6. GEOFFREY OWENS
You might not recognize him at age 60, but who could forget young Elvin Tibideaux. From 1985 to 1992, Geoffrey Owens played Bill Cosby’s son-in-law on “The Cosby Show.”
The Yale drama graduate flexed his Ivy League muscles by playing a chauvinist lug, working to find his way in a gender-equitable Huxtable family. After the series ended, he appeared on a number of shows including “That’s So Raven,” “Elementary,” “Lucifer,” and “The Slap.” However, since he wasn’t cast as a series regular, he struggled to find consistent work in TV or Film.
Then the Market-gate scandal popped off and the son of the late Brooklyn politician Major Owens was back in the spotlight.
In 2018, Owens made headlines when people discovered that he was earning a living as a Trader Joe’s employee. Social media ran crazy, dragging him for working a blue-collar job. But Owens wasn’t tripping, at all.
He believed that he was not above any honest gig and was quite content with his day job. In an interview with “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts, Owens revealed that his day job afforded him the “flexibility,” between roles while paying the bills. His story prompted the Twitter hashtag #ActorsWithDayJobs. Soon after, Tyler Perry offered Owens a recurring role on OWN’s “The Haves and the Have Nots'” sixth season. He appeared in 10 episodes.