Although creator Agnes Nixon centered All My Children around teenager Erica Kane from Pine Valley, a fictional Philadelphia suburb, actress Susan Lucci began playing the character when she was 24. Lucci smashed it in the role, and TV Guide magazine called her “unequivocally the most famous soap opera character in the history of daytime TV.”

Susan Lucci earned a cool $1 million per season and was nominated a whopping 21 times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. That said, she only won once!

Now approaching 80, the glamorous actress married Austrian-born chef Helmut Huber in 1969 and had two children, actress Liza Huber and son Andreas Huber. The couple was married for 52 years until Helmut sadly passed away in 2022, aged 84.

Susan also appeared in the original Dallas and played Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin’s musical Annie Get Your Gun. Most recently, you may have seen Lucci strutting her stuff in season seven of Dancing with the Stars. She finished fifth.

In 1990, producers cast Kelly Ripa in her first major acting role as AMC’s troubled party girl, Hayley Vaughan. She would go on to play the character for two decades. When she met fellow actor Mark Consuelos in 1994, it was love even before first sight!

AMC’s casting director showed her Mark’s headshot, at which point Kelly fell head over heels in love with him. Kelly explained, “When I saw him… the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash… I saw it.”

Since AMC, Ripa has appeared on shows like Hannah Montana, 30 Rock, Broad City, and Nashville. In 2019, Kelly and Mark even made a memorable cameo on Riverdale.

These days, she’s best known to American audiences as a morning TV show host, first on Live With Regis and Kelly starting in 2001, then with Ryan Seacrest, and now the flirty couple host Live With Kelly and Mark. Nowadays, the lucky couple lives in a $27 million New York townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side!

Mark Consuelos was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1971 to an Italian mother and a Mexican father. He grew up in Italy, Illinois, and Florida. Mark graduated with a degree in marketing in 1994.

The following year, with zero acting experience, he landed an audition to play Mateo Santos Jr. — Hayley Vaughan’s love interest — and stayed in the role for more than a decade. But winning the part of Mateo Santos Jr. isn’t all Consuelos won. He also won the heart of the actress playing Hayley Vaughan… one Kelly Ripa.

Mark went on to appear in 1-800-Missing, Hope & Faith, Ugly Betty, American Horror Story, Alpha House, Pitch, The Night Shift, and Only Murders in the Building. Fast-forward to today, and Mark and Kelly Ripa have been married for almost 30 years.

The two actors and TV hosts are parents to three children — Michael, Lola, and Joaquin. In 2023, he replaced Ryan Seacrest as cohost on Live With Kelly and Ryan and now hosts the show with his wife.

In 2003, Howard University graduate Chadwick Boseman was cast as All My Children‘s Reggie Montgomery. However, his role didn’t last long. He voiced his concerns about the many racist stereotypes constantly showing up in the script.

Producers fired the talented young actor, and the role was subsequently re-cast, with one of Chadwick’s future co-stars taking on the part of Reggie. Boseman appeared in a host of TV shows, including Law & Order, CSI, ER, Justified, and Fringe, before playing legendary African American baseball player Jackie Robinson in 42.

Next, Chadwick won the role of a lifetime when he was cast as Prince T’Challa in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War. He played King T’Challa in Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Panther 2.

Tragically, Chadwick Boseman was taken from us way too early. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016 but battled on, starring as Marvel’s first black superhero until he passed away in 2020, aged just 43. We miss you, Chadwick. Wakanda Forever!

Now, believe it or not, the actor who took over playing Chadwick Boseman’s character, Reggie Montgomery, was none other than Michael B. Jordan. After playing basketball at Newark Arts High School and playing Wallace in the first season of HBO’s crime drama series The Wire, Jordan played Reggie for three years between 2003 and 2006.

Jordan went on to play Vince Howard in NBC’s sports drama series Friday Night Lights and Johnny Storm/Human Torch in Josh Trank’s forgettable 2015 Fantastic Four.

The same year, Michael was cast as Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis “Donnie” Creed, in the Creed film franchise, a sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky films. In 2018, he played Black Panther’s nemesis, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, opposite Chadwick Boseman.

Jordan replaced Boseman a second time because he briefly became Black Panther during the first film. When Chadwick passed away, many fans wanted Jordan to become Black Panther, but unfortunately, Killmonger lost his life at the end of the first movie.

No relation to James Bond actor Sean Connery, David Canary played not one but two characters on All My Children. When he stepped into the twin roles of Adam and Stuart Chandler in 1983, the ex-Denver Broncos pick and army vet had already appeared as ranch foreman Candy Canaday in the NBC Western drama Bonanza and played Russ Gehring on Peyton Place.

In the late ’60s, when Leonard Nimoy fell out with Star Trek producers, David Canary nearly took on the role of Mr. Spock!

