Many Hollywood stars rose to A-list status by acting from gig to gig since childhood, rising to stardom after years of countless auditions. But Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding had several careers before he landed box office hits—and his first job was sweeping the floors of hair salons for just $32 a day.
“I started in a barber shop when I was 14, 15 years old just cleaning hair as a job for pocket money. I remember a day’s work was like 24 pounds,” Golding tells Fortune, recalling his days in England. “Child labor, classic. But it got me into hairdressing. It will always be my first passion.”
Golding, now 38 and no longer cleaning up the hair clippings of his salon’s wealthy clientele, has since become one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood. He landed his first major studio role as wealthy heartthrob Nicholas Young in the highly popular Crazy Rich Asians movie, which grossed nearly $240 million worldwide in 2018. And the opportunities haven’t slowed down since; Golding went on to star in A Simple Favor, Last Christmas, The Gentlemen, and Nine Perfect Strangers.
But Golding’s acting career may never have come to fruition if it weren’t for his second career after hair styling: being a travel host. Exposure from his globetrotting video segments soon caught the attention of notable film producers, and the rest is history.
While Golding career-hopped chasing his various passions, he knew one thing for certain at a very young age: his passion didn’t lie in typing away in a cushy air-conditioned office.
“I was never one who was very stuck at a desk and learning and revising and testing. I’m not academic in that way at all,” Golding says. “Curiosity was always my strong point.”
From high-end hairstylist to travel host for the BBC
Although sweeping the floors of hair salons isn’t the most glamorous gig, Golding was excited by the thought of being creative and working with his hands. He loved the idea of being a hair stylist so much that he skipped college for an apprenticeship in the career.
After wrapping up high school in Surrey, England, he was at a crossroad: take the GCSE (U.K. college qualifications exam) and pursue higher education, or become an apprentice and jump into work. At just 17, he made the choice to dive into hair dressing in lieu of a white-collar job.
“My parents were so supportive. They couldn’t think of another room for me because they knew I was doing so well with hairdressing, and it was a trade, so I could travel with it,” Golding reminisces.
After five years of styling hair and working at high-end salon Richard Ward in London’s Sloane Square—with affluent clientele including Kate Middleton’s brother—he decided to pivot. At the age of 22 he made a big career leap by moving to Malaysia, where the actor was born, to pursue travel television. As an avid watcher of Lonely Planet and fan of Anthony Bourdain, he wanted in on the magic of traveling to the far corners of the world.
“My plans after working were really like, ‘Well, I’m gonna give this travel presenter thing a go, and if I mess that up, then I’m just gonna move to Australia and become a hairstylist there,’” Golding says. “I grew up watching all of those guys, so it was one of those dreams of mine. And so I was like, ‘Ah, maybe I’ll just give it a go. I’ll head over to Asia…I’ve got nothing to lose.’”
While restarting one’s life across the world sounds like a total gamble, it clearly paid off. Golding went on to lead a variety of shows for 8TV Malaysia, co-hosted a weekly football segment on ESPN, and presented global coverage for BBC’s The Travel Show.
Golding was 11 years into his successful travel host career when one major Hollywood director found his clips on YouTube and recognized his star power.
The Facebook message that launched Golding into Hollywood stardom
While most actors are sweating it, driving from audition to audition with no luck, Golding’s breakout role happened to land in his lap. Or rather, his DMs.
“[Crazy Rich Asians director] John Chu reached out via a friend on Facebook. He’d been trying to hunt me down,” Golding recalls. “And I had been pushing away these offers of auditioning for this [movie] that was happening in Singapore, because I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not an actor. They’re gonna get an actor-actor to do that.’”
But Chu wasn’t ready to give up so easily—he reasoned with the then-travel host that he should at least do a reading of the script, calling it a “career-changing” opportunity. Golding folded and gave in, hopping on a Skype call with a casting director in Asia who had seen his travel shows on YouTube.
And as it turned out, Chu was right. Golding joined the shoot of Crazy Rich Asians, and the big acting gig propelled him into Hollywood stardom. Alongside his portfolio of acting roles, he’s also ventured into business. Golding is an investor in fintech company Chocolate Finance, backer of London-based tech business Nothing, and current partner with $170 billion bank Citi on a new travel rewards credit card.
“I think curiosity really was what helped me excel and fall down rabbit holes to learn things, and travel really is medicine for the soul,” Golding says. “That’s been my life for the past 15 odd years.”
