A surprisingly large number of famous people keep bees. This is not a coincidence. Beekeeping selects for a particular kind of person: patient, curious, comfortable with discomfort, and apparently unconcerned about being stung. Hollywood has more of these people than you'd think.
In 2014, Morgan Freeman converted his 124-acre ranch in Mississippi into a bee sanctuary. He did not do this quietly. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Freeman described importing 26 hives of bees and hand-feeding them sugar water to help them adjust to their new home.
His stated motivation was concern about Colony Collapse Disorder and the decline of honeybee populations. He has not been stung, he says, because he moves slowly and does not wear a bee suit — a detail that is either inspiring or ill-advised depending on your perspective on bee suits.
Freeman grows a variety of flowering plants across his property specifically to support the bees. He describes himself as a committed beekeeper and has spoken about the hobby in multiple interviews with the evident enthusiasm of someone who has found their thing.
Johansson keeps bees in both New York and at a property in France. She has spoken publicly about her beekeeping practice and reportedly gifted Ryan Reynolds a jar of honey from her own hives during the production of a film they shared — a gift that, regardless of what one thinks of honey, demonstrates considerable commitment to the hobby.
Martha Stewart has kept bees at her Bedford, New York farm for many years, which should surprise no one familiar with her biography. Stewart approaches beekeeping with the same systematic thoroughness she applies to everything else: multiple hives, structured maintenance schedules, and a reported output of honey that exceeds personal consumption by a significant margin. She uses the honey in recipes, gives it as gifts, and discusses beekeeping with authority on her various media platforms.
Jennifer Garner keeps bees at her property and has documented her beekeeping on social media with what can only be described as genuine enthusiasm. She has posted videos of hive inspections, honey harvests, and the general business of maintaining colonies. Garner grew up on a farm in West Virginia and has described beekeeping as a return to her agricultural roots.
Paltrow keeps bees at her Hamptons property and has discussed the practice in interviews. She is also associated with bee venom therapy — a separate and considerably more controversial application of bee-related wellness — though her actual beekeeping practice appears to be conventional and focused on honey production. Goop has sold bee-related products, as Goop does.
Bear Grylls keeps bees at his island home in Wales, which is exactly where you'd expect Bear Grylls to keep bees. He has discussed beekeeping in the context of self-sufficiency and living closer to nature. Grylls is one of the few celebrity beekeepers whose hobby is thematically consistent with everything else he does publicly.
Michael Balzary, known professionally as Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, keeps bees in Los Angeles. He has discussed his beekeeping on social media and in interviews, describing it as a meditative and grounding practice. This is perhaps the most surprising entry on this list. It should not change how you feel about Californication.
Miller keeps bees at her property in the English countryside and has spoken about beekeeping as part of a broader interest in sustainable living and food production. She describes herself as a committed, if still learning, beekeeper.
Additional confirmed or credibly reported celebrity beekeepers, listed without extended profiles because this list would otherwise never end.
Note: Sherlock Holmes is fictional. His beekeeping is nonetheless extensively documented in Arthur Conan Doyle's later stories, in which Holmes retires to the Sussex Downs to keep bees and writes a monograph on the subject. We include him because he would want to be included.