Selling plasma in Las Vegas, later hosting primetime

Drew Carey grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. His father died when Carey was 8 years old. A Business Insider India list of well-known people who experienced homelessness mentions this background only briefly, and it focuses on a later episode of hardship that it does not date.

That episode took place in Las Vegas. According to the list, Carey became homeless there while he was travelling from Ohio to California to see his brother. The list does not say what year this was, how long he was without a home, or what led to the trip stalling in Las Vegas. It also does not describe where he slept.

What it does record is how he got by. To pay for food, he sold his plasma for 40 dollars, and he looked for spare change so that he could buy boxed macaroni and cheese. These small details give a sense of how tight his circumstances were during that time.

The article does not describe how the situation ended. It tells us only where he ended up: Carey became a successful actor, comedian and game show host, and he is now a multimillionaire and a philanthropist. The list places his story alongside those of other well-known figures who spent part of their lives without a home, showing how far he travelled from a stranded trip to Las Vegas and a diet of boxed macaroni and cheese to a career in front of the cameras.