If you’re sitting at your desk job thinking of giving up on your filmmaking dreams – here’s some successful filmmakers who had other careers while working towards their big break:
Ava DuVernay — Ava got into filmmaking after having a successful career as a publicist. According to Vulture, Ava implements some of the skills she learned as a publicist into how she now operates as a director. Ava has done films like 13th, A Wrinkle In Time, and Selma. 
Quentin Tarantino — Tarantino had a slew of other jobs before becoming a successful director including Elvis impersonator, a recruiter, and a video store clerk. Tarantino has gone on to write and direct some of the best nonlinear films of our time, like the Kill Bill trilogy.
Barry Jenkins — Jenkins worked as an assistant for years. After that, he worked at a Banana Republic to support himself during the filming for his first feature, Medicine for Melancholy. Now Jenkins has an Oscar for Moonlight.
The Wachowski Sisters — The duo actually ran an in-house painting and construction company to support themselves, according to The New Yorker. After building houses, they went on to build an empire of films (like The Matrix) and TV (like Sense8).
Stanley Kubrick — Stanley Kubrick started out as a photojournalist — a skill which likely helped inform the shots and aesthetic he liked as a director. Kubrick had a long career after that, making films like Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining.
Kevin Smith — Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats) was just that before he got into filmmaking — a clerk. He channeled that experience to write, direct, and act in his first feature, which launched the rest of his career.
So if you’re working that 9-5, crappy pay gig and feel like giving up — keep writing, shooting, directing, sound-mixing, or WHATEVER your craft may be. If you work hard enough, you just might join the ranks of these incredible filmmakers one day.
