Curated playlist

Primetime Emmy Award winners

Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
EminemEminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards while GLAAD protested outside.
Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway in 2023 after 13,981 performances.
Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
Elton JohnElton John sang "Candle in the Wind 1997" live only once, at Princess Diana's funeral. He wrote it days before.
Whitney HoustonWhitney Houston sold more than 220 million records and carried a nickname that needed no first name: "the Voice". She was born in 1963 and died in 2012. In between, she became one of the most awarded performers in history. In 2023, Rolling…
Brad PittBrad Pitt left the University of Missouri two weeks short of completing the coursework for his degree. As graduation approached, he did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films, which he once called "a portal into different worlds for…
Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway is an American actress whose films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide. In 2015 she ranked among the highest-paid actresses in the world. Yet that same year she said, "I always assume that every film is my last, and I…
BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
Dr. DreDr. Dre's G-funk had live musicians replay funk melodies instead of sampling them. It debuted on The Chronic.
Peter JacksonPeter Jackson saw King Kong at nine, and a few years later tried to remake it with stop-motion models he built himself.
Dr. SeussAn education publisher dared Dr. Seuss to write a book children can't put down. The result was The Cat in the Hat.
Johnny CarsonUri Geller failed on Johnny Carson's show, and it made him famous. Carson had asked James Randi for help.
Stephen ColbertAt a 2006 dinner, Stephen Colbert roasted President Bush to a cold room. His show's ratings jumped 37% the next week.
AdeleA friend posted Adele's three-song class demo on Myspace, and a record label phoned.
Ben StillerBen Stiller's films have grossed more than $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, an average of $79 million per film. Behind that figure stands Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller, an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is known…
Justin TimberlakeJustin Timberlake was 11 years old when he appeared on the television show Star Search and sang country songs under the name Justin Randall. The boy from Memphis, Tennessee would one day be dubbed the Prince of Pop. Billboard would name…
Mel BrooksMel Brooks was 14 years old when he climbed onto a diving board at the Butler Lodge, a second-rate hotel in the Borscht Belt. He worked there as a pool-side tummler, an entertainer hired to keep the guests amused. On this day he wore a…
Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow won the lead in Emma with a perfect Texas accent. The director said it sold him.
Jim HensonJim Henson made the first Kermit from a halved table tennis ball and his mother's old coat.
Al GoreAl Gore won the 2000 popular vote but lost the presidency by 537 Florida votes.
Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson is the only person to win Oscars for both acting and screenwriting.
Paul SimonPaul Simon, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, nearly gave one of his best-known songs the wrong name. While writing music for the film The Graduate, he toyed with calling a new song "Mrs. Roosevelt." Art Garfunkel passed the…
Mike LazzoMike Lazzo started in a shipping room and ended up running the studio behind Adult Swim.
Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
James CameronJames Cameron dropped alone to the deepest point on Earth in 2012. He stayed more than three hours on the bottom.
Ed SheeranEd Sheeran bought a thirty-pound guitar two days after hearing Eric Clapton. He was eleven years old.
John CandyJohn Candy, the Canadian actor and comedian, once gave a young Harvard student a piece of advice that the student credited with starting his career. That student was Conan O'Brien. He met Candy while studying at Harvard University and…
Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
Brie LarsonBrie Larson's 2005 album Finally Out of P.E. sold only 3,500 copies. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Tom HanksTom Hanks lost 35 pounds to play a dying lawyer in Philadelphia. He thinned his hair and learned to walk differently.
Audrey HepburnAudrey Hepburn gave underground concerts to raise money for the Dutch resistance. She was a teenager in occupied Arnhem.
David FincherDirector David Fincher demanded 99 takes from Rooney Mara for a single scene in The Social Network.
Yoko OnoYoko Ono hung a magnifying glass atop a white ladder in a London gallery. Climbers read one tiny word: YES.
Ryan ReynoldsRyan Reynolds gave up his usual fee so the Deadpool film would get made.
Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
Ken BurnsKen Burns was nearly nine when neighbors handed his family six twenty-dollar bills.
Cyndi LauperCyndi Lauper wore almost a pound of necklaces to the Grammy Awards ceremony in 1985. The excess suited the woman wearing it. Lauper is an American singer, songwriter and actress, born on the 22nd of June 1953. She is known for eccentric…
CherCher, the American singer and actress born Cheryl Sarkisian, first reached radio in 1964 with a record that programmers misjudged. The single was “Ringo, I Love You,” produced by Phil Spector and released under the name Bonnie Jo Mason.…
Jamie Lee CurtisJamie Lee Curtis accepted a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, and she did not sound like a person winding down. "I feel so alive, like I'm this 14-year-old person just…
Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a piece outside classical and jazz.
Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg bought Death Row Records, the label that launched his career, in February 2022. It took nearly three decades.
Ken KeelerA Futurama episode contains a math theorem invented just so its plot could work. Writer Ken Keeler proved it.
Walt DisneyIn 1928, Walt Disney lost his hit cartoon rabbit Oswald to Universal. Only Ub Iwerks stayed, and Mickey Mouse followed.
John LasseterDisney fired John Lasseter in 1984 after he pitched a film blending hand-drawn art with computer backgrounds.
John WilliamsSteven Spielberg laughed at John Williams's two-note Jaws theme, thinking it was a joke.
David LettermanDavid Letterman got fired from campus radio for treating classical music irreverently.
Sting (musician)Sting, the English musician and actor born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, once disowned his own first name on camera. In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night, a journalist addressed him as Gordon. He answered, "My children call me Sting,…