David appeared on Broadway in Tennessee Williams’ Clothes for a Summer Hotel and in a slew of TV favorites, including Law & Order, SWAT, Primus, Alias Smith and Jones, Police Story, Kung-Fu, and Hawaii Five-O.

In 2012, David replaced the ailing, 90-year-old Jack Klugman in a limited-run production of Twelve Angry Men. Sadly, David developed Alzheimer’s disease and passed away in November 2015. He left behind his wife and children — plus a daughter from his first wife, actress Julie M. Anderson.

Unfortunately, Michael E. Knight didn’t solve crimes while driving a talking black Pontiac Trans Am; that was David Hasselhoff’s Knight Rider character, Michael Knight, without the E.

Michael E. Knight was best known for playing AMC’s Tad Martin from 1982 to 1986, then from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1992 until the ABC series finale in 2011. We can’t help thinking that All My Children would have been more fun if it did feature a talking car.

Michael played Tad Martin for decades and picked up three Daytime Emmy Awards along the way. Now in his mid-60s, he went on to star in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Young and the Restless, and NCIS.

Since 2019, you may have seen him on TV playing Martin Grey in General Hospital. Amazingly, Michael E. Knight was married to Catherine Hickland, whose previous husband was David Hasselhoff… who played Michael Knight! What are the chances of that?!

Not to be confused with Homeland’s Carrie Mathison, Canadian-American actor Cameron Mathison joined the AMC cast in 1998 as a relative newcomer to acting. In 2001, his character Ryan Lavery married Gillian Andrassy, played by Esta TerBlanche.

However, Ryan also had romantic storylines with Kendall Hart (Alicia Minshew) and married Greenlee Smythe (Rebecca Budig). After AMC ended, Mathison won roles on shows like Desperate Housewives, Drop Dead Diva, and Hot in Cleveland. In 2021, he joined the cast of General Hospital as Drew Cain.

The hunky actor is also a TV host, appearing on ABCs Good Morning America, CBS’s Entertainment Tonight and hosting the ​​Daytime Emmy Awards. He appeared on season five of Dancing With the Stars and presented Hallmark’s Murder, She Baked.

Off-screen, Mathison is married to Vanessa, and they have a son named Lucas and a daughter named Leila. In 2019, Cameron was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Thankfully, he underwent successful surgery to remove the tumor, and surgeons managed to save most of his kidney.

Speaking of Ryan Lavery’s on-screen wives, Rebecca Budig played AMC’s spoiled, bratty, rich girl-turned-makeup company executive Greenlee Smythe on and off from 1999 until the curtain came down in 2011.

In 1995, Rebecca originally auditioned for the role of AMC’s Kelsey Jefferson but received an offer from CBS’s Guiding Light, where she played Michelle Bauer from 1995 to 1998. Her first acting gigs were appearing in Aerosmith’s music video “Livin’ on the Edge” and playing a teenager whom Chris O’Donnell’s Robin saved in the hilarious Batman Forever.

In real life, Rebecca is the youngest of five sisters and two brothers. And she’s been married almost as many times as she has siblings! In 2000, she married Dr. Daniel Geller, but the marriage only lasted several months. While hosting The Bachelor, she married Bachelor star Bob Guiney in 2004. They divorced in 2010.

The next lucky man was TV marketing executive Michael Benson. They married in 2012 and had a daughter in 2014. Rebecca also played Hayden Barnes on General Hospital and won the only season of Skating With the Stars.

Walt Willey first played Pine Valley’s resident lawyer and former district attorney, Jackson Montgomery, in 1987. He remained a beloved mainstay until the sho closed its doors in 2011. His character certainly got around, having been married to Erica Kane and Laurel Banning.

Jackson also became Greenlee Smythe’s father after dipping his wick into Mary Greenlee during a summer romance! Jackson is the brother of Travis Montgomery, who was also romantically entangled with Erica Kane. Gosh, the inhabitants of Pine Valley can’t get enough of each other!

Before becoming an actor, Walt Willey majored in Fine Arts at Southern Illinois University. For the past five years, he’s refound his artistic side, paints for six hours until noon every day, and sells his art at the WaltWilleyWorkshop on Etsy.

But more recently, he rocked soap opera fans’ worlds. In 2023, Walt joined the cast of General Hospital. Not just as any old character, though. He played All My Children‘s Jackson Montgomery in a bubbly soap opera crossover.

Alicia Minshew was a relative newcomer to acting when she bagged a role on All My Children in 2002. The stunning young actress played Erica Kane’s daughter, Kendall Hart, for almost a decade until the show hung up its boots.

The curly-haired beauty also portrayed Kendall during baby-swap storyline on ABC’s daytime drama One Life to Live. Like many of her AMC co-stars, Alicia reprised her role in the 2013 web revival of the series on the Online Network via Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes.

