Nineties kids know Larisa Oleynik as the superhuman star of The Secret World of Alex Mack and
Bianca from 10 Things I Hate About You.
But as the decade concluded, so too did this former child star's fame.
So, what happened?
This is why Hollywood won't cast Larisa Oleynik anymore.
It took years for Larisa Oleynik to snag a main part in TV and movies after her initial
success as a young actress.
According to Entertainment Weekly, this former Nickelodeon star instead guest-starred on
shows like Psych, Without a Trace, and the wildly successful Mad Men, where she played
Ken Cosgrove's fiancée.
Regarding her bit part on Mad Men, she told AMC.com,
"I'm such a nerd for the show, and obviously I've done a lot of TV guest work, but this
is the first time I've gone into a show just being such a huge fan and having seen every
single episode…”
In 2011, she also snagged a recurring role on Hawaii Five-O as Jessica Kaye, then appeared
on Pretty Little Liars the following year.
And in 2016, she landed an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit opposite stars
Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T. Those were all pretty good gigs, but they ultimately didn't
lead to any dazzling opportunities.
Perhaps Oleynik was content with guest-starring roles and didn't want to dive back into being
a full-time Hollywood celebrity, or maybe her attempts to get back in the limelight
just haven’t been working in her favor.
Regardless, she did tell AMC.com that after spending a long time trying to establish herself
as an adult actor post-90s fame, being recognized for her role on Mad Men really boosted her
confidence.
Fame hasn't always been easy for Larisa Oleynik.
She doesn’t necessarily need constant security like Taylor Swift, but the former child star
is still a '90s icon, and that sort of fandom can get fierce.
In 2012, the Secret Life of Alex Mack lead saw the scary side of fame when a crazed fan
started stalking and harassing her.
According to the report, Oleynik's stalker, Josh Hathaway, changed his name to Josh Oleynik
in 2010 after becoming obsessed with the star, but the harassment didn't start until two
years later.
Hathaway began repeatedly calling Oleynik's mother and leaving gifts for the 10 Things
I Hate About You starlet at her mom's apartment.
This reportedly included leaving a voicemail where he admitted he had changed his name
and wanted to propose to the actress.
Hathaway also allegedly wrote books and love letters with disturbing passages.
Yikes.
Oleynik was, of course, concerned, and she admitted she was worried he might snap at
any moment.
A judge ultimately granted the actress and her mother a restraining order that expired
in January 2016.
That kind of ordeal could certainly drive an actress underground.
If you haven't seen Larisa Oleynik lately, it may be because she's hiding out in the
world of indie films.
Though 2019's tech-themed Auggie was a critical success, racking up an 80 percent from critics
on Rotten Tomatoes, her other flicks haven't really had the same sort of critical acclaim.
It's not that they were bad, they were just largely ignored by the press.
Films like OJ: The Musical and BFFs received audience ratings of more than 80 percent on
the site, but had no critical consensus whatsoever.
Part of Oleynik's disappearance from the spotlight also has to do with the fact that she's picked
up roles in the horror and sci-fi worlds.
These genres are unfortunately largely shunned by mainstream critics and usually go straight
to video on demand.
This includes Jessabelle, which received extremely poor critical ratings; and Atlas Shrugged:
Part II, which was so heavily scorned by critics that producers eventually had to crowdsource
in order to finance subsequent movies.
"I am literally freaking out over here!"
Despite her roles in these thrillers, Oleynik isn’t the biggest horror flick fan.
Though she starred in 2017's Animal Among Us, the actress told Morbidly Beautiful,
"I pretty much steer clear [of horror movies].
I'm into Vampire and Werewolf stuff, things that are more mythology based...But no, as
far as horror movies go, I watched Scream and that's as close as I've gotten."
Lifetime's made-for-TV movies are often stereotyped as a place for thespians whose careers are
on the way out.
Like fellow child star Tia Mowry, who’s starred in a couple of films for the network,
Larisa Oleynik’s career has lasted long enough to endure a Lifetime holiday movie
or two.
May she find solace in whatever support group Ashanti currently frequents.
Wish Upon a Christmas, which premiered in 2015, tells the story of an actuary who heads
to her hometown to close down a factory and, shockingly, runs into her high school sweetheart.
Don't they always?
This TV movie received a 0 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but, hey, Lifetime
Christmas movies are an acquired taste!
Beyond Oleynik's Christmas movie debut, the actress appeared in another Lifetime movie
called Stolen from the Womb.
This 2014 made-for-TV movie is exactly the type that made the network famous, as it involves
a psychotic stalker, a pregnant woman, and a kidnapped newborn.
What more could any Lifetime fan want?
Though the actress enjoyed some of the trappings of fame, it seems like living a normal life
was always a priority for the star.
In a 2017 interview with BuzzFeed, the actress revealed that Nickelodeon pushed for their
child actors to lead regular lives, but this became more difficult as The Secret Life of
Alex Mack gained popularity.
Being recognized made Oleynik self-conscious.
As a kid, she was constantly shuttled back-and-forth from northern California where she went to
school to southern California where she would shoot the show.
She told Morbidly Beautiful,
"...I was trying to maintain some sense of normalcy, whatever a normal childhood even
means.
But it would get confusing sometimes when I'd be hanging out with my friends and someone
would recognize me."
The Secret World of Alex Mack was never canceled, it was Oleynik who chose to walk away after
the show's fourth season in 1998.
She told Buzzfeed that it was instilled in her from an early age to not feel pressured
into doing what didn’t make her happy.
