With wealth and fame comes a huge degree of privilege, and while some celebrities only use their fortunes to live a life of self-centered luxury, others give their time, energy, and money to social, political, and environmental causes. Several celebrities are prominent activists. Some of them are philanthropists who run large charitable organizations, while others are rank and file community organizers who have used their celebrity to bring awareness to the plights of others.
Celebrity activists are a diverse range of people, each with their own cause to fight for, their own background and story, and each with a different reason to fight. These are some of the most well-known celebrity activists alive today.
14 Danny Devito
The Academy Award nominee and sitcom star is quite political. He campaigned for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in his 2016 and 2020 bids for president, and Devito recently went viral when he tweeted support for striking Nabisco workers. Conspiracy theories began to circulate when Devito allegedly lost his verified account status after his tweets supporting the strike, but his account was soon restored with no explanation from Twitter. Devito has also expressed support for the members of film production unions who are currently threatening to strike for shorter hours and more breaks.
13 Danny Glover
Like Devito, the Lethal Weapon star also campaigned for Sanders in both of the senator’s bids for president, and he is an adamant supporter of progressive politics and racial justice. As a college student, he was a member of the Black Student Union and fought for the creation of a department of Black Studies at the University of San Francisco. In 2004, he was arrested at a protest outside of the Sudanese embassy over the crisis in Darfur. He was a vocal opponent of Republican presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump and controversially met with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2006 along with other celebrity activists and academics. This is only a fraction of Glover’s long political resume. Glover is also explicitly pro-union and subscribes to the socialist magazine Monthly Review.
12 Harry Belafonte
Belefonte organized the 2006 trip to Venezuela where he and Glover met with Hugo Chavez. Belefonte was an essential member of the civil rights movement and his Harlem apartment served as a meeting space for Martin Luther King Jr. and others to strategize bus boycotts and acts of nonviolent resistance, including the March on Washington. Belefonte, now in his 90s, is still politically active. Like both Devito and Glover, he campaigned for Bernie Sanders, and he facilitated a discussion between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with the community of Harlem when they ran against each other for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
11 Leonardo DiCaprio
Dicaprio is one of the most prominent advocates for climate justice working in Hollywood. He has spoken at UN summits on multiple occasions about climate issues and has made substantial donations to the World Wildlife Fund and the International Animal Welfare Fund. He organizes against fossil fuel companies, opposes fracking, and supports the use of solar energy. DiCaprio also campaigns for Democratic candidates for President, like John Kerry or Barack Obama, and in 2020 he hosted a fundraiser for Joe Biden.
10 Alyssa Milano
Milano, like many celebrities, rallied hard against former president Donald Trump when he was in office. Regularly tweeting support for Democratic party politicians and policies, she also voiced support for the #MeToo Movement. However, some consider Milano’s activism to be too selective and performative and many activists criticize her for her willingness to meet with people they see as her opposition. For example, she faced a massive backlash from leftists on Twitter when she posted a picture of herself meeting with Republican Senator and Trump supporter Ted Cruz. Despite this, many still find Milano's activism to be inspirational.
9 Cynthia Nixon
The Sex and the City star has stepped into the forum of politics. She is frequently speaking and writing in support of progressive causes, especially during COVID when she rallied for increased social services and protections for essential workers. Nixon ran for Governor of New York in the Democratic Primary against Andrew Cuomo, who resigned last month. Nixon ran on a platform that discussed racial justice, marijuana legalization, and income inequality. Nixon is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, an electoral activist group and the largest socialist organization in the country. She spoke at the organization's 2021 convention along with fellow New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
8 Ed Norton
Norton loudly supports the Democratic party and uses his celebrity to rally support for Democratic politicians and policies regularly. In 2009 he directed the HBO documentary By The People about Barack Obama’s first run for president and his victory in 2008. Norton continues to tweet and circulate content about Democratic policies. Like Milano, he was also a vocal opponent to then-president Donald Trump.
7 Mark Ruffalo
Ruffalo, along with Devito and Glover, campaigned for Bernie Sanders and regularly tweets about climate change, income inequality, and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Ruffalo came out hard against the Dakota Access Pipeline along with other celebrities like Shailene Woodley (see below) and he has been critical of the recent rehabilitation of former President George W. Bush, calling him a “war criminal” who needs to “pay for what he did to the people of Iraq.” Ruffalo, an American citizen, also endorsed former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for Prime minister in 2017.
6 Shailene Woodley
Woodley is a prominent environmentalist and in 2016 was a part of the Standing Rock confrontation to stop the development of the Dakota Access pipeline. Woodley was arrested along with several other activists at the camp and witnessed what she described as police brutality where federal agents and police beat and maced the pipeline protesters, most of whom were Indigenous. Woodley would end up paying a hefty fine and contributed to the bail funds of other protesters from the camp. Woodley is also a member of Greenpeace.
5 Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian has gotten more into activism in recent years, most notably when she lobbied President Donald Trump for the commuted sentence of Cyntoia Brown. Brown was a victim of human trafficking and was convicted of the murder of her trafficker, despite her claims of self-defense. After news broke that Kardashian met with Trump, Brown’s case went viral. Brown's sentence was eventually commuted by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and she was released in 2019 after serving over 15 years in prison.
4 Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda has been famous for her activism since the 1960s when she rallied as hard as she could against the Vietnam War, sometimes to the point of controversy. To this day Fonda rallies against war and for environmental causes – she was arrested as a part of the environmental organization Extinction Rebellion’s massive street protests in 2018 where activists demanded immediate, international action to stop climate change.
3 Emma Watson
Watson has been organizing for women’s equality since the conclusion of the Harry Potter films. She was made a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in 2014 and she has spoken at several UN summits about the cause of women’s liberation.
2 Samuel L Jackson
Many do not realize that before Jackson was an actor he was an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s while a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The group was responsible for organizing some of the marches and sit-ins that would eventually lead to the end of segregation laws. Jackson was also an usher at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.
1 George Clooney
Clooney might be one of the most well-known activists in Hollywood. He regularly donates and campaigns for Democratic politicians, and he loans his name to several philanthropic causes like the Red Cross and the American Foundation For Equal Rights. His organization, the Not On Our Watch Project, uses resources to generate public attention to stop mass atrocities and genocides. Clooney also supports gun control, LGBTQ rights, and is pro-choice. It was through his activism that he met his wife Amal, a lawyer who regularly represents people and groups in cases involving social justice and human rights.