As more and more people learn about the benefits of a vegan diet, they often make the switch.  Well-known celebrities can inspire a lot of fans to go vegan themselves, but sometimes they slip under our radar.  Here are some well-known celebrities who you might not have known are vegan.

Rainn Wilson

Best known as Dwight Schrute from “The Office”, Rainn Wilson revealed in 2017 that he was vegan.  A Seattle native, Rainn began acting at the University of Washington in the 1980s, and later on the stage in New York.  His first film role was in 1999, and after several movies, he was cast as Dwight for “The Office” in 2005. He earned three consecutive Emmy awards for the role which continued until the series ended in 2013. He has continued to act in various roles since then.

He was inspired to go vegan when he realized that he cared more about his two rescue pigs than he did about eating bacon.  Wilson shared the positive health benefits he had enjoyed since going vegan. He told his 2.5 million fans: “I noticed that I had more energy! I was sleeping better and deeper.”

In 2022, Wilson changed his name on his social media accounts to “Rainnfall Heatwave Extreme Winter Wilson” in an effort to raise awareness for climate change. “This is not a joke, I’m as serious as the melting Arctic, which amplifies global risks including extreme weather events around the globe,” said Wilson.  He is a board member of the group Arctic Basecamp, which is bringing the risks of the arctic melting to the world stage. Knowing that his vegan diet will reduce greenhouse gases must also be a motivation for him. 

Stevie Wonder

Legendary musician, Stevie Wonder, first went vegetarian and later vegan for his spirituality, health and for the environment.  Blind since shortly after his birth, Stevland Hardaway Morris was a child prodigy who signed with Motown at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. He became one of the best-selling music artists of all time and has won 25 Grammy Awards.

He first sang about being vegan in 2015 in a Carpool Karaoke video in the Late, Late Show with James Corden. He was introduced to Transcendental Meditation through his wife Syreeta Wright, who encouraged his change of diet for spiritual reasons, but he also discovered the health benefits and environmental benefit of his diet. 

In an interview in 2016, he joked “I’ve been a vegan for two years, so that’s helped my already good-looking self,” and added “I think that eating healthy is important.”

“We have to be about making our planet more greener, the urban areas more sustainable for the children,” said Wonder. “We can’t just talk about it, we have to be about it.” Adopting a vegan lifestyle definitely has contributed to his cause of saving the environment and he motivates others to follow suit.

Danielle Brooks

Actress and singer Danielle Brooks, best known for her role as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson in the series “Orange is the New Black”, went vegan in 2017.  She realized that she needed to make a change from living to eat to eating to live, in order to become more aware of what goes into her body. She shared that she’d been raised on Southern comfort food, and she wanted to enjoy a more balanced and “proper” diet.

“I like to eat. I’m from the South. You know, big mama’s mac and cheese, greens, chicken and all of that stuff,” she said. “But I was never taught how to eat properly, how food is fuel. So this is my way of teaching myself how to eat properly, how to eat to live I guess.”

She’s experimented with new recipes, including vegan versions of foods she loves, and balancing her healthy eating with consistent workouts.