IT’S the controversial restaurant chain known for its glamorous waitresses, ‘bikini nights’ and world-renowned chicken wings.
But as Hooters of America files for bankruptcy this week, many will have forgotten the slew of famous faces who have worked at the so-called ‘breastaurant’.
From models and TV hosts to a Hollywood star who earned just $7 an hour, you might be surprised by some of these former ‘Hooters Girls’.
For them, serving punters and ‘running’ food at the chain provided exposure to the notoriously-competitive entertainment industry, which they’d later become stars of.
Katherine Ryan
Comedian and mum-of-three Ryan has dominated the male-heavy panels of TV game shows, including 8 Out of 10 Cats and Would I Lie to You?
But the 41-year-old said she felt most empowered while working at Hooters, where she took part in bikini pageants and won ‘Miss Hooters Toronto 2004’.
“Hooters was, interestingly, the place that I found kind of the most empowerment for myself,”; she said on Paul C. Brunson's podcast, ‘We Need To Talk’, in January.
Ryan, now famous globally, added that after growing tired of competing in bikini pageants, she asked to host them instead, allowing her to “have a voice”.
She’d ask competitors funny questions, and silence hecklers with clever one-liners.
Ryan’s vibrant personality earned her both higher tips and the respect of male punters – who laughed at her jokes, reportedly giving her a feeling of “status”.
“That always felt so good,”; she told Paul.
“I realised that the feeling of respect – I think laughing at someone, having that commonality, that language, I feel that's a really respectful feeling.”
In an interview with The Observer, the Canadian beauty acknowledged that her teenage daughter, Violet, might wonder why she worked at the controversial chain.
She said: “Violet might look at me and say, ‘Why work at Hooters, that’s not very feminist?’ Well, I was just living in the world that I was in, and it was different.
“And we didn’t have smartphones, Violet, and this was still acceptable.”;
Ryan, who trained other ‘Hooters Girls’ and helped to open the firm’s Nottingham branch, added: “It’s not like I was misbehaving – that’s what the world was.”;
Amy Adams
Hollywood star Adams also once donned Hooters’s skimpy uniform.
The two-time Golden Globe winner, then just 18, earned $7 an hour working for the chain – which was, remarkably, almost double the minimum wage at the time.
She saved up her wages over a few months to buy a used car, unaware that she’d one day swap her sporty orange shorts for success on the silver screen.
Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Adams laughed that she spent “three months in orange shorts”; yet has “to talk about it forever”;.
She added: “It was a really good job because at the time, minimum wage was $3.85 and they were willing to pay $7 to the hostesses and that for me – saving up for a car and being a dancer — I ran around in tights and a leotard all day long anyway.”;
But the 50-year-old, who worked as both a hostess and a waitress, admitted: “I learned that there was a difference between dance class and Hooters very quickly.”;
Adams, who has a teen daughter, says she simply “wasn’t cut out”; to be a waitress.
Hooters, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, US, yesterday amid mounting debts, says its girls are “more than just a pretty face”;.
They volunteer and attend community events – though some former employees have claimed they were subjected to strict rules about their appearance, including no weight gain or ponytails.
Petite Adams told Entertainment Tonight she was more curvaceous in her youth, saying: “Well, I was like 18, so everybody has the body at 18.”;
But despite the allegations against Hooters, she said: “It was a great job.”;
Nikki and Brie Bella
They have done everything together their entire lives – including working at Hooters.
WWE legends The Bella Twins – who are among the most popular female stars in professional wrestling history – used to serve up chicken wings to California diners.
From squeezing their cleavages and using Hooters “lingo”; to not taking “any crap”; from customers, the sisters spoke out last year about their time as ‘Hooters Girls’.
“Working there, you really owned your feminine energy,”; said Brie, who, along with sister Nikki, now goes by her maiden surname, Garcia, told the New York Post.
“As a waitress, you have to have confidence to go up to strangers and talk. But we had to have thick skin and not only confidence, but you had to own it.
“You’re going up to men who are excited and want to get crazy.
“So we knew how to keep them in line and we all set boundaries for ourselves and didn’t take any crap from our customers. So it really taught me at a young age just to stand up for myself and to own it, own the room and own a table. And I think it really helped me with pro wrestling to take that attitude into that.”;
TV presenters Brie and Nikki, now 41, were just 19 when they worked at Hooters.
