30 Celebrities You Never Knew Were Roommates

(Image credit: Getty Images, Donato Sardella)

published 21 February 2018

When they were first starting out in their careers, lots of celebrities lived together to be able to afford the rent—and others happened to be paired as random roommates in college. Ahead, 30 celebrities you didn't know who shared a space at one time.

Jamie Dornan and Eddie Redmayne

The Fifty Shades of Grey star recently revealed that he and Redmayne shared an apartment when they were struggling actors. On Live! With Kelly and Michael, Dornan said, “When we were fresh off the boat in L.A., someone from the agency dropped scripts for us. Must have been like 25 scripts in my pile and three in his.” He explained that it just meant more failures for him—though the two have since seen success.

Ilana Glazer and Rachel Bloom

Before they both had their own shows, Glazer and Bloom lived together in a Brooklyn apartment in New York. According to Entertainment Weekly, the two moved in right after college.

Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling

When they were just young boys, Timberlake and Gosling appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club together. During their second year on the show, Gosling’s mom had to move back to Canada for a job, and he ended up moving in with the Timberlakes. "We were probably a little closer than the rest of the kids that were on the show just because we had to share a bathroom,” Timberlake told Ellen DeGeneres in 2011.

Connie Britton and Lauren Graham

The Friday Night Lights actress and Gilmore Girls alum lived together in an “empty house [they] weren’t supposed to be living in” in the late ‘90s. On Watch What Happens Live, Britton said, "We had no furniture and all we ate were Rice Krispies Treats."

Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford

The Gossip Girl co-stars began living together in New York City in the 2000s while shooting the hit drama TV series. "Initially Ed and I became roommates here in New York because we didn't know if the show was going to last or not,” Crawford told Interview. "Ed had never lived away from home, let alone in a different country. We got along and figured it would be a smart move financially. And really, it was also just kind of out of laziness."

Ali Larter and Amy Smart

Smart and Larter became friends while modeling and vacationing in Italy. They later moved into an apartment together in L.A, and Larter was even a bridesmaid at Smart’s wedding in 2011.

Penn Badgley and Milo Ventimiglia

The then 28-year-old This Is Us star was living with the then 18-year-old Gossip Girl star while they worked on The Bedford Diaries. Badgley recalled Ventimiglia letting him use his I.D. to get into bars, and admitted he still has it around somewhere.

Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling

Williams and Gosling lived together while filming the movie Blue Valentine—per the director’s request. The two were only supposed to live together for a week, but they really wanted to get into character and ended up staying roommates for a month, living off a nurse's and painter’s salary.

Brad Pitt and Jason Priestley

The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star revealed in his book, Jason Priestley: A Memoir, that he once lived with Pitt in the early ‘90s. An excerpt from his book explained their living situation: "We lived on Ramen noodles and generic beer—the kind that came in white cans labeled 'beer'—and Marlboro Light cigarettes...we were broke."

Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper

While they were shooting the movie Aloha, Cooper’s lease was up early, so Stone offered to have him as a roommate—well, technically "housemate," according to Cooper.

Raven-Symoné and Lindsay Lohan

Symoné and Lohan split the rent for an apartment and pretty much never saw each other despite being roommates. "She paid rent, and she was there probably three times," Raven told Us Weekly. "She had her clothes in the apartment we were supposed to live in together." The arrangement didn’t last very long.

Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams

In the early ‘70s, Williams and Reeve were roommates while studying at the Juilliard School of Drama in New York City. The duo remained friends after college, and Reeve’s wife, Dana, once described them as “closer than brothers.”

Channing Tatum and Jax Taylor

Vanderpump Rules star Jax Taylor revealed to Andy Cohen that the Tatum was his roommate when he first moved to New York to start his modeling career.

Conan O'Brien and Jeff Garlin

The comedians were former roommates in Wrigleyville during the summer of 1988, long before they were successful. Their humor shined through their living arrangement, as O’Brien recalled a scenario where Garlin would kick open doors. “I'd be fast asleep, it would be 3 in the morning, he would kick my door open, kick my door open and say 'It's pudding pop time,'” O’Brien said on his show.