Fast-forward to the present day, and the Florida native is fast approaching 50 but is still as gorgeous as she was back in the noughties. She appeared on Beacon Hill, Tainted Dreams, The Blacklist, and most recently an episode of Eltingville in 2021. Off-screen, Minshew married New York City restaurant owner Richie Herschenfeld in 2008.

Richie is Alicia’s longtime on-screen AMC husband, actor Thorsten Kaye’s best friend. A year after tying the knot, Alicia went on maternity leave from All My Children to welcome their daughter, Willow.

German-British actor Thorsten Ernst Kieselbach, aka Thorsten Kaye, moved to the United States in 1985 and has graced our screens on more beloved soap operas than you can shake a stick at. First, he played Patrick Thornhart on One Life to Live from 1995 to 1997. Then, he played Dr. Ian Thornhart on Port Charles from 2000 to 2003.

Next, he joined All My Children, portraying Zach Slater from 2004 to 2011. After AMC’s demise, he played Ridge Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful from 2012 to 2023.

While appearing on One Life to Live, Thorsten Kaye met Susan Haskell, who played his on-show love interest Margaret “Marty” Saybrooke. The two married and have two daughters, McKenna and Marlowe. However, Thorsten’s resume boasts more than soap operas; in 2000, he also appeared in the straight-to-DVD horror flick Shark Attack 2!

When he’s not acting, Thorsten rides his Harley Davidson motorbikes, cheers on the Miami Dolphins and the Detroit Red Wings, and hangs out with his best buddy, Alicia Minshew’s hubby, Richie Herschenfeld.

Before she was slaying vampires in Sunnydale, 16-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar played AMC’s Kendall Hart Lang from 1993 to 1995, winning a Daytime Emmy Award. Two years later — yes, almost 30 years ago — she went on to play Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sarah Michelle is not the only member of the Summers family to have appeared in All My Children. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s sister, Dawn, appeared opposite her future vamp-slaying co-star, playing Lily Montgomery from 1993 to 1995. Mischa Barton also played Lily.

Gellar played Buffy for six years and went on to star in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo, and The Grudge. She married fellow Scooby-Doo star Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2002, and the couple had a son and a daughter.

Nowadays, Sarah Michelle and Freddie are still together and have become a national institution. She’s a mom, cookbook author, and entrepreneur worth $30 million. Hubby and dad Freddie voices Star Wars animations and practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Debbi Morgan’s on-screen career took off in the 1970s with roles in shows like Good Times, What’s Happening!!, and the miniseries Roots: The Next Generation. In 1982, she landed the iconic AMC role of Angie Baxter–Hubbard.

She became the first African American actress to win a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Debbi portrayed Angie for years, and the character was so popular that Angie even jumped ship to other soaps like Loving and The City.

While married to four different husbands, including actor Charles S. Dutton, Debbi appeared on TV in Generations, Port Charles, Charmed, For the People, The Bold and the Beautiful, and The Young and the Restless.

On the big screen, she appeared in movies such as Eve’s Bayou, The Hurricane, She’s All That, Love & Basketball, and Coach Carter. Debbie reprised her beloved role of Dr. Angie Baxter Hubbard for the 2013 AMC reboot. Most recently, the still gorgeous almost 70-year-old appeared in the biopic Keyshia Cole: This Is My Story.

Darnell Williams was born in London, where his American father served in the US Air Force. He was raised as one of eight children in England, Japan, and New York, and he took a bus to Hollywood to pursue his showbiz dreams. “I was just young and naïve,” Williams said.

After dancing on TV’s Soul Train, Darnell landed one of his first major acting roles in 1981 when he joined the cast of All My Children as Jesse Hubbard. He became the longtime love interest and eventual husband of Debbi Morgan’s character, Angie Baxter.

Like Debbi, Darnell was so popular that he also appeared in Loving and The City. After his character was controversially bumped off in 1988, Williams reprised the role of Jesse Hubbard as an angel, welcoming Gillian Andrassy into Heaven!

Williams’ Jesse Hubbard and Morgan’s Angie Baxter formed one of AMC’s signature super couples throughout their decades as castmates. Darnell became a TV director, played Sarge Wilder on The Young and the Restless from 2012 to 2013, and made a 2022 guest appearance on Our Kind of People.

In her youth, Jill Larson and her sister traveled across Europe in a bus, settled in Paris, and became a model. While in Paris, she landed her first film role playing a Swedish au pair in Deadly Trap, starring Faye Dunaway. She made her Broadway debut in Death and the King’s Horseman in 1987 and, two years later, joined AMC in 1989.

Jill played Glamorama beauty store owner Opal Cortlandt for 21 years. Like Cher, Madonna, and Beyoncé, Opal Cortlandt once dropped her last name to become just Opal!

Before playing Opal, Jill appeared in Kate and Allie and Sunset Boulevard. A year before AMC was canceled, Jill appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and, in 2014, played Deborah Logan in the supernatural horror movie ​​The Taking of Deborah Logan.

