 of 24.
- Before all that, he was a fussy patient in the FMV Game Code Blue.
- Jocelyn Quivrin stars as the young Philippe, duke of Anjou in Louis, the Child King. He would reach recognition in 2008 for his role in 99 francs with Jean Dujardin, and died in a car accident at age 30 in November 2009.
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- Following from 24, TJ Ramini gets some billing as Tarin Faroush, but will be more recognised among British audiences as DC Zain Nadir, one of the more famous characters of The Bill.
- A very young Daniel Radcliffe, pre-Harry Potter fame, played the lead in a BBC production of David Copperfield — co-starring Maggie Smith — which certainly didn't hurt his chances when it came time to cast Harry Potter. In fact, Daniel credits Smith as a major reason he was given the role — he calls her his fairy godmother.
- Here's Anne Ramsey in 1974's For Pete's Sake, several years before she was a "Mama" of two.
- The Book of Mormon star Andrew Rannells used to work for 4Kids Entertainment as a voice director and voice actor. His voice credits include Mako Tsunami, Noah Kaiba, Ren Tao (or, rather, Len Tao), Dren, Decoe, Bokkun, and Mr. Stewart.
- He also performed voices for some of the DiC Entertainment shows that used his hometown of Omaha as a voice recording location - having done the voices of Archie Andrews in the series Archie's Weird Mysteries and Bobby/Streex in Street Sharks, and also popped up in at least one episode of Liberty's Kids.
- He also played James in the Pokémon Live! stage show, and played Morty and Harley (among various other roles) in the anime it was based on.
- Before Twilight and The Last Airbender, Jackson Rathbone popped up in a couple episodes of The O.C..
- John Ratzenberger had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the missile control room in Superman several years before his breakout role of Cliff Clavin on Cheers.
- Not to mention his somewhat larger but still tiny role as Maj. Derlin in The Empire Strikes Back.
- He also played an American soldier in A Bridge Too Far.
- Before her Star-Making Role in Belle (2013), Gugu Mbatha Raw appeared in a few Doctor Who episodes as Martha's sister.
- Before his Star-Making Role as Marius and his Oscar-winning role as Stephen Hawking, Eddie Redmayne plays the son of Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie who overheard some CIA secrets in Robert De Niro's 2006 film, The Good Shepherd.
- Oliver Reed made two guest appearanes in the second season of The Saint. Both times he played the heavy.
- He also appeared in The League of Gentlemen as Babes in the Woods Chorus Boy.
- He cropped up in Hammer Horror films a bit, such as The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll.
- Before offing zombies in The Walking Dead Norman Reedus was one half of a pair of revenge seeking brothers in The Boondock Saints.
- Before starring in Schitt's Creek, Noah Reid was a child actor and voice actor, playing the titular character in Franklin as well as Screwy in Rolie Polie Olie and several characters in Stickin' Around, the latter of which was his earliest role.
- James Remar played Creb in the 1986 film version of Clan of the Cave Bear, the first Earth's Children story. He played Kodiak, another kindly and gifted elder with spiritual insight, in The Path, thirty years later.
- In 2003, Jeremy Renner appeared as a villainous t-shirted sheriff in the music video for "Trouble" by P!nk.
- His debut appearance was in National Lampoon's Senior Trip as the main character's goofy sidekick.
- He also had a brief appearance in the forgettable Direct to Video film Paper Dragons.
- He was a patient on an episode of House. (4x09 'Games')
- He played one of Angel's squires in "Somnambulist".
- Ryan Reynolds was in the original pilot movie for Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
- Popped up in a season 3 episode of The X-Files.
- Starred as Billy Simpson in the Canadian teen soap opera Fifteen.
- Obscure 1987 film Light of Day features very minor appearances by a young Trent Reznor, back when he was a member of equally-obscure Cleveland-based band Exotic Birds.
- Giovanni Ribisi had one of those moments in Friends, compared to his recurring role later on the series; he grabs a condom out of Phoebe's guitar case in one episode. Later that season, he plays her half-brother. He also had one of these moments on The X-Files.
- He also played one of Bud's friends on Married... with Children, though this is almost a subversion; he was only 12 years old at the time and almost unrecognizable even knowing who it is.
- He was also Staci Keanan's geeky sort-of-boyfriend on My Two Dads.
- British schoolchildren studying Romeo and Juliet often have this happen when their teacher shows them the 70s BBC adaptation, featuring a young (but instantly recognisable) Alan Rickman as Tybalt.
- Daisy Ridley, an unknown when she was cast as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, appears in an episode of Toast of London as an unnamed stagehand to which Toast tells an anecdote about a brilliant actor typecast by an appearance in a laxative commercial. The show later had fun with this by having a female character who Toast fails to seduce suddenly get picked up for a lead role in the next Star Wars film. She also had a small role in The Inbetweeners 2, but all of her scenes ended up being cut after her commitment to Star Wars made her unavailable for reshoots.
- She also had a supporting role as Hannah in the episode "Fraternity" in Series 17 of Silent Witness, which aired a year before her big break in Star Wars.
- Eden Riegel is most well known today for her voice-acting roles (including her roles in Tiger & Bunny, Dragon's Crown, and Persona 4, to name a few). Before then, however, she was a soap opera actress who gained widespread acclaim, and an Emmy Award, for her role in All My Children as Bianca Montgomery, one of the first open lesbian characters in a daytime soap.
- In 1994 she provided the voice of Wednesday Addams in a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial.
- She also voiced the young Miriam and sang Deliver Us in the beginning of The Prince of Egypt.
- In 1994 she provided the voice of Wednesday Addams in a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial
- Jack Riley, whether known as the voices of Stu Pickles or the "husband" from commercials for Country Crock, was Elliot Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show.
