It's not easy being a child star.
Besides working long hours on set, many young actors have to worry about maintaining their
careers, and, unfortunately, not everyone succeeds.
What all child stars have in common, however, is that their fans always want to see what
they're up to today!
Kenan Thompson
For people of a certain age, there was no show more important to their adolescence than
Kenan & Kel.
And while Kel Mitchell continued to appear on Nickelodeon in his adult life with the
hit show Game Shakers, his buddy Kenan Thompson took an entirely different route.
Thompson first started his career on Nick's sketch show All That at just 15 years old,
graduating to Kenan & Kel at age 18 before joining Saturday Night Live a few years later
in 2003.
He admitted to feeling like an outsider at first, but he soon became one of SNL's MVPs.
In fact, he's currently the show's longest-running cast member ever, having begun his 16th season
in the fall of 2018.
As for his rumored estranged friendship from Mitchell, Thompson set the record straight
in a 2018 radio interview with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, making it clear that the
two never had any real beef.
Their enduring friendship was surely plenty clear when they reunited for a Good Burger
sketch on The Tonight Show in 2015.
"No it's all right, son.
It's ok."
"Son?!
Dad!!
Oohhh!
Oohh!"
Anna Chlumsky
After playing Vada in My Girl and My Girl 2, you probably saw Anna Chlumsky in a lot
of places, but you may not remember them.
Over the next couple of decades, she appeared in many TV shows, including 30 Rock, Early
Edition, Law & Order, Covert Affairs, and White Collar.
She also got her theater game going, acting in productions on and off Broadway through
2015.
But it was landing the role of Amy Brookheimer in Veep alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 2012
that really gave Chlumsky her second big break.
Her performance has thus far garnered her four Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
In addition to her comedy chops, she also managed to make time for a memorable recurring
gig in the final season of AMC's tech drama Halt and Catch Fire.
Haley Joel Osment
You probably recognize Haley Joel Osment as the little boy who sees dead people in The
Sixth Sense.
But prior to that breakout role, he had made guest appearances on many TV shows, including
Walker, Texas Ranger and Murphy Brown.
The Sixth Sense netted Osment many awards and nominations, and he also earned plenty
of acclaim for his role as a robot in 2001's AI: Artificial Intelligence.
But after 2003's Secondhand Lions, he spent the next several years primarily doing voice
acting for TV shows and video games.
Along the way he also made his Broadway debut and graduated from NYU in 2011.
He has since made his return to acting with bit parts in the short-lived series Alpha
House and the Entourage movie.
He's also earned some chuckles with recurring roles on Silicon Valley as Keenan Feldspar
and on Comedy Bang!
Bang! as Slow Joey.
"What?
Gummy bears?
Why?"
"Because a 50 gallon drum of real bears would be...too scary."
Christina Ricci
Whether you know her best as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, young Roberta in Now
and Then, or Kat in Casper, it's safe to say the '90s were kind to Christina Ricci.
And her career certainly didn't stop there.
She's one of the few child stars who has consistently worked ever since her big break, with multiple
acting credits nearly every single year since 1993.
From her movie roles in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 200 Cigarettes, Sleepy Hollow,
Prozac Nation, and Black Snake Moan, to her TV appearances in Ally McBeal, Grey's Anatomy,
and The Good Wife, Ricci has been busy.
She was also one of the stars of the short-lived ABC drama Pan Am, before playing Lizzie Borden
in Lifetime's Lizzie Borden Chronicles miniseries.
Ricci's most recent major role was Zelda Fitzgerald on Amazon's Z: The Beginning of Everything.
While she hasn't stopped acting, she has said that since she got married and had a baby,
her most important role now is a mom and that she's a completely different person than she
was before she had her son.
Jaleel White
You probably know Jaleel White best as Steve Urkel, the annoying, cheese-loving, nerd-next-door
on Family Matters.
But after nine years on that show, he mostly made guest appearances without locking down
any regular TV gig.
He also showed up on several reality competitions, including Dancing with the Stars, Celebrity
Family Feud, and Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition.
"Now, how you gonna ask the guy who played Steve Urkel about a cheese question?!"
White's most recent gigs include the short-lived CBS sitcom Me, Myself, and I, the NBC mockumentary
Trial & Error, and the Clint Eastwood film The 15:17 to Paris.
It should be clear to audiences everywhere by now that there is so much more to Jaleel
White than Urkel!
Mara Wilson
Known for playing the adorable and precocious little girl in tons of '90s movies, Mara Wilson
seemed poised to be the next big thing after a string of hits.
She played the youngest daughter in 1993's Mrs. Doubtfire, the wise-beyond-her-years
skeptic in 1994's Miracle on 34th Street, and the title character with telekinetic powers
in 1996's Matilda.
Then she quit acting, officially retiring after Thomas and the Magic Railroad in 2000.
Wilson has since been pursuing her passion for writing.
Not only did she have a website dedicated to her literary endeavors, but she also released
a book called Where Am I Now? in September 2016.
She still has a passion for voice acting, and in 2016 she voiced Jill Pill on Netflix's
BoJack Horseman.
She's also been vocal about her struggles with anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder,
and depression, and she remains very active on Twitter.
"You might know me from tweeting and retweeting things on Twitter, you might know me as the
face on those where are they now listicles at the end of every online article."