The same year, she moved from 3420 Canyon Drive to Genoa City to play Connie Ross in The Young and the Restless. The adopted mother of daughter Anni-Ming Larson became a horror movie stalwart, appearing in Can’t Take it Back (2017) and The Manor (2021).

Born in 1920, James Mitchell was a veteran actor and dancer with an extensive resume in television, film, and theater when he joined the AMC cast in 1979. He played Palmer Cortlandt, a five-time married, self-made millionaire and ruthless villain.

Before AMC, he appeared as a dancer for famed choreographers Agnes DeMille and Jerome Robbins in 1940s and ’50s Broadway shows like Bloomer Girl and Paint Your Wagon. He also tripped the light fantastic in movies like The Toast of New Orleans, The Band Wagon, and Oklahoma!

For almost 40 years, James Mitchell’s partner was the costume designer Albert Wolsky, who won Best Costume Design Academy Awards for his work on the films All That Jazz and Bugsy. Mitchell’s role as Palmer Cortlandt lasted 30 years and ultimately became his final acting role.

Sadly, James passed away in 2010 at the age of 89. His passing came just weeks after he appeared in All My Children’s 40th-anniversary episode, marking the end of a remarkable eight-decade acting and dancing career.

Christian Slater made his film debut in 1985 in The Legend of Billie Jean. But did you know the following year, he played Caleb Thompson on All My Children? In ’88, he had his breakthrough role as Jason “JD” Dean, a sociopathic high school student, in the cult classic Heathers.

He went on to star in more cult films like Gleaming the Cube, Pump Up the Volume, and True Romance but found mainstream fame in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Interview With the Vampire, and Broken Arrow.

Slater was one of Hollywood’s bad boys, often in trouble with the police. He got sober, and things were looking up when he married Ryan Haddon in 2000. They had a son and a daughter before Ryan was arrested for domestic battery against Christian. They divorced in 2007.

Christian married Brittany Lopez six years later, and his career underwent a much-needed resurrection playing Elliot Alderson’s imaginary father in Mr. Robot. And speaking of comebacks, Christian became a father again in 2019 when he was 50!

Nick Benedict began acting in the 1950s. When he returned from serving in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, he appeared in shows like Ironside, Hawaii Five-O, and Mission Impossible. Benedict joined the cast of All My Children in the 1970s.

He played Philip Brent, one of Erica Kane’s eight husbands, earning a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1979. After being nominated for an Emmy, actor Nick left Pine Valley, although he briefly returned to play Phil again in 1988.

Nick’s soap opera resume continued to grow over the next few decades. In the 1980s, he appeared on shows like The Young and the Restless and Santa Barbara. In the 1990s, he Curtis Reed on Days of Our Lives.

Benedict married Michelle Dow in 1976, but — like something out of a soap opera storyline — the marriage didn’t go well and was annulled within the year. He found love again and was married to Ginger Loli-Benedict from 2001 until he passed away in 2023 on his 77th birthday.

Scottish-American actress Eileen Herlie also had decades of acting experience when she began playing Myrtle Fargate in 1976. Against her parents’ wishes, she became an actress in 1938.

Her first London theater role came in 1942, playing the second Mrs de Winter in Daphne du Maurier’s West End adaptation of her novel Rebecca. In 1948, she played Gertrude in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. She forged a successful Broadway and film career, earning a Tony nomination for 1960’s Take Me Along and three 1980s Daytime Emmy nominations as Myrtle, pictured with Carol Burnett.

Eileen’s run on All My Children lasted most of her life. Her character was so popular that she crossed over to not one, not two, not three… but four other soap operas — Loving, One Life to Live, General Hospital, and Port Charles.

She played Myrtle from 1976 to 2008, with her final performance coming just months before she passed away, aged 90. Characters closest to Myrtle celebrated her life, and AMC’s creator Agnes Nixon even arrived on set and blew a kiss toward Myrtle’s portrait.

Lisa Bonet is an incredibly recognizable child star from the ’80s. In fact, she’s still a pretty recognizable face now, even decades later.

Back in the ’80s, you might have seen her on The Cosby Show or A Different World. Her personal life has made a lot of headlines since then, including her marriage to Lenny Kravitz back in the ’80s. More recently, she was in a relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Jason Momoa.

Danica McKellar was well-known for a few roles in the ’80s. This included appearances in The Twilight Zone and The Wonder Years. In more recent years, you can hear her work in appearances on Phineas and Ferb or Transformers: Rescue Bots.

More surprisingly, she’s worked hard alongside that to earn a Ph.D. in math! If you want to learn math with her, she’s also written Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape and Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss.

When it comes to some pieces of media, it’s hard to find an ’80s kid who wasn’t aware of them. Who could have missed The Goonies? One actor that made his first silver screen appearance there was Sean Astin, who played Mickey Walsh.

