Geoffrey Owens appears on SAG Awards after Trader Joe's job shaming

The great luck keeps coming for Geoffrey Owens, the actor who was shamed for taking a job at Trader Joe’s because the gigs dried up in Hollywood.

In the opening sequence of the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, the former costar of The Cosby Show was featured front and center as a guild member, and more importantly, an “actor.”

“So, somewhere in the middle of the road of my life, I found myself in the dark wood of unemployment and debt,” he said directly to the camera. “But instead of switching careers like a sane person, I took a job at a local Trader Joe’s to see if I could hang in there with my career. And, um, its actually worked out pretty well. I’m Geoffrey Owens and I am an actor. ”

In September, the Daily Mailand Fox News published photos of Owens bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, which prompted scores of fans and celebrities to come to the actor’s defense. Owens worked at Trader Joe’s for 15 months but said he had to quit over the recent attention. He accepted an offer by Tyler Perry to appear on the OWN series The Haves and the Have Nots to costar in 10 episodes in the show’s sixth season. He also booked a gig on NCIS: New Orleans.

Owens played Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show, from 1985 to 1992. He has since appeared on a number of shows, including Divorce, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Built to Last.