- Molly Ringwald. Before she was well-known as a Brat Packer, she appeared alongside Peter Strauss in the 3D science fiction film Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone.
- John Ritter guest starred in the Starsky & Hutch episode "The Hostages" as the driver of an armored car who is forced to collect money for robbers.
- Ritter's acting debut was in Dan August in 1970, in the episode "Quadrangle For Death", where he's interrogated by police detectives Burt Reynolds and...Norman Fell!
- Krysten Ritter played an assistant in an episode of Law & Order and had recurring roles on Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls before finally getting her first lead roles with Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 and Jessica Jones (2015).
- AnnaSophia Robb had her first role in the American Girl movie Samantha: An American Girl Holiday at nine years old. The next year, she would break out in Because of Winn-Dixie and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, followed by Bridge to Terabithia, Race to Witch Mountain, Soul Surfer and The Carrie Diaries. In October 2022, Robb recalled this first role by dressing as Samantha for Halloween.
- Andrew Robinson appeared in Dirty Harry. Later on, was Frank Ryan for a short stretch of Ryan's Hope, and much later Garak, the resident Cardassian of the Deep Space Nine.
- Wayne Robson. You know Mike Hamar, the ex-con on The Red Green Show? Did you notice him in One Magic Christmas? How about the Disney TV Movie Murder She Purred? Cube? Welcome To Mooseport? The Rescuers Down Under?
- How about Popeye?
- Chris Rock was a valet in Beverly Hills Cop II.
- Sam Rockwell was the head thug at the Foot Clan compound in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). "Regular, or menthol?"
- Game show announcer Rod Roddy could be heard on Soap, and his first game show was Whew!, which ran right before the one he'd do for 18 years up until his death, The Price Is Right.
- Daniel Roebuck, Artz from Lost, has been everywhere!
- Michael E. Rodgers has had a decent amount of minor-to-guest roles on-screen prior to landing in the role as Junior in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, including in The Dentist, Gia, NYPD Blue, alongside others.
- Before creating Pepper Ann, Sue Rose created a character called Fido Dido, who advertised soft drinks (Slice in the US, 7-Up in Europe), and appeared from 1990 to 1993 on CBS in bumpers between their Saturday morning shows.
- Olivia Rodrigo appeared in a bit role in Season 6 of New Girl as one of Nick's fans, prior to her big role in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. After her debut album was released and proved to be popular, Netflix released a video compilation of her scenes that was also reported on by various media outlets. She also appeared in the American Girl movie Grace Stirs Up Success, where she played the titular character (who was the 2015 Girl of the Year).
- JD Roth went from a commercial for Stove Top stuffing to creating a show were people compete to lose weight. ...Okay, yeah, there were those times he hosted Fun House (1988) and GamePro TV as well.
- Teryl Rothery, best known as Dr. Janet Fraser from Stargate SG-1, had roles in anime dubs produced by The Ocean Group, such as A-Ko in Project A-Ko (the sequels) and as the first voice of Kodachi Kuno in the Animated Adaptation Ranma ½.
- She also played Mrs. Skittles in the US dub of Noddy's Toyland Adventures.
- And was M.O.M. in Martin Mystery.
- Tim Robbins appears in a first-season episode of Moonlighting as an assassin that underestimates an old man and is Curb Stomped with a bedpan.
- Mickey Rourke made his film debut in 1941 (1979) as a marine during the Diner Brawl.
- Brandon Routh played as a gay man in the 1950's flashback scenes in one episode of Cold Case before being well-known as Superman in Superman Returns and Ray "The Atom" Palmer in Arrow and its spinoff, Legends of Tomorrow. He also had a bit part in an early episode of Gilmore Girls.
- A pre-Daredevil (2015) Amy Rutberg was the blonde woman in a number of Kindle commercials, and a stint on Dropout's Jake and Amir.
- A pre-famous Paul Rudd appears in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers as a grown-up version of Tommy, the little boy from the original movie.
- A young Mark Ruffalo briefly appears in the horror flick The Dentist as a flamboyant talent agent.
- RuPaul is the "lady" with the big afro in [1]' "Love Shack".
- Long before she began hosting her talk show for Peacock, Amber Ruffin did voice work for a English redub of Ox Tales during the last half of her tenure in the Amsterdam English-language comedy troupe Boom Chicago.
- Tim Russ aka Tuvok was the black Spaceball who "ain't found shit!"
- He was also one of the crooks in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine". He has the Vulcan nerve pinch used on him by Picard.
- He's also a bridge officer on the Enterprise-B at another point. We get a good look at his ears and they're not pointed.
- Russ also played a Klingon mercenary in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Invasive Procedures" before Voyager.
- Interestingly, he was retconned in a Voyager episode to actually be Tuvok (complete with pointed ears in a flashback) as a lieutenant on the Excelsior who had joined Starfleet in Kirk's era only to become disillusioned by Sulu's maverick attitude, quitting Starfleet for decades until rejoining in Picard's time.
- He also played D.C. Montana, the computer expert, in the short-lived sci-fi series The Highwayman.
- He also played one of the drug dealers in Death Wish Four The Crackdown.
- Debra Jo Rupp, known as Kitty Forman, was Josh Baskin's secretary, Miss Patterson, in Big.
- And Jerry Seinfeld's long-suffering (not that she didn't deserve it) agent. And the biological mom of Phoebe Buffay's babies.
- Top Gun had a pre-breakout Meg Ryan in it.
- She'd also spent some time on As the World Turns - And appeared on Tattletales for a "Soap Opera Week".
- Before he had a full-on acting career in the 2010s, Wyatt Russell had small roles in Escape from L.A. and Soldier respectively, acting alongside his father.