Of course, most people know his later work in Lord of the Rings as Samwise Gamgee. The rest of his career has varied in genre, ranging from voice acting on Sofia the First to appearing as a fan-favorite character in Stranger Things.

If you were a fan of Webster anytime during its run from 1983 to 1989, you’ll quickly recognize Emmanuel Lewis as the main character.

The star has continued to act as well, although he hasn’t been seen on screen much since his 2013 appearance on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. A year later, he would appear on the podcast TV Guidance Counselor. In 2019, he briefly appeared in a music video done by Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz.

1980s kids will remember Soleil Moon Frye from her child star days when she played in Punky Brewster. You might have also caught her on Saved by the Bell or The Wonder Years.

Nowadays, you’re more likely to hear Frye in a voice-acting role. If you’ve checked out The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, or if you’re a fan of Robot Chicken or Planet Sheen, you’ve likely heard her work. For one 2021 season, Peacock even brought her back for a Punky Brewster revival.

As a kid, you might have caught Corey Feldman in The Bad News Bears. If you became a fan of his when he was a bit older, you might have seen him in the vampire film The Lost Boys.

Moving into the ’90s, Feldman switched up from just acting. He branched out into work as a musician and has even written an autobiography and starred in an autobiographical documentary. He’s even lent his voice to a few video games over the years!

Jenny Lewis has a laundry list of credits from the 1980s. As a child star, she appeared in Growing Pains, Roseanne, The Twilight Zone, and The Golden Girls.

In the later half of the ’90s, Lewis added music to her repertoire as well. In fact, it was successful enough to continue to this day. Her most recent album came out in 2019 and is titled On the Line. Alongside this, she hosted the online special Jenny Lewis’ On the Line Online.

Tracey Gold made her ’80s debut when she appeared in Growing Pains as Carol Seaver — a role she’d keep well into the ’90s. The star would continue to work as an actress even after Growing Pains, but she branched out into a few other roles as well.

If you want to see a bit more of her personality, she appeared on and won a season of Worst Cooks in America and wrote an autobiography titled Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life.

Another star you might recognize from Growing Pains is Kirk Cameron. During his tenure on this show, he played Mike Seaver. He picked up a variety of smaller roles in the ’80s as well.

The star even managed to get himself a spinoff show bearing his name, Kirk. Since then, he’s become a lot more selective with the titles he chooses to star in. A few notable ones throughout the 2010s and 2020s include Saving Christmas and Lifemark.

Ricky Schroder made his initial debut in 1979 in The Champ. He’d later show up in a recurring role on Silver Spoons as well. His most recent movie appearance was in 2010 for Get Him to the Greek

But you can catch this child star on TV more recently than that. In both 2015 and 2016, he played Robert Lee Parton in Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love.

Joey Lawrence had his first roles in the ’80s when he was still quite young. You might have seen him on Blossom or Gimme a Break! back then.

If you want a more recent sitcom with a grown-up Joey Lawrence, you can try out Melissa & Joey with none other than Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame. You can see some of his reality TV work on Cupcake Wars and Celebrity Big Brother.

Speaking of Melissa Joan Hart — she’s another child star that’s still busy in show business. Other than Sabrina the Teenage Witch, she also starred in Clarissa Explains it All.

We’ve already covered how she was in Melissa & Joey, but what else has the star been up to since then? Well, she’s acted in some children’s roles recently, including The Loud House. She also tried her hand at Dancing With the Stars, making it through six weeks of the competition.

Back when Fred Savage was a child star, there were a number of roles that you may have caught him in. He’s another Wonder Years alum, for one.

He also had roles in both Little Monsters and the famous film The Princess Bride. By the ’90s, you could catch him in Working. If you want something even more recent, he starred in The Grinder with Rob Lowe.

Early on in his career, you could catch child star Lukas Haas in the 1980s titles Testament and Witness. His career continued beyond that too. He’s been in a few roles that most people recognize.

He’s appeared with Leonardo DiCaprio twice, in Inception and again, five years later in 2015, for The Revenant. More recently, you can see him in Widows as well as First Man. These are only a few films in an expansive filmography.

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the Olsen twins were hard to miss. Oftentimes, Mary-Kate and Ashley appeared as a dynamic duo or playing the same person.

The twins continued to act for a time after they hung up their hats on roles like Michelle Tanner in Full House. Now, you’re more likely to see these sisters working in fashion as designers. However, they’re still active in film, now working in distribution as the owners of Dualstar Entertainment Group.

It seemed like twins were pretty popular on TV in the ’90s and 2000s. Another famous set of child star twins is Tia and Tamera Mowry.

When they were young, they starred together in the show Sister, Sister. They’d play together again in Twitches and its sequel later on. As adults, they wrote four books in a series called Twintuition, although each woman has taken on her own solo projects as well.

