He started from nothing — wearing shoes three sizes too small and growing up in a cramped trailer with his dysfunctional family.
But thanks to his determination, he went from being a waiter and playing small roles to becoming the face of major Hollywood film franchises.
Chris Pratt’s journey is truly inspiring — let’s take a closer look at his incredible rise to fame.
Despite his enormous success, Chris Pratt remains humble — perhaps a reflection of his upbringing. He carries himself with grace, humour and class, which makes him not only a wonderful performer, but also an even more likeable person than his characters. It’s no surprise that fans, myself included, have come to love him off-screen as well. If he weren’t an actor, he could easily have become a top-tier comedian.
His father worked in the mines
Born into a working-class family in a small town, the 45-year-old actor grew up learning the harsh realities of life. He had no idea that his natural charm, humour and determination would one day make him one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors. From playing a sea lion in The Terminal to voicing Garfield, Pratt has proven that he can do anything. Over the past decade, his career has skyrocketed thanks to roles in Zero Dark Thirty (2013), the Jurassic World trilogy and Guardians of the Galaxy, winning over audiences with his versatility.
Before becoming a Hollywood star, Christopher Michael Pratt was a simple child who grew up in a working-class family and learned the value of a dollar firsthand.
Chris was born on 21 June 1979 in Virginia, Minnesota, and grew up with his two older brothers, Callie and Angie. His mother worked at a Safeway supermarket, and his father was a taconite miner and then a construction worker. Despite their hard work, money was always tight.
I remember when I was a kid, we had so little money that if someone asked me if I read comics, I would say, ‘No! Comics are expensive.’ And they would say, ‘What do you mean? They cost three quid.’ But if you don’t have three quid, then it’s expensive!
Hard times and tight shoes
When Chris was seven, the family moved to Lake Stevens, Washington, probably hoping for better financial stability. But times remained tough, and Chris quickly learned not to ask for things he knew his parents couldn’t afford.
‘I know what it means to ask for nothing. Just be smart enough not to even ask. What’s the point? Eventually, you stop asking…’
One of the biggest problems? Shoes.
We always had the most pathetic shoes. But shoes were so important when you were a kid! Once I won 85 bucks playing bingo with my mum and bought myself a pair of Reebok Pumps trainers. Man, I wore those shoes for three years. They got so small that I had to take a razor and cut out the pump to give myself a little more room.”
Chris Pratt is known for his roles in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, but he wasn’t the most athletic kid growing up. Due to an injury he sustained as a child, running became something of an adventure for him.
His leg grew a little funny
‘My leg grew a little funny. So when I run, I run a little crooked. And if I run at full speed, there’s a good chance I’ll fall,’ Pratt said in an interview with the AP in 2018.
He even joked that his school football tape didn’t feature any touchdowns or incredible plays — mostly just him falling unexpectedly.
‘My school football tape was just footage of me falling in the middle of the field, like I tripped over my shoelaces or something.’
Realising that sprinting wasn’t his strong suit, Pratt focused on wrestling in his senior years. The Seattle suburb of Lake Stevens, which Pratt grew to love, was crazy about wrestling — much like football in Texas.
Chris also did shot put on the track team, proving he had both strength and determination. And although he hadn’t yet found his path, he already had a sense of where life would take him.
His family lost their home
When his wrestling coach asked him what he wanted to do with his life, Pratt replied confidently:
‘I don’t know, but I know I’m going to be famous and make a hell of a lot of money.’ I had no idea how. I wasn’t doing anything proactive.
It turned out that his belief in himself was right. But he had a long way to go before becoming famous on the silver screen.
Chris Pratt’s path to stardom was not only a pursuit of his dream, but also an overcoming of life’s difficulties. While he was still attending Lake Stevens High School, his family lost their home and had to rent an apartment. When his parents later offered him a place to live in the attic of a shed next to their trailer, he decided to move in with a friend.
