Celebrities Who Once Rented Rooms in New York City

New York City has always been a magnet for dreamers — musicians, actors, artists, and writers who came here with nothing but talent and determination. Before fame, before fortune, many of them lived just like any other newcomer: in tiny rooms, student dorms, or shared apartments. These stories remind us that even the world’s biggest stars once had roommates, cold apartments, and leaky ceilings.

One of the most famous examples is Robert De Niro, who spent his early acting days living in a small apartment in Greenwich Village. He shared space with other struggling actors while auditioning for off-Broadway roles. Close by, Martin Scorsese lived in an NYU dorm room near Washington Square Park while studying film — often staying up all night watching reels with classmates who would later become major filmmakers.

Anne Hathaway also lived in a student residence while attending New York University. She later called it “the best and busiest time of my life.” Meanwhile, Lady Gaga, still known as Stefani Germanotta, rented a small Lower East Side apartment where she wrote her first songs on a keyboard squeezed between a bed and a stove.

The story repeats across decades. Sarah Jessica Parker, long before Sex and the City, shared a modest apartment in Chelsea with other actors. Madonna arrived in New York in the early 1980s with barely $40 to her name. She rented a crumbling walk-up on the Lower East Side, performing in small clubs to cover rent. “It was dirty and dangerous,” she later said, “but it was mine.”

Bob Dylan started his folk-music journey while renting a cheap room in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, surrounded by coffeehouses and other young musicians. Alicia Keys grew up in a small apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, where she learned the hustle and resilience that would later define her music.

Artists found inspiration in their tiny spaces too. Jean-Michel Basquiat turned his SoHo and East Village apartments into art studios, painting on walls, doors, and refrigerators. Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road, lived in boarding houses in Upper Manhattan and Greenwich Village, where he typed through the night on his portable typewriter. Truman Capote began his literary career while renting a small room in Brooklyn Heights, describing the borough as “my quiet New York — cheap, calm, and full of stories.”

Even icons from the fashion world started small. Anna Wintour, now the editor-in-chief of Vogue, once lived in a tiny Greenwich Village apartment when she was just a junior editor. Andy Warhol also began his career from a modest East 75th Street studio, using his living room as both bedroom and art lab where he developed the pop-art style that changed modern culture.

Students who became famous often began in dorms. Spike Lee studied and lived at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Adam Sandler shared a dorm room at the same school. Maggie Gyllenhaal lived in university housing while attending Columbia, and Timothée Chalamet rented a small Manhattan room during his studies at NYU.

From Greenwich Village to Harlem and Brooklyn Heights, these cramped apartments became the birthplace of creativity. For these artists, actors, and writers, living “on rooms” in New York wasn’t glamorous — it was survival, discipline, and the first step toward success.

Today, those same neighborhoods remain full of students and dreamers renting rooms, chasing goals just like De Niro or Gaga once did. New York City has always been the city where ambition meets opportunity — even if it starts in a tiny apartment with no view and a shared bathroom.

RoomNewYork.com celebrates that same spirit — connecting people who want to live, learn, and create in the world’s most inspiring city.

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