Macaulay Culkin is one actor who seems to need no introduction. Who hasn’t seen his early roles in the ’90s in both Home Alone and Home Alone 2? In the 2000s, he took on a few different roles, both on the big screen and the small one.

One interesting thing Culkin did was start his own band, The Pizza Underground. As the name might suggest, it was a play on The Velvet Underground, changing all their songs to be about the popular takeout dish. If you want to see him act, he was on American Horror Story‘s 10th season.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas had quite a few things that made him a household name in the ’90s. From playing in The Bradys to Home Improvement, he was charming on the small screen. He made a move to the big screen, too.

It’s his voice behind the younger Simba at the beginning of The Lion King! More recently, he’s appeared in a few episodes of another Tim Allen show, Last Man Standing. He’s also studied at Harvard but mostly kept his life private in recent years.

Raven-Symoné is often recognized for her work in the 2000s on the Disney show That’s So Raven. Yet, her career started even earlier than that.

Back in the ’80s, when the actress was still a small child, she was introduced on The Cosby Show as Olivia Kendall. She’d also take on a role in the Disney movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. More recently, Raven-Symoné has appeared on A Black Lady Sketch Show and Mighty Oak.

There are some stars that are so famous you might not really remember exactly when their career started. As for Leonardo DiCaprio, he was a child star in the ’90s.

By now, DiCaprio might just be one of the most famous names in Hollywood. The star has taken on a number of roles, including The Wolf of Wall Street and more. The star would even take home a long-awaited Oscar for his work in The Revenant.

Most people recognize Danielle Fishel from her most famous role as Topanga in Boy Meets World. She also appeared in other popular titles, including Full House and Harry and the Hendersons.

If you’re looking for a little bit of nostalgia, you can still catch her as Topanga, this time in a more parental role in Girl Meets World. Outside of this role, she’s hosted The Dish and tried on her hat as a director for a few recent Disney Channel shows.

Jaleel White probably changed the way you think about the phrase “Did I do that?” after his famous role as Steve Urkel in Family Matters. He didn’t say goodbye to Urkel forever when Family Matters ended, though.

He’d take on the role again when he voiced Urkel in 2019 for an appearance in Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Other than that, he’s taken on a variety of roles, including as a gameshow host for Total Blackout.

While popular, Jaleel White wasn’t the only actor that brought Family Matters to such popularity. Bryton James played the young Richie Crawford.

He’s actually joined another long-standing role since then, playing Devon Hamilton for 16 years on The Young and the Restless. He’s also appeared in roles on The Vampire Diaries, Young Justice, and Pacific Rim: The Black. All in all, he’s stayed pretty busy from being a child star to now!

Amanda Bynes really kicked off her career on Nickelodeon when she appeared in All That. This success led to another show, The Amanda Show. In 2010, Bynes took on a few roles, including those in Big Fat Liar and Easy A.

However, she took a hiatus from the bright lights of Hollywood for a time after that. She later explained that she was taking time to take care of her health but had mentioned returning to acting one day.

There are a few roles that really made Jonathan Lipnicki stand out as a child star. Perhaps his most recognizable, though, was 1999’s Stuart Little.

What did Lipnicki do after he stopped hanging out with the little mouse we all loved as kids? Well, he also appeared on a season of Worst Cooks in America and other reality shows like Celebs Go Dating. Of course, alongside the sequel to Stuart Little, he also appeared in titles like A Second Chance.

If you were a fan of The Nanny growing up, you probably remember Madeline Zima as youngest child of the family, Gracie Sheffield. Moving into the 2000s, you might have seen Zima alongside another child star in A Cinderella Story.

However, she didn’t shy away from more grown-up genres either, including a horror role in The Collector. You can also see some of her more recent work in You and the reboot of the classic show Perry Mason.

Kenan Thompson has definitely made himself a household name since the days he first appeared on our screens as a child star. Early on in his career, you might have caught him in shows like Good Burger and All That.

He’s used his comedic skills well too. Today, Thompson is the longest-running cast member on Saturday Night Live. He even has a sitcom titled after his own name, Kenan.

Tatyana Ali was on a wildly popular sitcom — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. However, she was even younger when she appeared on shows like Sesame Street.

She took on a role in The Young and the Restless starting in 2007, which she kept until 2013. After that, she played in Love That Girl!, Second Generation Wayans, and Fancy Nancy. She’s also been in a number of titles since then.

Mara Wilson was a star from a young age. Most fans think of either Matilda or Mrs. Doubtfire as her roles as a child star that introduced them to her work. Since then, though, Wilson has done quite a bit!

She went to school for a time, attending both Idyllwild Arts Academy and the Tisch School of the Arts. As for acting, she’s appeared in titles like Bojack Horseman and Broad City. If you want to read some of her personal writings, she’s released two books: Accidental Fame and Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood.

Haley Joel Osment didn’t stay in the kids’ genre for long, even as a child star. His real rise to fame occurred when he starred in the horror film The Sixth Sense. Since then, the star has continued to show up in a variety of roles.