Diagnosis: multiple sclerosis
As if financial difficulties weren’t enough, Chris’s father’s health also began to deteriorate. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a hereditary disease, he withdrew from life and became even more bitter.
‘He lost interest in life,’ Chris recalls. ‘He refused to take any medication or do physical therapy.’
The disease only exacerbated his father’s already harsh temperament.
‘He was already quite angry, and the disease made him even angrier.’
Looking back, Chris admits that his relationship with his father was complicated. When his father passed away in 2014, it had a lasting impact on him, which he reflected in some of his most emotional roles.
He considered serving in the army.
Fortunately, his father lived to see Chris’s success as a film star before he passed away.
‘In his last years, he watched a lot of television. That’s pretty much all he did, just sit in front of the television. So yes, I think he was proud of that, and it was great that I was able to connect with him, because he was a difficult person,’ Chris said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
After graduating from school, Chris considered joining the army, but instead became a waiter and attended classes at a local community college, including a theatre course.
Chris’s decision to immerse himself in the world of theatre was largely influenced by his older brother. His brother, who had served in the army himself, advised Chris not to follow in his footsteps, believing that he was destined for something else.
‘I think he saw something in me,’ Chris shared. ‘I was an unusual child. […] I dressed funny and felt comfortable in my own skin.’
Homeless on the sunny shores of Maui
However, college wasn’t interesting to him. He dropped out in the middle of his first semester and, to make ends meet, took on odd jobs — selling discount tickets and even moonlighting as a daytime stripper. Eventually, it all caught up with him, and Pratt found himself homeless on the sunny shores of Maui, Hawaii. He spent his nights in a van and a tent on the beach, trying to figure out what to do next.
‘It’s a pretty amazing place for homeless people. We just drank, smoked weed and worked the minimum number of hours to cover petrol, food and fishing gear,’ Chris told The Independent.
During this chaotic period of his life, Chris reconnected with his spiritual side and became a deeply religious person. But his time in Maui changed his life not only on a personal level — it also set him on the path to Hollywood.
At the age of 19, while working as a busboy at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Maui, fate intervened in his life. Actress and director Ray Dawn Chong happened to notice him and decided to cast him in her directorial debut, a low-budget horror short film called The Curse, Part 3, shot in Los Angeles.
A dream to pursue
The film was not a blockbuster, but for Chris it was a turning point. He earned $700 for the role — enough, he said, to live on for a year. But more importantly, he got a taste for acting and fell in love with it. With nothing to lose and chasing his dream, he packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles, determined to make it in Hollywood.
But breaking into the industry without connections was like looking for a needle in a haystack. While Chris was trying to get auditions, he did a simple job — he worked as a waiter to pay the bills and occasionally got small roles in minor productions.
‘I was an outsider, with no connections, no nepotism, nothing. I was a complete stranger in Hollywood,’ he later admitted.
He had no idea that his moment of glory was just around the corner.
He met his on-screen sister in real life
Chris Pratt’s first major television role came when he was cast as Harold ‘Bright’ Abbott in the drama series Everwood. The series ran for four seasons and 89 episodes, and for Pratt, the role was a turning point. He often refers to Everwood as the role that truly launched his career.
While filming Everwood, Chris Pratt and Emily VanCamp, who played siblings Bright and Amy Abbott, began a real-life romance. While their loved ones were happy about the relationship, outsiders often reacted differently.
“We’re used to the reaction, “Ugh, that’s weird. That’s creepy.” People who know us are happy and probably expected it to happen eventually. But yes, from time to time we encounter people who say, ‘That’s really creepy. You just kissed your sister,'” Pratt shared with TV Guide.
At first, even Chris and Emily found it a little strange — not because of their roles, but because they were trying to keep their relationship a secret.
“We thought it was strange for the first six months, but that was more because we were just trying to hide our relationship from the film crew. I don’t know why, and looking back, I can say it was silly. But we tried to keep it a secret and didn’t want anyone to find out. We were never embarrassed about playing brother and sister because, you know, it’s all fiction,” he explained.
