Pennsylvania celebrities’ most memorable moments from 2024

From Taylor Swift to Will Smith, celebrities from Pennsylvania had a busy 2024. Here’s what they got up to. 

Some of Pennsylvania’s biggest names stay in the state, while others move on to the shiny lights of New York or Los Angeles. But they can’t shed their roots! Read on to learn about how celebs from Pa. spent the last year.

1. Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift has sung about her homes in New York City and Rhode Island, and the star also owns homes in Nashville and California. But everyone knows her roots are in Pennsylvania, where she grew up on a Christmas tree farm (which also happens to be the title of one of her Christmas songs) in Berks County. While 2023 was a big year for Swift and her Eras Tour, the world tour actually continued through 2024, and only ended in early December. Swift also won Album of the Year at the 2024 Grammys in February (becoming the first artist to win the award four times) and released another album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” in April. What will she possibly do in 2025?

Taylor Swift performing her 1989-era set during The Eras Tour. (Paolo V/CC BY 2.0)

2. Jeff Goldblum

Jeff Goldblum is originally from the Pittsburgh area and got his start playing music and acting in local theater shows as a kid. In 2024, the Western Pa. native starred in the hit movie “Wicked” as the Wizard of Oz himself. Goldblum called the role a “once-in-a-lifetime thing” that was particularly exciting because of his musical background. Goldblum, after all, is a jazz pianist in his band Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, which visited Pittsburgh to play at the city’s Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in June.

Jeff Goldblum on the red carpet for the “Wicked” premiere in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, 2024. (Our Movie Guide/CC BY 3.0)

3. Wiz Khalifa

Wiz Khalifa, proudly from Pittsburgh per his song “Black and Yellow,” certainly had an interesting year. The rapper announced he was having a daughter with his girlfriend Aimee Aguilar, got arrested in Romania for smoking marijuana onstage, and put his Canonsburg mansion up for sale for almost $1.3 million. (The home is actually still for sale, and the price has been cut by nearly $100,000.) It’s unclear if Khalifa is going to buy another home in the area or if he’s cutting his Pittsburgh ties.

Wiz Khalifa performing at the Budweiser Stage. (The Come Up Show/Mac Downey/CC BY-ND 2.0)

4. Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter is originally from the Philadelphia area, a fact she made clear during her October concert in the city, where she wore a glittering Phillies jersey with her own name on the back. The singer has had an eventful 2024, with the release of her sixth album—her first album to be certified platinum—“Short n’ Sweet.” The hit single “Espresso” was also the most streamed song on Spotify in 2024, with 1.6 billion streams worldwide. And finally, “Espresso” inspired one of the best Saturday Night Live sketches of the year, featuring the equally catchy song “Domingo.”

Sabrina Carpenter posing on the red carpet on March 10, 2024. (Shutterstock)

5. Michael Keaton

Actor Michael Keaton is one of the famous sons of Pittsburgh that famously loves Pittsburgh. For example, he negotiated a clause in his “Batman” movie contract to take time off filming if the Pittsburgh Pirates made the playoffs. (Unsurprisingly, they did not. And like all Pittsburghers, Keaton is very frustrated with the Pirates!) In 2024, Keaton reprised his starring role of Betelgeuse in the movie “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” a sequel to the original 1988 Tim Burton black comedy. He also starred in the dramedy “Goodrich.”

6. Tina Fey

In 2024, Philadelphia native Tina Fey, the original screenwriter of 2004’s instant classic “Mean Girls,” released a musical remake of the movie—well, it was based on the Broadway show that was based on the movie. Anyway, Fey reprised her 2004 role as math teacher Ms. Norbury and also wrote and produced the 2024 film. This year, Fey also began filming for the Netflix comedy show “The Four Seasons,” based on the 1981 movie of the same name, alongside costar Steve Carrell.

Tina Fey attends Kimmy Goes To The Paley Center: A Celebration Of ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ at Paley Center For Media on January 24, 2019 in New York City. (Shutterstock)

7. Will Smith

In 2024, Will Smith returned to his music career—though he certainly is still busy as an actor. But in June, for the first time in almost two decades, Will Smith released a solo single, “You Can Make It.” He also performed the single at the BET Awards in June. The West Philly native has since released two other singles, and also confirmed that a new album is finished and on the way. Smith is still working in film too—this past summer, he starred in the fourth installment of the “Bad Boys” movie franchise, and he was also a producer for the upcoming movie “Karate Kid: Legends,” part of “The Karate Kid” movie franchise.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.