Hollywood Celebrities Love Escape Room LA!

On a rainy Saturday evening in February 2015, Neil Patrick Harris, host of that year’s Academy Awards, rushed from final Oscars rehearsal at the Dolby Theatre to Downtown Los Angeles to play our very first escape room, The Detective. Like a seasoned pro, Neil quickly took charge of his group, keeping them organized and observant in their quest to escape in one hour or less. (Did Neil escape? See below!).

A few weeks earlier, Rosie Perez had come with friends to play The Detective – she was our very first celebrity visit!

Later in February, Conan O’Brien brought his tv sidekick Jordan Shlansky to play The Detective. Their game was filmed for an episode of The Conan O’Brien Show. The final video depicts their hilarious puzzle-solving struggles to escape the room and has become a classic on TBS and YouTube, with over 15 million views.

Most of our celebrity visits are unannounced surprises. Colin Farrell, Brendan Fraser (twice!) and Billy Crystal all came by to play The Theatre. Emma Stone brought her family to The Detective to celebrate her birthday. Seth McFarland wanted to purchase one $2 bottle of water before his Cavern game and asked if we could make change for a $100 bill (no we could not – free water for Seth).

Halle Berry brought her twin daughters to play The Theatre as a birthday celebration. She was so down to earth and genuine that at first our staff didn’t even realize who she was!

We were thrilled to have Teri Hatcher participate in Race/LA, our Amazing Race-style outdoor adventure, as well as in several of our CityRace Urban Adventure Hunts. As we waited to start the Hollywood CityRace, Teri watched with amusement while lines of tourists walked right past her and filed onto sightseeing buses, hoping they’d get a glimpse of a famous Hollywood star.

During the 2020 lockdown we introduced several online games. On one Saturday morning our game host Laura was astonished to log on to Zoom and see Angelina Jolie ( and most of her kids) staring back at her. They played Escape From Planet X online, and tried to bribe Laura by offering their dog Dusty in exchange for clues (don’t worry, she did not accept!).

Did your favorite celebrity manage to escape? Find out below.