How Chris Pratt created Andy Dwyer
Three years after the end of the series Everwood, Chris Pratt landed the role of the lovable fool Andy Dwyer in the NBC series Parks and Recreation. Andy was originally supposed to be a temporary character, but Pratt’s charm and comedic talent proved so spot on that the producers made him a regular on the show.
This role was his real breakthrough — to this day, many fans associate him with the hilarious, ignorant and endlessly entertaining Andy.
Chris Pratt’s father had a strong influence on his portrayal of Andy Dwyer. His father had a harsh, uncompromising parenting style, which Pratt described as ‘emotional scarification.’
‘At an early age, I developed humour as a self-defence mechanism — I developed Andy, really. Andy in Parks and Recreation was my clown, which I had been honing my whole life,’ says Pratt.
The success of Parks and Recreation coincided with important events in Chris Pratt’s personal life. In 2007, while filming Take Me Home Tonight, he met actress Anna Faris, who played his love interest in the film. The on-screen chemistry carried over into real life, and a year later, the couple got engaged. In 2009, they tied the knot in a spontaneous ceremony in Bali, Indonesia.
His premature son restored his faith in God
Settling into their home in the Hollywood Hills, the couple welcomed their son Jack in 2012. However, his birth was not entirely normal — he was born nine weeks premature and weighed only 3 pounds, 12 ounces (1.7 kg). Pratt later shared that the experience strengthened his faith.
‘It really defined my faith in God,’ he said, explaining that he and Anna ‘prayed a lot’ during those uncertain early days. ‘It restored my faith in God, not that it needed restoring, but it really redefined it,’ the actor said in an interview with People.
Chris Pratt and Anna Faris
After nearly a decade together, Pratt and Faris divorced in 2017.
The following year, he found love again with writer Katherine Schwarzenegger.
They were introduced by none other than her mother, Maria Shriver, and the rest, as they say, is history. Thanks to his marriage to Katherine Schwarzenegger in 2019, Pratt became a member of the extended Kennedy family.
Chris Pratt talks about Arnold Schwarzenegger
In 2020, the couple had their first daughter, Lila, and in 2022, their second, Eloise. When Pratt was asked about his legendary father-in-law, Arnold Schwarzenegger, he shared some touching details about his generous nature.
‘Giving gifts is absolutely one of his love languages,’ Chris said in an interview with Men’s Health. ‘The most thoughtful gifts you can imagine, like blankets with photos of the baby.’
Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger currently live in a newly built home in Brentwood, California. In 2023, the couple purchased Ellwood Zimmerman’s architectural home but decided to tear it down to build a more spacious and modern home.
Despite his fame and success, Chris Pratt has always remained down-to-earth, maintaining a deep connection to his roots. He often reflects on his late father, who passed away in 2014, leaving a lasting impression on him.
Pratt sees bits of his father in himself, not only in his appearance but also in his mannerisms. ‘Physically, we’re probably similar. And sometimes I hear his voice coming out of my mouth — some things he would say, some things I would say,’ he shared.
Returning to his roots
In 2019, Pratt returned to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant where he once worked as a waiter. He shared a nostalgic and reflective post on Instagram, giving fans a glimpse into his humble beginnings.
Twenty years ago, I worked as a waiter at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Every time I go back, I remember the thousands of prawns I ate from people’s plates on my way to the kitchen. Please tip your server. Leave at least 20%. And leave some shrimp, too,” he jokingly captioned the photo, reminding everyone of the importance of kindness and generosity.
From his early days in a small town to his rise to fame, Pratt continues to reflect on where he came from, always remembering that success does not change who you really are.
Whether he’s reflecting on his father’s influence or returning to his old stomping grounds, it’s clear that Pratt values the journey, not the destination.
So the next time you face adversity, remember Chris Pratt’s story: with faith, courage, and a dash of humour, anything is possible. Feeling inspired? Share this story with someone who needs a reminder of the power of perseverance.
