The biggest celebrity career transformations of the decade

Say goodbye to 2019 by joining Wonderwall.com as we take a look back at the biggest celebrity transformations of the decade, starting with Taylor Swift's… The singer-songwriter started the decade by releasing her third studio album, 2010's "Speak Now," which featured the same country-pop musical style she perfected with her first two albums. Everything changed when she released her next album, 2012's "Red" — which started her shift to mainstream pop. When Taylor relocated from Nashville to New York City — a move that inspired her 2014 album, the hit-filled "1989" — and cut her hair into a chic bob, her transformation from country cutie to major pop star was complete. Now keep reading for more celeb transformations…

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In 2010, Lady Gaga had just one album under her belt: the three-times platinum multiple-Grammy-winning 2008 smash hit "The Fame." Practically out of the gate, she became one of the biggest pop stars in the world — and an artist who was known for her over-the-top theatricality and extravagant wardrobe. She released two more mainstream pop albums (2011's "Born This Way" and 2013's "Artpop") and appeared in two Robert Rodriguez-directed action flicks that played into her wild persona (2013's "Machete Kills" and 2014's "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For") before everything changed. In 2015, she portrayed The Countess on "American Horror Story: Hotel" and adopted a more elegant and understated style of dress to embrace her role as a serious actress. She won a Golden Globe for her work on the fifth season of the FX anthology series, released her 2016 "Joanne" album, which marked a slight departure from her earlier music by featuring soft-rock and country influences, and, of course, delivered an Oscar-nominated performance in "A Star Is Born" in 2018 (and in 2019 won an Oscar for her song "Shallow" from the film). Just like that, Gaga had transformed from a pop star into a major Hollywood force.

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Matthew McConaughey's transformation from the pretty face in a string of rom-coms into a serious leading man was so major, the world adopted a term for it: the McConaissance. The hunky native Texan shot into the spotlight in the aughts with roles in "The Wedding Planner," "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." But then he started taking on darker roles in dramas like 2011's "The Lincoln Lawyer," 2012's Lee Daniels-directed "The Paperboy" and 2013's Independent Spirit Award-winning "Mud." Then in 2014 — after losing nearly 40 pounds to play a man with AIDS — he won an Oscar for his work in "Dallas Buyers Club." That same year, Matthew earned raves for his performance on the first season of HBO's "True Detective," for which he scored two Emmy nominations.

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In 2010, Miley Cyrus was still Hannah Montana. It wasn't until the series came to an end in 2011 that the singer-actress began to shed her wholesome Disney image. The first big change came when she cut her hair super-short in 2012. Then came the increasingly revealing outfits, bizarre social media posts, twerking and overt references to smoking marijuana. By the time her "Bangerz" album debuted in 2013, the child star was gone. What remained was a young woman who felt perfectly at home collaborating with psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips and had no qualms with singing about dancing all night while high on "molly." She also essentially retired from acting. Since 2012's "So Undercover," she's only appeared in one film: 2015's "The Night Before," in which she portrayed a version of herself. She's acted twice since then: She starred on Woody Allen's 2016 Amazon series "Crisis in Six Scenes" and headlined the 2019 "Black Mirror" episode "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too." Movie star no more!

Who could've guessed back in 2010 that within just a few years, Chris Pratt would become one of the biggest stars of the silver screen? Though his first big break came when he played teen heartthrob Bright Abbott on "Everwood" from 2002 to 2006, he soon found his niche with supporting roles in rom-coms like "Bride Wars," "Take Me Home Tonight," "What's Your Number?" and "The Five-Year Engagement." Chris then achieved mainstream recognition portraying Andy Dwyer on "Parks and Recreation" from 2009 to 2015. His career transformation coincided with the physical transformation he underwent for his role as a member of SEAL Team Six in 2012's "Zero Dark Thirty." After that, he kicked off two of the most successful movie franchises of the decade with 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy" and 2015's "Jurassic World." Now he's not just "the funny best friend," he's the leading man!

