Before You Give Up On Your Dreams, Just Read James Corden’s Success Story!

James Corden was an unlikely candidate to host a late-night show, especially if you rewind back to a couple of decades ago. Now, he has emerged as one of the most popular TV show hosts in the world. Corden himself was not sure that he had what it took to be a good host of a late-night show during the early days of The Late Late Show, considering he did not have experience in stand-up comedy or anything of the sort.

But that does not mean that Corden was not an impressive entertainer before his debut in the TV show host category. Before 2015, which is when he signed up with The Late Late Show, Corden had already won a Tony award, was a writer and recognized actor all over the UK.

According to him, the desire to become an actor had been within him ever since he was four years old when he entertained churchgoers by making funny faces during his sister’s christening.

You may think that James Corden is an overnight success, but what most people don’t know about is the years of struggle which preceded his success.

A Dreamer

The dream of becoming a performer stuck with him throughout his formative years, which meant he was barely paying enough attention to his school work. Even though he was advised to develop an alternative, more stable career by focusing on his education, Corden did not budge.

For him, even the idea of giving up on his dream was an unthinkable concept. He kept on auditioning, and finally landed a small role when he was 17 years of age in the play Martin Guerre. Even though he had just one small line, he still went ahead with it.

Corden kept working tirelessly towards his dream. After appearing on stage, he shifted his attention to the visual mediums and landed a few roles in shows such as Teachers, All or Nothing, and Hollyoaks, to name a few.

It was during his work on the show Fat Friends that Corden also made a comeback to the stage with the play The History Boys which was being produced by Alan Bennett. This play was such a success that it went on tour around the world, eventually becoming a feature film in 2006.

Corden always knew he wanted to be a performer, and so he did not even work on building a safety net for himself and instead focused entirely on becoming a performing artist.

Creating His Own Path

Realizing the fact that most of his roles were centered on his weight, something which Corden felt like would eventually limit his options, he partnered with Ruth Jones, one of his co-stars on the TV show Fat Friends, and together the two of them started a new TV show on BBC Three called Gavin & Stacey.

The show began sometime in 2007, in which both Corden and Jones starred in the title roles as on-screen best friends. It was not only critically well-received but also became a commercial success, catapulting Corden into stardom in the UK.

Handling Fame

The success of the show got to his head, according to Corden in his autobiography which he published in 2011. He started coming off as a bit arrogant and even entered into verbal confrontations with critics as well as other famous performers. He then went to start another TV show called Horne & Corden which was not nearly as successful as his previous show.

There is no doubt that now James Corden is recognized as one of the most famous performers in the world.

Corden recognized that his fame had changed him as a person, and this change was clearly not working in his favor. So, he decided to press the reset button on his life, starting by being honest about himself and what had gone wrong in his autobiography.

Soon after that, he married Julia Carey in 2012, having already welcomed a child with her a year earlier (they have two more children as well). This brought about the missing element in his life, and he was able to realign his personality.

He then signed on for a lead role in the play One Man, Two Guvnors, a comedy which was a huge success and it also caught the attention of Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS network, who saw something very special in Corden and decided that, in whatever capacity, Corden must come and work on the network. He was eventually offered The Late Late Show, which, after much deliberation, Corden accepted. And the rest is history.