Sharing some upselling tricks that they used, Nikki told the newspaper: “Squeezing your cleavage. You’d be like, ‘Do you want more fries with that?’.”;
She added: “Let’s be honest, everyone loves seeing the Hooters girls doing the YMCA and hula hoop — tips were going up.”;
The American twins, who used to pay their bills using their Hooters wages, are now estimated to be worth a combined $14million (£10.8million).
Chrissy Teigen
Model Teigen revisited her “roots”; in March 2021 by dressing up as a ‘Hooters Girl’.
The former Sports Illustrated cover girl, married to singer John Legend, slipped into Hooters’s signature orange shorts and white vest for her stylist’s birthday bash.
Sharing photos of herself in the attire on Instagram, Teigen told her followers: “Back to my roots. Was a hostess at the hoots! the shorts, they have changed!!!!”
In response, the official Instagram account of Hooters offered Teigen her job back.
“Just say the word and you’ve got your job back,”; the chain posted.
Legend, with whom Teigen shares four children, as well as late son Jack, dressed up as a Hooters manager, while orange and white balloons adorned the room.
In 2021, Hooters introduced new, skin-tight shorts for ‘Hooters Girls’ – which sparked an uproar among employees, with some comparing the shorts to “undies”;.
Following the backlash, which also included claims of ‘wedgies’, the chain released a statement saying that its girls could choose between the old or new design.
Teigen, now 39, worked at the chain’s Newport Beach location in California.
“I never made it up to being a server, but I would run food. But I will say it was one of the most wonderful times,” she said on the True Crime Obsessive podcast.
The model has previously revealed how she had breast implants at the age of 20.
“It was more for a swimsuit thing. I thought, if I’m going to be posing, laid on my back, I want them to be perky,”; she told Glamour UK. “But then you have babies and they fill up with milk and deflate and now I am screwed.”;
She has since had the implants removed.
Holly Madison
She was a ‘Hooters Girl’before becoming Hugh Hefner's so-called “#1 Girl”;.
Former Playboy Bunny Madison, now 45, spent several years working at the chain’s branch in Santa Monica, California. There, she received a rare invite to a party at the Playboy Mansion – where she would later live as one of Hefner's girlfriends.
“I was a college student, I worked at Hooters in Santa Monica, and all the women that worked there wanted to go to these parties, and only a few of them were lucky enough to get invited,”; Madison told Life and Style magazine last year.
“So, when my roommate and I finally got invited, it felt like a dream come true.”
Madison’s glamorous picture now features on the online ‘Hooters Girl Hall of Fame’.
Brittany Oldehoff
Model Oldehoff has described the Hooters business as a “big family”;.
The 35-year-old, known for being a swimsuit pinup and the 2014 Miss USA fourth runner-up, briefly worked at the chain when she was 18.
She told Fox News: “It really is a big family and any time they ask me to help, I will always, 100 per cent, say yes because the Hooters family is such a strong bond.
“Everybody is really close and it’s a really good environment to be involved in.”;
She added that, despite what outsiders might believe, ‘Hooters Girls’ aren’t “sexually exploited”;.
“It’s not like that at all. I’ve worked with girls who became doctors, nurses, lawyers, and judges — everything you can think of,”; she said.
Jerri Manthey
Survivor villainess Manthey donned the famous orange shorts in the early 1990s.
She reportedly opened up the Hooters of Huntsville, Alabama, in 1991 before working for the chain in Oklahoma City.
The TV star, now 54, even appeared in the Summer 1992 edition of HOOTERS magazine, alongside country singer Vince Gill.
Katrina Darrell
Darrell, who soared to fame as the ‘Bikini Girl’ on the eighth season of American Idol, was fired from her job at Hooters shortly before auditioning for the show.
Darrell, now 37, worked at the establishment for three months but failed to rise through the ranks and become a waitress, according to Fox News,
The singer was reportedly sacked from her position greeting customers after she repeatedly left her shifts early to attend various auditions.
Anna Burns
Former swimsuit model Burns, who is married to ex-NFL star Wes Walker, worked as a Hooters girl before meeting her future husband.
She won the 2005 Miss Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant.
The beauty, who has three children with Walker, appeared in numerous editions of HOOTERS magazine, as well as the chain's famous calendars.
Samantha Burke
American model Burke famously gave birth to actor Jude Law’s fourth child, Sophia, in 2009. Just a year earlier, she had been working at a Hooters restaurant in Florida.
Photos published by TMZ show a younger Burke beaming and posing with other ‘Hooters Girls’ while sporting a black, Hooters-branded tank top and skimpy shorts.
She reportedly quit the job after being signed by US modelling agency, Izon Models.