More recently, he’s leaned away from horror and into comedy appearing in titles such as The Eric Andre Show, Robot Chicken, and Comedy Bang! For a mix of comedy and horror, he’s appeared in the show What We Do in the Shadows.

Anna Paquin had an impressive start to her career as a child actor. Her first appearance was in The Piano at 11 years old, taking home an Academy Award for her work.

The actress has taken on a number of new roles since then, a few of which are quite memorable. Who could forget her donning a uniform to play Rogue in X-Men or her role in True Blood? More recently, she’s been in The Irishman and The Affair.

Like many child stars, Ryan Gosling had his start on The All-New Mickey Mouse Show. He also had roles in Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Young Hercules.

Today, there’s no shortage of movies with Ryan Gosling’s star power behind them. Fans can catch him in La La Land, The Notebook, Blade Runner 2049, and Crazy, Stupid Love. Those are just a few titles from an impressively long filmography!

Mayim Bialik is another child star who took on some darker roles. You can see some of her earlier work in the horror movie Pumpkinhead as well as a variety of TV shows.

She continued to act through the ’90s, mostly in kids’ shows like Hey Arnold! and Recess. One of her more popular roles in recent years was her standing character throughout The Big Bang Theory, and she recently stepped in as a host for Jeopardy.

Christina Ricci earned much of her fame by playing an iconic and unforgettable character early on in her career. Few can forget her role as Wednesday Addams in both The Addams Family and Addams Family Values.

In fact, she now appears as a character in the Netflix show Wednesday, a show starring the famous character she once played. Her career has spawned a variety of titles, including everything from Smurfs 2 to The Lizzie Borden Chronicles and even the Matrix 4.

The Harry Potter series brought into the public consciousness a whole host of young talent. One child star from the series was Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley. The star is still rather recognizable and recently took on a role in the Netflix show, The Queen’s Gambit.

Even more recently, in 2021, he appeared in The Tragedy of Macbeth before dipping his toes into literary history once again to play Edgar Allan Poe in The Pale Blue Eye.

Early in her career as a child star, Michelle Trachtenberg had roles in Harriet the Spy and All My Children. She’d later take on roles as a child and a teen in the cult show Buffy the Vampire Slayer alongside other well-known titles.

After Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, Trachtenberg joined Gossip Girl as Georgina Sparks. From there, she’s appeared in a variety of roles, spanning from small roles in Criminal Minds to larger roles in Mercy. She was even featured in a series on Facebook Watch called Human Kind Of.

Will Poulter is a rather recognizable actor. One of his earlier roles was actually in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He’s been in quite a lot of different roles since then.

Comedy fans will recognize him from We’re the Millers, while Marvel fans will see him more recently in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. If you like video games, you’ll hear his voice and see his likeness in Little Hope.

JoJo Siwa wasn’t introduced to the world as an actress but as a child dancer on the reality shows Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition and Dance Moms. After the show ended, the young dancer started to gain her own fame as a YouTuber.

With more than 12 million subscribers, the young star has branched out to gain even more attention on other social media platforms like TikTok. She was even named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020 by TIME.

One Tree Hill was pretty popular during its run on television. If you watched it, you probably recognize Jackson Brundage as young Jamie Scott — the son of Nathan and Haley James Scott.

While it might seem like a while ago now, One Tree Hill actually ended in 2012. Brundage took on his next role that very year. From there, he moved on to act in See Dad Run until 2015. The star is still young, so there’s still plenty to see from his career!

Many of us remember Alexa PenaVega from her role in Spy Kids as the main character Carmen Elizabeth Juanita Echo Sky Bravo Cortez alongside her on-screen brother, Juni. She followed it up with its subsequent sequels too.

PenaVega has been in a few titles since then, including From Prada to Nada and a few Christmas movies as well. Yet, the actress ultimately ended up stepping back from the spotlight. She once told Fox that her husband, Carlos PenaVega, was struggling with living in Los Angeles at the time, although she appreciated the step back too.

At just five years old, Dakota Fanning began her acting career as a guest actor on several shows, including ER and CSI. She gained notice in I Am Sam in 2001, and Uptown Girls and The Cat in the Hat in 2003.

Thanks to her talent and dedication, Fanning seamlessly made the transition from child star to award-winning actress. She’s still extremely active, especially when she and her sister Elle started their production company, Lewellen Pictures, in 2021.

British actor Freddie Highmore got his big break in 2004 at the age of nine when he played Peter in the heartbreaking Finding Neverland. The role won him many award nominations and led to him playing Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

As a child and teen, most of his roles were in children’s movies. Of course, as he grew up, so did his roles. From 2013 to 2017, he played Norman Bates Bates Motel. Since 2017, he’s played autistic surgical resident Dr. Shaun Murphy in The Good Doctor.

