Even the world’s most successful people had to get their foot in the door somehow—billionaire Warren Buffett got his start selling Coke bottles door-to-door. Jeff Bezos once flipped burgers at McDonald’s. And award-winning actress Jennifer Garner, whose organic food brand Once Upon A Farm just went public at a $724 million valuation, had a similarly humble start: in a low-paying New York theatre, earning just $150 a week as an understudy.
“I just realized that I liked drama…At the time, I planned a career in the theatre; I didn’t even consider film or TV,” Garner told The Independent. “I certainly never expected to be in front of a camera one day of my life.”
Garner said “she was a total snob” and only wanted to do theatre—until the paychecks came in and she realized that film paid more. Her first shot at the big leagues was the 1995 television movie Zoya.
“When I moved to New York and was trying to get a job on stage, and was broke and got offered a TV movie,” Garner told The Independent in a 2009 interview. “I was like, ‘Hot dog, put me in front of that camera. Let’s do it!’ And now that it has continued to evolve, I still love my job.”
Yet Garner still had to scrape to get by while her career was gaining steam in the 1990s. On top of doing her acting work, Garner even babysat the daughter of late night talk show host Stephen Colbert. And even when the money started rolling in a bit more, she stayed frugal, spending her first Hollywood paycheck on living essentials.
“I took a couple of thousand dollars, and put it away in a retirement account that I still have. I think it’s now worth like $2,005,” Garner said in a 2015 interview while promoting the film Danny Collins. “I used that money to help me pay first and last month’s rent and an apartment finders fee for my first real apartment with my friend.”
It didn’t take long for Garner to move from the stage to the screen, desperate for steady pay—and the sacrifice paid off.
Garner’s 30-plus years of success across Hollywood
Over the past three decades since, Garner has become a mega-celebrity from her Hollywood hits like 13 Going on 30, Juno, and Dallas Buyers Club.
Jennifer starred in a slew of TV roles across shows including Harvest of Fire and Law & Order before uprooting her life and heading to the movie capital of the U.S.: Los Angeles.
Garner made her foray into film with Rose Hill, also taking on a number of roles in films like Pearl Harbor, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and Valentine’s Day. Post-New York, she’s also continued her work in television, including spy thriller Alias and sci-fi adventure The Adam Project.
This year, Garner is welcoming a slew of new projects; the actress is slated to star in comedy film One Attempt Remaining, and the second season of her Apple TV suspense thriller The Last Thing He Told Me premiers later this month.
Now, Garner’s making a name for herself as ‘Farmer Jen’
Aside from the entertainment business, she’s made a name for herself in business.
Garner took home $1 million last year for her role as cofounder and company spokesperson, “Farmer Jen”—and is expected to earn $2 million to $3 million in compensation annually through 2028.
The food company she scaled with Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz, Once Upon A Farm, started trading as OFRM this past Friday at $18 a share, raising $198 million for the company and hitting a whopping $724 million valuation.
Garner joined Once Upon a Farm as a cofounder and chief brand officer in 2017, just two years after Curtis created nutritional baby food brand.
And after taking the business public last week, business boomed, and so did Garner’s role in the operation; she will serve on the new public company’s board of directors, while continuing to hold her role as cofounder and “Farmer Jen.” At the time of the company’s IPO, Once Upon a Farm boasted $200 million in annual sales, according to its S-1 filing, and sold its products across 19,000 stores.