Walking, or turning into a puddle and sliding, away from Alex Mack had huge implications,
and Oleynik turned down a massive offer that probably could've changed her life.
According to HuffPost, co-creator Thomas Lynch tried to woo the then-teenager and her team
with a fancy Hollywood dinner, where he offered her a fifth season, a feature film, and a
ton of money to stay on.
She was not swayed and still has no regrets.
She told Buzzfeed,
"It was an incredible thing he was offering me, and I knew that at the time, but I was
a little burnt out.”
Oleynik took a detour to college after filming 10 Things I Hate About You, which could've
been the one role that catapulted her career into a string of blockbuster hits (or at least
popular rom-coms that don't air on Lifetime).
Nonetheless, this decision was built into the very fiber of her being.
Her parents, both medical professionals, always put a strong emphasis on education.
So, Oleynik ended up applying to college alongside her 10 Things I Hate About You co-stars Julia
Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who both ended up going to Columbia University while
Oleynik settled on Sarah Lawrence, which was ironically referenced in the film.
"Uhh, honey that's great, but isn't Sarah Lawrence on the other side of the country?"
"Thus, the basis of its appeal."
While obtaining her degree, the star all but forgot about acting and only occasionally
went to auditions.
She even considered quitting acting cold turkey.
At the time, it felt like Oleynik was perpetually being typecast as the girl-next-door.
Though she said that there are worse things in this world, she claimed that Sarah Lawrence
helped her get out of that hole.
She told E! News,
"If you're really determined to take on different things, you can always find a way."
Of course, Oleynik didn't stay away from acting forever, and she’s since returned to her
theatrical roots.
According to BuzzFeed, the actress started her acting career at the age of eight with
a San Francisco production of Les Misérables.
That's where she met Rider Strong, known for his role on Boy Meets World.
Years before they shared their first kiss on the series, Oleynik decided to follow Strong's
lead by picking up the same agent and acting coach, ditching the theater, and heading out
with his family to auditions in Los Angeles.
The rest, as they say, was history.
However, Oleynik made her comeback to the stage as an adult with Baghdaddy, an off-Broadway
musical.
She first appeared in the 2015 production at the Actors Temple Theatre and later performed
in a 2017 production at St. Luke's Theatre.
At the time, she told BuzzFeed the show was a huge and energetic commitment, so she felt
like she couldn't focus as much on furthering her Hollywood career until the musical ran
its course.
At one point in the '90s, Oleynik's star power was undeniable.
At the height of her fame, Nickelodeon was in the heyday of SNICK, and The Secret World
of Alex Mack was on its way to becoming a full-fledged classic like All That or The
Adventures of Pete & Pete.
Coincidentally, Oleynik also made appearances on those shows, as well as The Baby-Sitters
Club, Boy Meets World, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.
Since Oleynik had her hand in some of the projects that defined the era, you'd think
she'd get stuck in a classic child star rut, unable to escape any of her hyper-recognizable
characters.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case for Oleynik.
Instead, she embraced it.
She told E! News,
"That decade resonates with me pretty heavily.
Everything in my life is like a throwback to the '90s, including all my musical preferences
and wardrobe.
It's like I've pretty much been living there ever since…"
It doesn't seem like Oleynik ever worried about getting with the times, which could
have affected the type of roles she was offered.
Even today, she still wears some of Alex Mack's wardrobe staples, which she took home after
the series wrapped.
Larisa Oleynik became famous in an era where actors could walk off their sets and stay
relatively anonymous.
Her work didn't follow her home because, at the time, most of her fans hadn't even yet
learned how to code HTML on their Neopets pages.
There was no Twitter, no Instagram, and Perez Hilton had yet to usher on the nastiness that
was pretty much patented by tabloids in the early aughts.
She noted,
"I was able to completely remove myself and just go on with my regular kid life.”
Even as social media started becoming more influential, Oleynik didn't spend a lot of
time nurturing the type of online fanbase that commonly helps celebs become A-listers
today.
She Instagrams sporadically, and her Twitter account isn't verified, she hasn't even tweeted
to her less than 10,000 since 2019.
It's not even clear if the barely-updated page on Facebook that's listed under her name
belongs to her.
Oleynik is self-admittedly still trying to figure out how to live a life that solicits
constant public scrutiny.
However, she's glad that social media didn't exist when she was doing press as a young
actress, and she commends young stars who navigate it with ease today.
As of 2020, Oleynik has officially made the transition from girl-next-door to the mom
zone.
The actress made her Netflix series debut as a mom in The Healing Powers of Dude, but
she's trying her best not to get stuck in another typecasting hole.
She told E! News,
"Even if I'm saying I'm in the mom zone right now, but I'm very happy to be there, then
I can take it upon myself to go do play or even just being in class where I get to explore
other roles.”
Unfortunately for Oleynik, Hollywood's notorious problem with ageism might make that difficult.
As of 2020, Oleynik is nearing age 40, which is often described as the "sunset year" for
female actresses.
According to the Washington Post, women in Tinseltown celebrating their 40th birthday
can look forward to losing access to about three-quarters of the leading film roles for
women.
"Why'd you say it like that?"
It's unclear how Oleynik's career will play out in the future, but there is one mom role
she probably won't reprise.
There have been talks of an Alex Mack reboot, where Mack is a mother whose children may
or may not have her powers.
However, Oleynik didn't seem excited when she discussed the idea with E! News, so we'll
just have to wait and see what happens.
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