This is the second post in a series called Famous Adoptees where we introduce three famous figures who were all adopted.

These people have made a mark on society, while embracing the joys and handling the obstacles other adoptee’s might face in their day to day life. Whether they are entertainers, athletes, fashion designers, historical figures, or revolutionaries- everyone has a story, and for these celebrities, their stories includes adoption.

Kristen Chenoweth

kristin_chenoweth“It bugs me when I hear about ‘Angelina’s adopted son’ or ‘Rosie’s adopted children’ – as if that word will always separate them instead of bind them together.

Angelina’s son and Rosie’s kids and I should get a regular apostrophe-plus-s like everybody else.” – Chenoweth

Did you know…

  • While studying at Oklahoma City University, Chenoweth won the title Miss Oklahoma University, and was runner-up in the 1991 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant.
  • Chenoweth has a Maltese named Maddie who inspired her to create an animal rights organization called Maddie’s Corner: Animals Helping People, People Helping Animals.
  • In college, Chenoweth was a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.

Kristen was born on July 24, 1968 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and soon after was adopted into the Chenoweth family. She showed an interest in performance at an early age, when she started singing gospel songs at church and acting in school plays.

After graduating from high school, Chenoweth decided to pursue a career in performance. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre and a Master’s Degree in opera performance at Oklahoma City University. Chenoweth went on to become an award-winning actress of stage and screen, whose most notable productions include You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown; Wicked; and The West Wing.

Arguably her greatest achievement to date was in 1999 when Chenoweth won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

This powerhouse singer has been curious about her birth parents since learning she was adopted and has often joked in interviews, “I want to know where I got my voice from.” Although she knows the backgrounds of her birth parents, at the age of forty six, Chenoweth has not been in contact with them. However, she is very open about her adoption and has been known to support various adoption causes and organization around the U.S. like the Dave Thomas Foundation.

 

Michael Oher

“It’s true that we can’t help the circumstances we’re born into and some of us start out in a much tougher place than other people. But just because we started there doesn’t mean we have to end there.” – Michael Oher

Did you know…

  • After being selected in the first round of the NFL draft Oher spent the first five years of his career in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens and was then signed over to the TennesseeTitans in 2014.
  • Technically Oher has fourteen siblings, twelve biologically from his birth mother, and two others from his adoptive parents – the Tuohys.
  • Oher’s rags to riches story was told in Michael Lewis’s book, The Blind Side – which was made into a major motion picture.Shortly after its release, Oher wrote his autobiography Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond.

Michael Oher was born on May 28, 1986, in Memphis, Tennessee. He came from a broken home with a mother who was not around and an estranged father who was killed while Oher was in high school. As a young orphan growing up in Memphis, in and out of a project called Hurt Village, it seemed as though Oher was destined for a troubled life.

Oher’s second chance came when Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy became his legal guardians. Interestingly, they lived just a short distance from Oher’s old neighborhood, but Oher soon learned they were worlds apart.

A true success story, Oher spent his youth struggling against the ramifications of an impoverished past. During his first nine years as a student he attended eleven different schools and often repeated grades.

Channeling his emotions on the football field, Oher excelled in sports in school and quickly became a top football prospect in the state of Tennessee. He received multiple offers from Division 1 schools and accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Mississippi after receiving offers from Tennessee, LSU, Alabama, NC State, and more. As a freshman offensive lineman, Oher started in ten of the eleven games for the University of Mississippi. He began his career in the NFL as a first round pick for the Baltimore Ravens as an offensive lineman.

Oher’s memoir gave him a platform to write openly about his adoption, strictly from his point of view. He wrote:

“It wasn’t that our mother didn’t love us, or that she was physically abusive. It was just that sometimes she seemed to forget that she had children and that we needed her care, so she’d go off for a while and we kids would be left to take care of ourselves and one another. Since we didn’t know any other way of life, we just adjusted to it the best we could and always tried to back one another. And we weren’t the only kids in the neighborhood who lived like that.”

For an in-depth look into Michael Oher’s adoption story, click here.

 

Michael Bay

michael-bay-transformers4622(1)Though Bay is unsure who his biological father is, he jokingly claims that Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer share his “creative DNA.”

Did you know…

  • Bay’s production company, Platinum Dunes, is named after one of his student films from his time at Wesleyan University film school where he graduated in 1986.
  • Bay was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity in college and has since acted in the film “Mystery Men” as a fraternity brother.
  • Bay worked as an intern for George Lucas on the production of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Michael Bay was born on February 17, 1965, in Los Angeles, CA. He was placed for adoption at a young age and was taken in by Jimmy and Harriet Bay.

He graduated from Wesleyan University’s film school in 1986 and spent the first nine years of his career shooting commercials and music videos. His style caught the attention of Hollywood producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who recruited him to direct Bad Boys – which became his first feature film.

Bay is known for directing big-budget action films characterized by fast edits, stylistic visuals, extreme special effects, and the annihilation of Earth by extraterrestrial beings. He is best known for his role directing and producing the Transformers films.

So often we read about celebrities who are adopting children and not as much about the celebrities who were adopted. It’s important to remember that adoption can affect anyone from all walks of life.

Kristen Chenoweth turned her successful music career into a platform for adoption advocacy. Michael Bay acknowledges that adoption is a part of his life, but as other adoptees might relate to, he chooses to keep his family life private.

With portrayals of adoption, both open and closed, finding their way to our TVs and movie screens, let’s remember to celebrate all adoptees and all families.