20 actors who were on 'Gilmore Girls' before they became huge stars

Before she was “Jessica Jones” and the “B---- in Apartment 23,” Ritter was just Lucy, Rory’s (Bledel) friend from Yale. Ritter showed promise in this role — more so than in her “Veronica Mars” stint the year before — but her character was bogged down in a weird storyline about her boyfriend keeping his non-relationship with Rory a secret.

The “Community” star is fairly well-known now, but back in 2006, he was Raj, a contributor for The Yale Daily News who gifted Rory a giant blue pencil on her last day as editor.

The mustache is still amazing, but Beau Belleville couldn’t be more different than Offerman’s star-making turn as Ron Swanson. Beau was Jackson’s (Jackson Douglas) brother who thought Lorelai was a nymphomaniac and made some weird facial expressions because of it.

The “Hamilton” star just won a Tony Award, but 10 years ago, he appeared in one episode as a pompous guy from Princeton who joined Rory on a panel about journalism.

MacFarlane had already been the voice of Stewie Griffin for about three years when he had a small stint on “Gilmore Girls.” Fox notoriously canceled “Family Guy” in 2002 before reviving it in 2005, so in the meantime, MacFarlane kept himself busy. He played Zack, a peer in Lorelai’s graduating class who hates the rich and is mean to Lorelai.

Justice became the queen of Nickelodeon, but her very first role is credited as “Jill #2” in this 2003 episode of the show. Justice sports some elf ears as an attendee of a “Lord of the Rings”-themed party and says Sookie’s (McCarthy) food “tastes like diapers,” proving the lovable chef doesn’t understand what children want. (What is gravlax anyway?)

The hunk of the early 2000s was a familiar face on the first season of the show, playing Tristan Dugray, the rich boy who teased Rory, angered Dean (Padalecki), and made all the girls swoon. But Tristan is conveniently sent away to boarding school as Murray gets a stint on “Dawson’s Creek” and then of course as Lucas Scott in “One Tree Hill.”

Rajskub had two different roles on “Gilmore Girls” before she became Jack Bauer’s trusted analyst on “24.” In her first, she starred with Kirk (James Gunn) in his own film as the “favorite daughter.” In her second, she competed with and annoyed Taylor to be the town troubadour.

Watch her in "A Film by Kirk."

Lynch had an eclectic list of roles to her name before she hit it big on “Glee.” On “Gilmore Girls,” she played a nurse who had to suffer the bite of Emily Gilmore after Richard was rushed to the hospital.

Malek just received his first Emmy nomination for his breakout role as Elliot in “Mr. Robot.” But back in his very first acting gig, Malek was Andy, Lane’s (Keiko Agena) classmate who worked with her on a group project about interviewing a “distinguished leader.” Andy, in his sweater vest nonetheless, was passionate about picking assistant pastor Eric.

Pedrad does a mean impression of Kim Kardashian and was a standout on “Scream Queens,” but one of her first roles on “Gilmore Girls” didn’t give her much to do. She was simply a waitress who had to wait on a drunk and mean Rory who just found out about Logan’s exploits while they were broken up.

Marano is currently starring in Freeform’s hit “Switched at Birth,” but one of her first major roles was as Luke’s (Scott Patterson) daughter. The character was a mini-version of Rory and is somewhat the reason Luke and Lorelai broke up, so she’s quite controversial.

Before he became everyone’s favorite on “New Girl,” Greenfield played Lucas, one of Dean’s friends on his bachelor-party galavant around Stars Hollow. He quips at Luke that “my name’s Luke too!” and looks concerned when Dean starts drunkenly pining for Rory on the eve of his wedding to Lindsay.

Lorelai easily took down Superman in his one-episode stint on the show. Madeline and Louise ditched the Bangles concert to party with the older Jess (Routh), only to have Lorelai masterfully retrieve them and shut down Jess’ cool-guy attitude.

Before he could manipulate time as Hiro Nakamura in “Heroes,” Oka could be seen for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in “Gilmore Girls” when Rory sneaks into a philosophy class at Harvard and quickly dominates the room.

Five years before he was Bella Swan's dad in "Twilight," Burke was Alex Lesman, the nice guy Lorelai dated for an unknown amount of time. The two met after attending a class about how to run an inn. After they double-date with Sookie and Jackson, Alex isn’t seen again though he’s mentioned and still seemed to be dating Lorelai. Maybe we’ll never know what really broke them up.

We’ll never forget Dave Rygalski. The sweet and smart guitarist won over Mrs. Kim so that he could date Lane. Brody was a great supporting player, but unfortunately Dave conveniently moved to California for college as Brody was cast to star in “The O.C.” as Seth Cohen.

Gil eventually replaced Dave in the band, and Lowe’s Zack also eventually replaced him as Lane’s boyfriend and later husband. Zack was a lovable goofball, very different from Lowe’s later starring role as Terry Bellefleur on “True Blood.”

You’ll recognize Hardin in major roles as Trudy Monk in “Monk,” Jan Levinson in “The Office,” and Tammy Cashman in “Transparent,” but first she was Carolyn “Lynnie” Bates, a psychologist the Gilmores were obviously trying to pair with Christopher. Fortunately, their attempts are muddled in Lorelai’s quintessentially fast-paced and incessant questioning.