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Stars Who Are Jehovah’s Witnesses

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Six A-listers who trade red carpets for door-to-door ministry are the focus of a viral breakdown of Hollywood’s most famous Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Nicki Swift’s video “Stars Who Are Jehovah’s Witnesses” runs through the entertainers and athletes who practice, were raised in, or still keep close ties to the faith — a denomination built around door-to-door evangelism, the *New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures*, and a strict refusal to celebrate birthdays or holidays. The lineup spans music, comedy, high fashion, and tennis, and the details go deeper than a simple label.

• Prince was introduced to the faith by Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham in the 1970s, was baptized in 2001, and went door-to-door preaching in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
• Coco Rocha, baptized in 2009, keeps modeling-contract clauses barring nudity, cigarette smoking, and religious iconography while still doing door-to-door evangelism.
• Serena Williams told Vogue in 2017 she had “never really practiced it,” yet the family declined to celebrate daughter Olympia’s first birthday in 2018 in line with Witness doctrine.

Prince’s Quiet Devotion Behind the Spectacle

Long before he was filling stadiums with purple lighting rigs, Prince was being walked through the fundamentals of the faith by Larry Graham, the bassist who anchored Sly and the Family Stone before joining Prince’s own touring orbit. That relationship stuck. Prince was baptized in 2001 and, according to accounts from his adopted hometown, spent stretches of his life going door-to-door in Eden Prairie, Minnesota — the same suburb where he built Paisley Park — carrying pamphlets and having conversations with strangers who had no idea the man on their porch had sold millions of albums. He held to the practice, by all accounts, right up until his death in 2016, a level of consistency that set him apart from plenty of musicians who treat faith as a phase.

The Wayans Family’s Split on Faith

Damon Wayans grew up in a strict Jehovah’s Witness household alongside his famously large, famously funny family, but he became one of the few Wayans siblings to stay openly committed to the religion as an adult. He didn’t just keep it to himself — he passed the values down to his son, Damon Wayans Jr., who has carried pieces of that upbringing into his own life even while building a comedy career that looks nothing like a Kingdom Hall meeting.

Coco Rocha’s Contract Clauses

Coco Rocha’s balancing act is the most literal of the bunch. The Canadian supermodel was baptized into the faith in 2009 and has been direct about what that means for her day job: her modeling contracts reportedly include clauses prohibiting nudity, cigarette smoking, and the use of religious iconography in shoots. She still goes door-to-door as part of her evangelism, a routine that sits oddly alongside a career built on magazine covers and runway bookings — a contrast not unlike the ones covered in what the winners of America’s Next Top Model look like today, where fame and personal boundaries don’t always mix easily.

Venus and Serena Williams’ Family Doctrine

Venus and Serena Williams were raised in the faith by their mother, Oracene Price, and it shows up in how they talk about winning — both have credited “Jehovah God” during victory speeches over the course of their careers. Serena drew a finer distinction when she spoke to Vogue in 2017.

“I’ve never really practiced it, but it’s a very big part of who I am and my family.”

That family commitment showed up again in 2018, when Serena and husband Alexis Ohanian chose not to celebrate daughter Olympia’s first birthday, sticking to Witness doctrine that treats birthday celebrations as incompatible with the faith.

Terrence Howard’s Ongoing Interest

Terrence Howard hasn’t gone as far as baptism, but the Empire star has been public about his admiration for the religion, attending meetings and talking about converting alongside his wife. He’s pointed to the organization’s moral discipline as the draw — the same kind of pull that’s led plenty of entertainers, much like the figures examined in musicians that are nothing like they seem, to look for structure well outside the industry that made them famous.

None of these six have made converting or renouncing the faith a headline moment — Prince kept knocking on doors in Eden Prairie until the end, Rocha keeps her contract clauses intact, and Howard is still, as of his most recent comments, just attending meetings rather than getting baptized. That’s the version of the story that doesn’t fit neatly into a tabloid headline, which is probably why Nicki Swift needed three and a half minutes to lay it all out.