IU is from a poor background (“She and her younger brother lived apart from their parents in a studio room with their grandmother and cousin for over one year in conditions of great poverty.”, “She attended 20 auditions but failed to succeed in any of them, and was also scammed by fake entertainment companies.”, “Due to her poor living conditions at the time, IU stated that she “loved being at the studio”, where she could eat as much as she wanted and had a place to sleep.”). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IU_(entertainer)
Debuting at 15 as an ordinary K-Pop idol, she found success quickly before breaking free of industry restraints to become a proper singer-songwriter who writes, produces, and composes her own music. She broke the idol mold and became beloved by all demographics; she is a rare example of a soloist who is more popular than most boy and girl groups.
Furthermore, she successfully moved into acting and shattered the stereotype of idol-turned-actors being poor performers (she is the lead in one of the best Korean series of all time, When Life Gives You Tangerines). She was even awarded by the National Tax Service as an Exemplary Taxpayer. Finally, she is a prolific donor, having contributed $650k in 2025 alone and donating nearly $1 million every year. https://www.soompi.com/article/1386237wpp/lee-seo-jin-iu-and-gray-receive-awards-for-being-exemplary-taxpayers
Weird Al Yancovic, great musician always nice to fans and seems like a great dude in general
John Cena - I’m not even a wrestling fan but just the fact that he’s done so many Make A Wish visits with sick kids is impressive.
Greta Thunberg
A real legend that one
Genuinely, no one even has to explain why she’s famous.
She’s also famous for all the right reasons, putting herself in harms way for the right causes. Not for fame nor fortune but the cold hard work of helping others and trying to effect change.
Which in turn makes her infamous to the right wing culture warriors as well which is a real chef’s kiss to why she’s probably the best answer here.
Danny DeVito and his ex-wife Rhea Perlman.
While filming Matilda (1996), he and Rhea Perlman basically took in their 8-year-old co-star, Mara Wilson, after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer early into production. Sadly, her mom died before the movie was released, but Danny visited her in the hospital to screen a near-complete cut of the film. According to Mara, Danny and Rhea are delightful people that bent over backwards to help her family. And that’s just one of many stories of their kindness.
Also when renewing It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, he had Mac and Charlie blow him. Class act.
Keanu Reeves. From all accounts, he is a great guy who helps anyone he can.
Dolly Parton is amazing, both talented and principled :-)
Not in the “entertainment” domain, but Malala Yousafzai’s my core one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai https://www.ted.com/talks/malala_yousafzai_what_i_got_wrong_about_changing_the_world
Angela Davis, for her spectacular guts in writing “Race, Gender, & Class”, or whatever that book is called. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis
Robin Williams always insisted on movies he was in hiring homeless people, & he corresponded with fans who were being crushed by depression, carrying their lettres when he was in their area… https://www.ted.com/talks/samantha_cohen_robin_williams_and_the_struggles_inside_us She never mentions the KEY point with many comedians: it is when one knows darkness sooo profoundly, that fighting it off of other’s-lives is a fundamental-NEED, that one gets like the more intense comedians, like Williams. It is because of being embedded in darkness that one fights to-the-death for light’s life in others’ lives.
There are a number of people who’ve done TED Talks who deserve all their fame, if not more…
& Rupert Sheldrake, for calling-out the scam Scientism is, AND for calling-out the scam that TED is, too. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rupert+sheldrake+anniversary is the guy, but the exact video, the 10th anniversary ( or something like that ) of his TED Talk being banned, seems to have been disappeared.
( other TED Talks they’ve banned include Russell Targ’s one on remote-viewing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KB9Z6BcvZg , & Targ’s a physicist, not a woo-pusher, & yes, for anybody who’d dug into that stuff, the CIA actually had employed Ingo Swann, the remote-viewer, possibly the best ever, & Joe McMoneagle was also one in that line of work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-8puX-83o4 …
… & whats-his-name, the guy who does archaeology talks, but changes how aligned with UFOs he is, depending on the audience, from what I’ve read… Graham Hancock: his banned TED talk was on how Ayahuasca kicked his ass, because he had been indulging in dope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0c5nIvJH7w should be the same one I saw years-ago. )
I’m seconding the Tom Waits vote, the Greta Thunberg vote, & the Keanu Reeves vote.
_ /\ _
If I wanted to be pedantic, I’d point out that no one truly deserves anything. (good or bad)
But casually speaking, I agree with the Reeves, Devito, & Perlman mentions in other posts. I’d also add Dolly Parton, Don Cheadle, & John Oliver.
They seem like genuinely sweet and well intentioned people.
Tom Waits.
Perhaps a less well-known name but he’s been around forever in both film and music. He has famously never allowed any of his music to be used for marketing, ever. He also successfully sued a company that couldn’t license his music and instead produced a sound-alike artist mimicking one of his songs for a commercial. He seems generally good natured, and he has spent an intense amount of energy making sure his family’s privacy is respected. He’s even been arrested for fighting plainclothes cops who were harassing someone, and he sued the city of LA in civil court for false arrest and won.
Sure, his persona is more persona than reality, but it’s a persona that has served him well as an outsider that reveled in being an outsider. He speaks for us dregs of society who spend all night drinking coffee in all night diners, writing poetry and smoking cigarettes. The godfather of alternative rock, who holds a place for many in the younger generations that was held by Bob Dylan for the elder generations.
Jeffrey Epstein truly deserves every bit of infamy attributed to his name (if not more).
Markiplier.
YouTube is a cesspool of sludge, but Mark is one of the few gems of creators. His content isn’t for everyone, but Mark as a person is genuine in what he does. He’s not in it for the money, and the vast wealth he has accumulated from his success he’s put right back into more creative projects.
His biggest recent success being Iron Lung, helping pave the way for other indie projects to get to the big screen (Glitch’s Digital Circus, Jacksepticeye announcing a Bloodborne movie with Sony).
Rodney Mullen. One of the greatest athletes of all time, and just a genuinely wonderful person.
Donald Glover. He’s so talented in so many ways.
He started as a stand up comedian and now has 2 Emmy’s and 5 Grammys
He’s got EGOT potential
Rami Malek
Taylor Swift is a woman from a wealthy family that spent a significant amount of money getting Taylor’s career to take off. Yet, she’s a reasonably talented singer-songwriter who has been very active at defining the taste of her music and keeping herself in the limelight for almost two decades.
Any idea why you’re getting downvoted? I don’t know anything about celebrities.
A) she’s a successful woman
B) she’s a billionaire
C) she takes private jets everywhere
D) her music isn’t very good
E) her fans are often fanatical, and this offputting
Any of these can lead to down votes.
And as for D, I think it is more that Lemmy isn’t filled with the kind of people who would love her as an artist. You’ve got a lot of people who may not have music tastes which would align with Taylor, but because she is so popular you hear about her all the time and why don’t people shut up about her!
Agreed.
I bumped into a former colleague a while back, and in chatting the one exciting thing (from her point of view) that she’d done in the last year was to go and see Taylor Swift … out came the phone, and I was subjected to a great many photos of the event in question.
I’m glad she enjoyed herself, but to me it just felt a bit sad for her - having that much emotionally invested in a marketed commercial product.
My personal opinion is that the best of her music is pretty mid.
