Some…most reality television stars are a dime a dozen. Producers find these people on the streets, on the Internet or audition rooms, and no matter if they have talent or not, they are suddenly on your television screen, intruding into your home, and forcing you to ride along on their journeys to be models, singers or millionaires.

But for those few who are talented, and manage to extend that 15-minute window wide, they achieve true celebrity, earn real money and garner awards for their talent. Notorious celebrities from “The Apprentice,” “Flavor of Love,” “America’s Next Top Model” and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” have been taking strides to remove the word ‘reality’ from the title ‘Reality Stars.’

eurweb.com

Nene Leakes

The Queens, New York native initially gained fame in 2008, cumulatively earning more than 3 million as a lead player on the show “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” –and was further popularized on “Celebrity Apprentice.” Nowadays, Leakes is busier than ever, achieving a reoccurring role as Coach Roz on the hit television show “Glee” and pushing shoes and wine. She recently turned down a featured spot on “Celebrity Apprentice All Stars,” but will be appearing on a new sitcom this fall on NBC called, “The New Normal.” Recently featured in The Wall Street Journal, Leakes has also just had a grandchild and is looking for a possible spin-off reality show under the patented name, “I Dream of Nene.”

Back when “America’s Next Top Model” debuted on UPN (yes, UPN…THROWBACK!), it was something fresh and fun for those just getting into the whole reality TV thing. The year was 2003. Almost 10 years later and the show has become a tad bit stale, so much so that they had to fire three fan favorite cast members recently to keep the fire going. But when it was hot, it was very entertaining. My only real issue with the show would be the fact that even the winners of the show (with the exception of Eva Pigford) would pretty much fall into obscurity when they were supposed to turning into the “Top” of the top models. What’s that about!? Either way, we found out what a few of them were doing and thought we’d share. And yes, we’ve done something like this before last year, but we’ve got some different faces off of the milk carton. And as always, be ready to click-ity click.

Source: fanpop.com

Naima Mora

Sadly, it might be easy to forget Naima Mora. Though she was the winner of Cycle 4, the model, who is African American, Irish, Native American and Mexican, was pretty quiet and the perfect example of an introvert. Don’t let that mohawk fool you. But that didn’t keep her from being a fan favorite (winning fan voted “CoverGirl of the week” EVERY week) and impressing the judges to take the fancy CoverGirl contract, contract with Ford Models and spread in Elle. Since then, Mora did some TV work (“Veronica Mars”), she’s  done her share of print work in big name magazines (US Weekly,  IN Touch, and Teen People among many others), and done some independent film work. But for a few years now, Mora has taken a break from all the posing and giving good face to show off her vocal talents as the lead singer for the bands, Chewing Pics (which disbanded in 2009) and Galaxy of Tar. I don’t know if those names would intrigue me enough to go to listen to their music, but do your thing boo!