Doctors Famous for Other Things

Aka Physicians famous for other activities, aka doctors famous for other activities. Some of these are doctors turned actors, others are doctors turned writers. Its a very short list, and this is partly because its my top 5, but also because...its a short list. After all, not many people get through the gruelling, time consuming ordeal of medical school only to give it all up. But of the brave few that have, here are some success stories.

5. Khaled Hosseini

Writer of the hugely successful novels The Kite Runner and a Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini was a practising Dr in the US for over ten years before hitting the big time. The Kite runner was a runaway hit and spawned a film of the same name, and the studios have already optioned his second book too

4. Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle was a doctor for much of his early life before writing took over, graduating from Edinburgh, and working in Birmingham. These days he is probably best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the book series of which has led to numerous comic book, TV and film spinoffs

3. Harry Hill

British comedian Harry Hill started out on the fringes, and slowly worked his way up, from his quirky, cult routines in Fruit Corner and Fruit Fancies, through to his own late night show and finally into mainstream, mass audience appeal with Harry Hill's TV Burp. He's a man so ludicrously silly, its a shock to discover that he's actually a fully qualified doctor in the UK, though he quit shortly after becoming a house officer.

2. Michael Crichton

Not only is Crichton the best selling author of works such as Jurassic Park, Sphere, Congo, The Andromeda strain and many more, he also helped create behemoth medical drama ER. While he only wrote the first 3 episodes, he developed the first season with Spielberg, and the show is now one of the longest running dramas of all time. The chaotic, exhausting, ramshackle atmosphere in a hospital was based on his own personal experiences of medical school and residency.

1. Ken Jeong

Known to most as the Asian mobster from the Hangover films, or Spanish teacher Senior Chang from Community, Ken too started out in medicine. He was doing stand-up comedy on top of 90 hour weeks whilst completing his residency and he continued the standup comedy even after he set up his own practice in LA in the late 90s. It was Judd Aptow discovering him that eventually led to him abandoning his profession for his one true love: comedy