Former American Idol Co-Host Brian Dunkleman Gets Candid About Driving for Uber

Like Geoffrey Owens before him, former American Idol co-host Brian Dunkleman has confirmed that he works a regular job to sustain himself through the ebbs and flows of show business. On Thursday, Dunkleman said that he is now an Uber driver—after TMZ reported on his ongoing divorce and allegedly discovered that career detail in his financial documents. Dunkleman responded to that move by tweeting about it, saying he chose to switch jobs so he could spend more time with his son.

“I chose to stop doing standup comedy and started driving an Uber so I could be there for my son as much as he needed after our life as we knew it was destroyed,” he tweeted. He followed that up with: “And I make over a grand on a good week motherfuckers. @TMZ @HarveyLevinTMZ #HumanBarnacles.”

That follow-up tweet came in response to TMZ reporting his financial earnings, saying that he makes “around $800” a week. After co-hosting American Idols first season, Dunkleman landed parts in shows like My Name Is Earl and Ghost Whisperer.

This isnt the first time in recent months that a former industry figure has had to defend themselves for working a regular job. In August,, Geoffrey Owens, an actor who once appeared on The Cosby Show, was photographed working at Trader Joes. After the story was positioned by some as an embarrassing fall from grace, many—including folks like Judd Apatow and Terry Crews—leapt to his defense, saying there was nothing wrong or undignified about what Owens was doing—which, again, was just working a normal job at a grocery store!

“I got to the point that I needed to take a job to pay my bills, to support my family—it was basically that,” Owens said in a later interview. “I wanted a job that had some flexibility, so that if I did stay in [the] entertainment industry, if I could continue to audition and do jobs if I could, and Trader Joes provided that.”

After the story went viral, Owens took a “temporary leave of absence” from Trader Joes. However, he was later offered a 10-episode stint on Tyler Perrys The Haves and the Have Nots, which he accepted. Perhaps Dunkleman will have a similar sort of luck.

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