Angelina Jolie was already one of Hollywood's most in-demand actresses when 2010 rolled around, with an Oscar for "Girl, Interrupted" under her belt and action-star cred for her work in movies like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "Wanted." She started off the decade doing more of the same in two 2010 flicks: "Salt" and "The Tourist." Then she took a major plunge into directing, churning out the 2011 Golden Globe-nominated war film "In the Land of Blood and Honey," the Oscar-nominated 2014 war biopic "Unbroken," the 2015 romantic drama "By the Sea" and the 2017 Golden Globe-nominated war biopic "First They Killed My Father." She even said she planned to completely retire from acting! Fortunately for fans of Angelina Jolie the actress, her retirement from acting proved to be short-lived. Still, it's clear the "Maleficent" franchise star is so much more than just a performer now.

In early 2010, Kim Kardashian West was less than three years into "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," which had yet to become the pop culture sensation it is today. At the time, she was known for her friendship with Paris Hilton, her sex tape with Ray J and her high-profile romances with everyone from Nick Lachey and Nick Cannon to football star Reggie Bush and Halle Berry ex Gabriel Aubry. What a difference a decade makes! These days, Kim isn't just a reality TV star. She's arguably the biggest star on the planet. She's also an incredibly savvy businesswoman with several super-successful brands to her name including KKW Beauty, KKW Fragrance and Skims solutionwear. On top of all that, the married mom of four has also become a major player in prison reform activism and is studying to become a lawyer. Not too bad for a girl who made it big when her sex tape leaked in 2007!

The Rock made his feature film debut in 2001's "The Mummy Returns," but it would take years for the wrestling star to complete his transformation into Dwayne Johnson, major Hollywood player. Things started to change once he made his debut as an executive producer with the 2010 documentary "Racing Dreams." The following year, he joined the "Fast & Furious" franchise with "Fast Five." A year after that, he and ex-wife Dany Garcia launched their production company, Seven Bucks Productions, which has produced several of his recent films including "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," "Baywatch," "Rampage" and "Skyscraper" as well as the TV shows "Ballers," "The Hero" and "Wake Up Call." A year after THAT, the movies in which he appeared made $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office — more than any other actor in 2013. Extremely lucrative deals for "San Andreas," Under Armour and "Red Notice" soon followed. And to think people didn't take him seriously when he first attempted to branch out of wrestling!

At the beginning of 2010, Gwyneth Paltrow was less than two years into Goop, the lifestyle brand with which she has since become synonymous. The company started out as a weekly e-mail newsletter through which the Oscar-winning actress shared her favorite health and wellness tips. Then in 2012, Goop branched into e-commerce. It took off like wildfire after that, with the company launching makeup, skincare, fragrance and fashion lines in 2016, a line of vitamins and supplements in 2017 and a furniture and home décor line in 2018. That same year, Goop opened its first brick-and-mortar store. Just like that, Gwyneth transitioned from actress to lifestyle guru. (Her first wellness summit kicked off in 2017.) Though the former "Shakespeare in Love" star — who's also released five cookbooks since 2011 — still occasionally acts, her Hollywood career has definitely taken a backseat in recent years. Aside from her work as Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a mostly supporting role), she's only taken on a few gigs outside the MCU since starring in 2010's "Country Strong." The biggest? A five-episode stint on "Glee," a supporting role on the 2019 Netflix drama "The Politician" and the female lead in the 2015 box office bomb "Mortdecai" opposite Johnny Depp.

The 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue featured 24-year-old Rookie of the Year Chrissy Teigen, who went on to pose for the magazine's 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 issues. (In 2014, she shared the 50th anniversary cover with Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge.) But these days — thanks in part to her strong voice on social media — she's so much more than a swimsuit model. Since Chrissy married John Legend in 2013, welcomed two kids and released a pair of cookbooks (2016's "Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat: A Cookbook" and 2018's "Cravings: Hungry for More: A Cookbook"), she's completely rebranded as a momtrepreneur who's more interested in being a boss — and collaborating on lines for major brands like Target and Revolve — than posing in a swimsuit… though she's still happy to show off her bod from time to time. Now, her brand is so centered around her family, Vanity Fair dubbed Chrissy, her husband and their kids "the first family we deserve" on the cover of its December 2019 issue.

