13 Celebs Who Took It All Off For A Living

Most people don't think dancing for money to be a great launching point for a career of super-stardom, but you would be surprised at how many celebrities did it before they were famous. Most of them are quite open about it and either enjoyed it or say it was a great way to make money to get them started on the path that they're on now. Here are 13 celebrities who have been open about their exotic past.

13 Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga can be one of the more out there entertainers and she's not exactly modest, so it's not a total shock that she dipped into the world of dancing. Unlike a lot of other stars who felt like they did it out of necessity however, Gaga did not. She was born into a wealthy family and started performing and waitressing when she was 18. As she explained once, "I have a strong sense of my own sexuality. I love the naked human body and I have huge body confidence… I went against all I was brought up to be; I moved out of home, wouldn't take any help from my parents and supported myself with waitressing jobs and dancing. My act was pretty wild. I'd wear black leather and dance to Black Sabbath, Guns N' Roses and Faith No More. Very rock 'n' roll.”

12 Brad Pitt

How would you like to have Brad Pitt come dance for you? During his days at the University of Missouri, he was a part of dance group called the Dancing Bares. According to one of his frat brothers, "When a girl from one of our sister sororities turned 21, the Bares - there were seven of them - would put her in a chair and come out nude with pillowcases on their heads and do a choreographed dance for her. The girls would be laughing so hard. It was great!"

11 Chris Pratt

Bonaifde movie star Chris Pratt admits that he danced in the past and didn't see anything weird about it: “I was always a very much naked person. I loved to always get naked. I was very free, so I thought, I may as well get paid.” In fact, he once danced for his friend's grandmother at her birthday party and got $40 for it.

10 Amber Rose

Amber Rose is an actress and model but might be most famous for dating Kanye West and marrying Wiz Khalifa… and staying involved in drama with them both. Amber started out as a performer at the age of 15 and hated it, but by the time she was 18, she started to really get into it. In fact, she says those years were some of the best times of her life. She continues to embrace who she is and has turned it into a serious case of girl power. As she said once, "I was always about girl power, but I didn't quite get it because I did always feel like I had to be completely submissive to a man… I guess social media did help create the feminist monster that I've become."

9 Nene Leakes

Before Nene Leakes became a star telling it like it is on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, she worked as a dancer. She says she got into it as she was getting out of an abusive relationship and needed to make some money quick. She once said, “I remember going home and having something like $1,000 and thinking 'I made $1,000 in one night. Baby we are doing this tomorrow night.'” She caught the eye of Ryan Murphy who cast her in Glee and ultimately gave her a series regular role on the now-cancelled sitcom The New Normal.

8 Dita Von Teese

Dita Von Teese's claim to fame is being the biggest burlesque dancer of all time, so it's not entirely surprising that she has worked the pole. Interestingly enough, it wasn't that that spurred her interest in burlesque, but rather a way for her to start studying the moves.

7 Eve

Rapper Eve started dancing at 18 when she was dealing with some personal issues, but she says that the time helped her find herself. Interestingly it was the rapper Mase who convinced her to stop: "He came into the club and looked at me and literally was like, 'What's your name?' And I gave him every possible name under the sun! I was like, 'I'm Ginger, I'm Sassy!' He was like, 'Why don't you go get dressed, let's go just talk.' And we did, we talked throughout the night. He was like, 'You're really talented. What are you doing? You know you're not supposed to be here. You know it.'"

6 Courtney Love

Courtney Love has a wild child rock star history, thanks to being married to Kurt Cobain of course, so it's not super surprising that she's taken it all off. In fact, she credits it for giving her the financial freedom to start her band Hole to begin with.

5 Carmen Electra

Carmen Electra has made a career as a model and actress out of being sexy, and she honed some of her craft working the pole. Carmen Electra was a stage name that she chose in 1991 after being born Tara Leigh Patrick and she just stuck with it. In 1997, Carmen landed the Baywatch role that would send her into super-stardom, but she hasn't forgotten where she came from. Today she has an aerobic line called Aerobic striptease, and even her own brand of poles.

4 Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum started dancing at the age of 19, which served him well by the time the Magic Mike films came around. Channing has always been dancing in some regard, which actually introduced him to his now wife Jenna Dewan, whom he co-starred with in Step Up. He has admitted that he "did a lot of bad things for one dollar bills" and "it was one complete year of down-the-rabbit-hole crazy. I am glad I moved on… it definitely has some seedy, darker sides." These days. he leaves it for the big screen.

3 Diablo Cody

Diablo Cody made it big when she wrote and sold the script for Juno. But before she got that payday, the writer did quite a bit of dancing. She worked at an ad agency at the time, and with the support of her now husband, turned to dancing full time. She also gave lap dances and even worked as a phone sex operator. Diablo actually wrote a book about the whole experience -- Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper.

2 Mark Consuelos

Mark Consuelos has taken on pretty G-rated roles in his acting career, but it turns out that he has a past as a pole worker -- and his wife Kelly Ripa is totally cool with that. She agrees that he looks pretty good and that when he wanted to get into the acting business, he saw it as a way in.

1 Catherine Zeta-Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones is a super polished movie star so it's hard to imagine her as a dancer, but alas it's true. The actress has been open with the story that she started dancing to raise money to get a nose job, which allowed her to put her face forward (literally) when she dove into the world of Hollywood. It seemed to work out okay: Catherine is an accomplished actress who has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. She's also been married to star Michael Douglas since the year 2000.