Hayden Panettiere
Long, long before she won the hearts of America and the world as the cheerleader Claire Bennet on the show “Heroes,” Hayden Panettiere was already used to the camera. As the image shows, she was modeling before she could even drive.
Look close enough and you can see a little bit of early photo magic — there are strings holding up the edges of her skirt and the ends of her pigtails to make it look like she’s sliding across the floor. Panettiere’s other big roles include the lead in “Nashville,” the voice of main character Kairi from the “Kingdom Hearts” series, and the voice and mocap of main character Sam from the video game “Until Dawn.”
Shemar Moore
If you're into television, you probably know Shemar Moore as his role on the long-running FBI procedural “Criminal Minds.” He got his start looking good for the camera by honing his skills in the modeling world before moving on to the role that got him his first dose of wide-spread fame, that of Malcolm Winters on the daytime soap “The Young and the Restless.”
He stuck with the part from 1994 to 2005 before he joined the fictional version of the behavioral science unit. He went back to his original character in 2014 and 2019. He's now the lead character on the television show “S.W.A.T.” since 2017.
Gabriel Mann
Gabriel Mann was a runway model for a long time before he moved on to acting. In his mid-twenties, he got a few roles, in the films “Parallel Sons” and “Stonewall,” credited as Gabriel Mick.
He's best known for playing the main character Nolan Ross in the show “Revenge,” but he's also been in “The Blacklist,” and has appeared on Netflix's “What/If.” He's also co-starred in films like “The Life of David Gale,” “The Bourne Identity,” and “The Bourne Supremacy.” Since 2019 he has been Tommy Elliot and (spoilers) Hush in “Batwoman.” He's actually been in quite a lot of superhero shows, whether in person or with his voice.
Nikki Reed
Just like her real-life husband Ian Somerhalder, Nikki Reed got her start as a model before the Twilight series started. She was a teen model for Abercrombie & Fitch. “Twilight” wasn't her first acting role — that was back in 2003, on “Thirteen.”
She had a six-episode spot on “The O.C.” and then hit it big with her role as Rosalie on “Twilight.” In 2014, she met Somerhalder and the two got hitched after Reed's divorce from Paul McDonald in 2015.
Milla Jovovich
“Seventeen” magazine really knew how to pick them. Even back before she was kicking zombie butt as the lead character from the “Resident Evil” movies, or adding her charm to “The Fifth Element,” she had the pout and look of a star. Even so early in her career, she had plenty of pre-teen sass to pass around.
Since the series of video-game-inspired movies ended in 2016, she's been in “Shock and Awe,” “Future World,” “Paradise Hills,” and more. She loves her action, hero, thriller flicks, though she's also spread out to period films.