See these rounded celebrities close up, in Exec Digital's November issue!
Chances are, when you think pop star you’ll think they sing, dance and consume most of your children’s time – either on the radio or some nonsense reality show. But what your kids don’t know about some pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani is that their stage time constitutes only a fourth of their career. If you paid a bit more attention to these MTV reality show stars, you might take a cue from the former boy band lead Justin Timberlake, who has built an empire by way of his curly blonde locks and high pitched singing voice. Or Gwen Stefani, who not only turned her breakups into Grammy Award winning singles, but her passion for design and Japanese-inspired ensembles into an internationally recognized fashion house.
For any female just south of 30, an obsession with Justin Timberlake is easily justified thanks to his time as lead in the popular boy band *NSYNC. Alongside former Mickey Mouse Club member JC Chaz, Timberlake and his crew were the hottest things to hit the radio since Prince. Unlike his band mates, when the boy band sensation wore off, Timberlake kept up the music routine with a vividly successful solo career. He continued to expand his brand by developing a production company Tennman Records, where he’s signed success acts like Matt Morris, and honed his acting skills in films like ‘Bad Teacher’ and ‘Friends with Benefits.’ He and his childhood friend started the clothing line William Rast and he’s lent his name to the Las Vegas charity golf tournament Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for nearly a decade.
At one point, Gwen Stefani might just have been the lead singer in her pop-rock band No Doubt. But as the ‘90s ended, so did the era of her musical genre’s glamour, and the ambitious crop top wearing teen turned into a composed entrepreneur and mother of two. After a stint as a solo pop star, Gwen Stefani returned to her musical roots while simultaneously leading the way to two fashion lines L.A.M.B. – a fashion brand accepted by the industry and not just because it’s affiliated with a celebrity – and Harajuku Girls, a Japanese inspired collection that she expanded to include children’s clothing.
What started at a young age for Houston native Beyoncé Knowles has changed the industry altogether. As one of America’s “Dreamgirls,” Beyoncé transformed the pop industry with her group Destiny’s Child, solo career, fashion line and eclectic endorsements. With clear R&B and soul influences, Knowles was a shoe-in for films like the Academy Award winning “Dreamgirls” and the musical “Carmen: A Hip Hopera.” The Grammy award winner always had a relative focus in music, but turned her attention to the silver screen in critically acclaimed films while working with her mother in the fashion line House of Dereon.
It might stretch your memory a bit, but before Mark Wahlberg was a successful producer and American actor, Marky Mark catapulted nearly every stage in the nation. As the lead for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, Wahlberg led a boy band before the term was coined. The ‘90s pop star had trouble easing out of his role, and name change, throughout the early part of his career – especially since so many of us still have incriminating pictures of Wahlberg in his underwear– but that started to change as he recreated roles in hit films like ‘The Perfect Storm’ and ‘The Italian Job.’ Earning praise for his work behind the camera finally garnered him acclaim, as the HBO series loosely-based on his life, ‘Entourage’ propelled Walhberg as the industry’s most viable contributor.