In 2010, Jonah Hill was still known for his work in raucous comedies like "Grandma's Boy," "Knocked Up," "Superbad" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." His career made a major shift after he starred in 2011's "Moneyball" — and earned his first Oscar nomination! Two years later, he earned his second Oscar nomination for his work in "The Wolf of Wall Street." He showed off his acting chops once again on the 2018 Netflix sci-fi drama series "Maniac," which coincided with a major physical transformation on his part. This former funnyman is clearly all grown up!

In 2010, Seth Rogen — much like Jonah Hill — was known for his work acting in stoner comedies like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Superbad," "Pineapple Express" and "Observe and Report." But everything changed for the funnyman, who got his start on the Judd Apatow-created comedies "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared," when he launched his production company, Point Grey Pictures, in 2011 and became a major behind-the-scenes player. (The company, which he co-founded with business partner Evan Goldberg, has produced a number of the films in which he's starred over the course of the past decade, as well as the lauded TV series "Preacher," "Future Man," "The Boys" and "Black Monday," for which Don Cheadle earned an Emmy nomination.) Though Seth went on to make some of the funniest movies of the teens, he's also expanded as an actor, starring in the 2011 action flick "The Green Hornet" and in the 2015 drama "Jobs," in which he portrayed Steve Wozniak. On top of all that, he's also now a director, having co-helmed "This Is the End," "The Interview," several episodes of "Preacher" and more.

Back in 2010, Reese Witherspoon was one of Hollywood's most in-demand actresses, with roles in "Cruel Intentions," "Legally Blonde" and "Sweet Home Alabama" — as well as an Oscar for "Walk the Line" — under her belt. She'd also dipped her toes into producing with "Penelope" and two "Legally Blonde" sequels: 2003's "Legally Blond 2: Red, White & Blonde" and 2009's "Legally Blondes." But it wasn't until 2012 when her production company, Type A Films, merged with Make Movies to form Pacific Standard that she became a major Hollywood heavyweight. In 2016, Pacific Standard became a subsidiary of Reese's latest venture, Hello Sunshine, which has produced the Academy Award-nominated films "Wild" and "Gone Girl," the Emmy-winning drama "Big Little Lies," the multi-hyphenate's "Shine On with Reese" talk show and so much more. Hello Sunshine also launched its own eponymous DirecTV channel in mid-2018. If that's not enough evidence of Reese's transformation from actress to boss, she also launched a clothing line, Draper James, in 2015.

Kylie Jenner wasn't even a teenager until mid-2010. (She turned 13 on Aug. 10 that year.) But now she's — as Forbes put it in March 2019 — "the world's youngest self-made billionaire." These days, it's rare to see the 22 year old identified as a "reality TV star." Why? Since launching her Kylie Cosmetics brand in 2015, she's become a makeup and beauty mogul.

Michael Strahan has been one of TV's biggest stars since he joined Kelly Ripa on the daytime talk show "Live!" in 2012. But, of course, that hasn't always been the case: He was still a professional football player up until his retirement in June 2008. In 2016, he left "Live! with Kelly and Michael" — for which he earned two Emmys — to work full-time on "Good Morning America." In 2018, he and Sara Haines took over the third hour of "GMA," which became "GMA3: Strahan, Sara & Keke" when Keke Palmer joined the show full-time in July 2019. On top of all that, Michael has hosted "The $100,000 Pyramid" since 2016. Clearly, hanging up his helmet is the best decision he's ever made!

