The Cosby Show’s Geoffrey Owens Still Struggles After Trader Joe’s Job

The Cosby Show’s Geoffrey Owens is looking back on the moment he went viral for working at Trader Joe’s.

“At first, there was some negative stuff about basically the job shaming,” Owens, 63, shared earlier this month on V-103 Atlanta. “A ‘Where is he now?’ kind of thing. But then, very soon after that, there was all this support and encouragement from all over the world. Everybody was chiming in in a positive way.”

Owens played Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show from 1985 to 1992. He returned to the spotlight in 2018 when a customer took photos of the actor as he worked behind the register at a Trader Joe’s grocery store.

While Owens still finds himself acting and recently earned a role in the movie Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza, finances remain tight.

“I still struggle to make a living,” he said. “I struggle every day to make my ends meet, and people can’t get their heads around that because they see me in movies. … They don’t understand the specifics of how my industry works.”

Owens argued that people have a “false impression of what the average middle-class actor makes and their ability to make a living.”

“That’s what drove me to work at Trader Joe’s to begin with,” he explained. “I’m not much better off now than I was then.”

Before photos of Owens working at the grocery store surfaced, he decided to quit his job in fear that customers would continue to come in with cameras.

During his recent interview, however, The Poppa’s House actor said he returned to Trader Joe’s to see if they needed additional help.

“Trader Joe’s is a wonderful place to work and in fact, I’ve gone back there since all this happened,” he shared. “I asked for hours to work there again.”

While it’s unclear if he got his job back, Owens remains grateful that he’s still able to work in a competitive Hollywood industry. He’ll also never forget the kindness from strangers and celebrities like Tyler Perry and 50 Cent who offered him work.

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“For two weeks or more, I was one of the most famous people in the world,” he said. “I couldn’t go anywhere. Everywhere I went, people recognized me and said nice things to me.”

Owens also confirmed that he didn’t fully accept Nicki Minaj’s $20,000 donation to him after she heard about his story.

“I did give it to a charity,” he recalled about the “lovely, incredible” gesture. “At the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. … It didn’t seem right to keep it.”