Justin Long and Jonah Hill

The two stars lived together briefly in the mid-2000s—though it didn’t go over well. Long opened up on Watch What Happens Live about what it was like having Hill as a roommate. “He left the bathroom door open, didn't clean up after himself. Little things like that,” Long said. “It got to be like an old married couple. It was time for a separation.”

Justin Hurwitz and Damien Chazelle

La La Land director Damien Chazelle and music composer Justin Hurwitz were roommates in college. According to Variety, they became friends freshman year and went on to start a band together called Chester French during their sophomore year. The two began working on La La Land back in 2010.

Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler

The comedians split the rent on a $900 apartment in San Fernando Valley before Sandler moved to New York City. “We were doing as comedians good enough to get by,” Sandler said. “We could eat at Red Lobster once every month. That was a big night out.”

Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand

Hunter and McDormand were randomly assigned as roommates at the Yale School of Drama. Their living situation was so great, they decided to live together in New York after college too.

Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag

Montag and Conrad first met at an art class in San Francisco and became friends, ultimately deciding to live together. The Hills stars split rent on an apartment in L.A. before Montag moved out to live with her husband Spencer Pratt.

Dianna Agron and Lea Michele

The Glee co-stars were roommates back in 2009 while filming the show. Michele opened up about their living arrangements, saying they removed themselves from their characters and work quite easily. “We have these smackdowns at work and come home and are like, ‘Wasn’t it so funny when we were fighting today? Let’s make cookies,’” she said in an interview with Vulture.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

Damon and Affleck are famously known for living together while writing their Oscar-winning film, Good Will Hunting, which they both starred in. The duo first became friends at Boston's Cambridge Rindge and Latin school.

Brian Atwood and Melissa McCarthy

McCarthy and Atwood went to high school together in Boulder, Colorado. The shoe designer knew McCarthy was destined for fame and convinced her to live in New York with him to pursue her dreams. "We lived in Hell's Kitchen and we were so broke,” he told Popsugar. “I gave her a free subway map for her 21st birthday. It was just a special time.”

Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart

The actresses lived together in Vancouver while filming the second installment of the popular saga, Twilight: New Moon. Stewart and Reed didn’t go out much, but said their co-star Peter Facinelli would make them pasta dinners.

James Corden and Dominic Cooper

On the Late Late Show, Corden and his guest star Dominic Cooper reminisced about living together in a flat in London with barely any furniture. “We only had one piece of cutlery, which was a spatula,” Cooper said. “And I remember a really depressing evening where he caught me—he came home and I was just eating baked beans with the spatula."

Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson

Before working in the industry, they were living together in college at the University of Texas in Austin. They first met in a script writing class during their sophomore year.

Robert Downey Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland

The two shared an apartment together in L.A. in the ‘80s. Downey was going through a breakup with Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, and he called Sutherland a “shoulder [to cry on].”

Poppy Delevingne and Sienna Miller

Delevingne moved to New York in 2008 from London to focus on her modeling and acting career. When she first moved, she was living with Miller who said, “She doesn't take herself too seriously, which isn't as common as you'd think.”

Jude Law and Ewan McGregor

Before they were famous, Law and McGregor shared a space, and even started their own British film company called Natural Nylon with Law’s then-wife, Sadie Frost.

Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow

Ryder and Paltrow reportedly lived together in the ‘90s before a rumored feud had them parting ways in 1998. Paltrow was rumored to have found the script for Shakespeare in Love lying around the apartment and auditioned for the part—a part which we now know she has won an Oscar for.

Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore

The former vice president and Men in Black star roomed together at Harvard. Jones gave the nominating speech for Gore at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, sharing some memories from that time. "I lived with him for four years. What did we do? We shot pool and watched Star Trek, when maybe we should have been studying for exams," he said. "I always knew that he had the brains and the heart to change the whole world."

I’m currently working at Dotdash Meredith as the Celeb & Entertainment E-Commerce Lead contributing affiliate content for People.com and InStyle.com. I’m basically like your personal shopper, from writing about that cozy loungewear set you didn’t know you needed to keeping tabs on the best sales and deals on the internet. I’m also a pro at finding affordable dupes for celebrity looks and I love to dig into the data to strategize content opportunities.