Jessica Simpson was once one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. But she hasn't released new music since 2010, when she put out a holiday album, "Happy Christmas," a compilation album and a promotional single, "Who We Are," which served as the theme song for her short-lived VH1 docuseries "The Price of Beauty." She hasn't acted since then either (she portrayed a version of herself on a 2010 episode of "Entourage").In fact, the singer-actress basically left Hollywood behind when the reality show "Fashion Star," on which she served as a mentor, came to an end after two seasons in 2013. Instead, she's focused on growing her family and her Jessica Simpson Collection — a billion-dollar fashion and lifestyle empire that's now one of the most successful celebrity brands of all time. After starting as a shoe collaboration with Nine West in 2006, the brand expanded to include clothing, accessories, fragrances, home décor and so much more.

Greta Gerwig is one of Hollywood's foremost female filmmakers. But she cut her teeth as an actress before taking over the director's chair. Though the multi-hyphenate made her directorial debut with the 2008 indie "Nights and Weekends" — which she also wrote, produced and starred in — it wasn't until her sophomore effort, 2017's "Lady Bird," that she earned mainstream recognition for her work as a director. (She earned an Oscar nomination for directing and a Golden Globe nomination for writing the coming-of-age dramedy.) Before that, she'd appeared in "Greenberg," "No Strings Attached," "Frances Ha" and "Jackie." Greta's directing can be seen next in the 2019 adaptation of "Little Women" and in the 2020 live-action "Barbie" movie.

After cutting his teeth as a comedian on "The Dana Carvey Show" and "Saturday Night Live," The Second City alum Steve Carell signed on to star as Michael Scott on "The Office." His work on the widely beloved sitcom — along with small but hilarious supporting roles in "Bruce Almighty" and "Anchorman" — catapulted him to international superstardom. After the series debuted in 2005, he delivered LOL-worthy performances in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Evan Almighty," "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" and more buzzed-about comedies. But then he left "The Office" in 2013 and kicked off his transformation into a serious actor. First came an Academy Award-nominated performance as real-life convicted murderer John du Pont in "Foxcatcher." Then came lauded performances in Richard Linklater's war drama "Last Flag Flying," in the addiction drama "Beautiful Boy," as Donald Rumsfeld in "Vice" and as real-life hate-crime survivor Mark Hogancamp in "Welcome to Marwen." Currently, he can be seen playing a newsman whose story loosely mirrors Matt Lauer's on the AppleTV+ drama "The Morning Show."

Oh, how far Katharine McPhee has come since placing second on the fifth season of "American Idol" in 2006! She's released five studio albums since then — which comes as no surprise given her incredible singing voice. It's her acting career that has been a bit unexpected. After establishing herself as one to watch in the music biz, Kat made her feature film debut in the 2008 comedy "The House Bunny." (She had a supporting role as a pregnant sorority girl.) After a few bit roles on various TV shows, she finally scored a major breakthrough when she was cast as Karen Cartwright on the short-lived Emmy-nominated musical drama "Smash," which aired from 2012 to 2013. The following year, "Scorpion" debuted. She starred as Paige Dineen on the CBS crime-drama, which marked her official arrival in Hollywood, until 2018 — the same year she made her Broadway debut in "Waitress."

Idina Menzel has been one of theater's biggest stars since she originated the role of Maureen Johnson in the Broadway production of "Rent" in 1996 — and earned a Tony Award nomination for her efforts. She reached a new level of theater-superstardom when she originated the role of Elphaba in the Broadway production of "Wicked" in 2003. The following year, she earned a Tony for her work in the musical. But still, it was only theater nerds who knew her name. Though the singer-actress returned to the role of Maureen in the 2005 big-screen adaptation of "Rent" and had a role in 2006's "Enchanted," it would be a few more years until Idina made a major impact in Hollywood. In 2010, she scored her first recurring role on a major television series: She portrayed Rachel's birth mom, Shelby Corcoran, on "Glee." Her level of stardom reached new heights after she voiced Queen Elsa in 2013's "Frozen." (Ironically, it was a cartoon for which she gained the most recognition!) Up next, she can be seen in the Adam Sandler crime-drama film "Uncut Gems," which is already getting Oscar buzz, and heard in Disney's "Frozen 2."