Although she had quite a few guest appearances in shows before Modern Family, Ariel Winter is probably best known for the role she landed in 2009 at the age of 11 — Alex Dumphy.

Modern Family sadly came to an end in 2020, but Winter has been keeping busy, mostly doing voice acting for a variety of animated shows and video games. She’s also spoken out about the difficulty of maturing physically in the public eye.

Taylor Momsen entered the entertainment business at just two years old when her parents signed her up with Ford Modeling. Her first major screen role was as the incredibly sweet and memorable Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000.

Her next biggest role was as Jenny Humphrey in Gossip Girl. In 2011, however, Momsen decided to quit acting and dedicate her time to her true passion — music. Since 2009, she’s been the frontwoman of the band The Pretty Reckless.

Asa Butterfield’s career took off when he was just 10 years old, and he gained the lead role in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. From there, the roles just kept pouring in for the young British actor.

His notable roles include acting in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo and playing Andrew Wiggin in Ender’s Game. Since 2018, he’s held the main role in Netflix’s Sex Education as Otis Milburn.

Although his acting career as a child star began in the late ‘90s, Frankie Muniz’s big break came in 2000 when he was chosen to play the titular character in Malcolm in the Middle, which quickly became a fan-favorite.

Since the show’s end in 2006, he’s acted in several other shows (often playing himself), but in recent years his main focus has been racing. That’s right — since 2021, Muniz has been a professional car racer!

Josh Peck’s career began on Nickelodeon when he joined the Amanda Show. But, he truly rose to fame when he and Drake Bell were cast to play stepbrothers in Drake & Josh.

He’s still busy working in both films and television. He recently led the Turner & Hooch revival, which sadly only lasted a single season. Peck is also a part of the new How I Met Your Father, and has the role of Kenneth Bainbridge in the much-anticipated Oppenheimer.

It’s hard not to think of Jamie Lynn Spears without immediately thinking of her older sister, Britney Spears, especially since Jamie Lynn’s acting career started when she played the younger version of Britney’s character in Crossroads.

She gained her own fame in 2004 with the titular role in Zoey 101. The show was canceled, though, when Jamie Lynn announced her pregnancy at age 16. After 10 years away, she returned to acting in 2020, and she’s currently acting in Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias.

Jeremy Sumpter began modeling at age 11 in Kentucky. Soon after, he moved with his family to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. At just 13, he landed the role that turned him into a star overnight — Peter Pan (2003).

The film won him several awards and nominations and turned him into every preteen girl’s crush. While his other roles haven’t received as much acclaim as the boy from Neverland, Stumpter is still acting, with his latest project being in the Christmas romance Holiday Harmony.

Chloë Grace Moretz started acting in 2004 with all sorts of guest and recurring appearances on shows and films. Her first truly major role, though, came in 2010 when she was cast as Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass.

Playing the morally-gray superhero shot her to fame, and from there, her career just kept growing. Her most recent roles include being the voice of Nimona in the critically acclaimed animated film of the same name, and playing the protagonist in the Sci-Fi thriller The Peripheral.

In the 2000s, Bailee Madison really made a name for herself as a child star. If you watched Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Just Go With It, or Wizards of Waverly Place, you probably saw her.

As for now, Madison is still going strong in her acting career. Over on Netflix, she both acted in and helped to produce A Week Away. Other popular titles from the star include The Strangers: Prety at Night and Trophy Wife.

In the 2000s, another twin dynamic duo that took to our screens was Dylan and Cole Sprouse. Back then, you probably knew them better as Zack and Cody Martin.

The twins took a break from acting after the Disney show ended to go to school. However, they both returned before long. Dylan would return in 2017 for Carte Blanche, while Cole returned to acting to play Jughead Jones in Riverdale.

We’d be remiss to mention Harry Potter earlier and not mention Daniel Radcliff’s work. He was 10 years old when the first film came out. His career has grown a lot since things wrapped up on the eighth Harry Potter movie.

He’s appeared both in movies and in Broadway productions. Most recently, you can catch him in productions like the show Miracle Workers and the film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story as none other than comedic musician Weird Al himself.

When Christina Applegate was young, she played Kelly Bundy, one of the children in Married…With Children. This was only the launchpad for a successful career. The star has taken on a variety of roles after this starting point.

Most recently, she’s been in Crash Pad, A Bad Moms Christmas, Ask the Storybots, and Dead to Me. In 2022, she even earned a star on the coveted Hollywood Walk of Fame. She recently revealed that she has been diagnosed with MS.

Lindsay Lohan isn’t a part of a pair of twins, but you might be fooled by her early work in The Parent Trap. Lohan continued on Disney for a while with movies like Freaky Friday.

Moving away from Disney, she was in the hit film Mean Girls after that. After some controversy and a reality show called Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club, she stepped back from the spotlight before returning for a 2022 Christmas special on Netflix.