A Jedi master turns to the dark side and then moves to a farm. A Disney Channel star receives a
diagnosis and then decides to become a nurse. The Tanners' annoying neighbor interns at the United
Nations. These are just a few of the surprisingly normal paths taken by former teen stars.
Imagine this: you're in your cubicle feeling miserable.
Your computer and phone are basically handcuffs when you feel trapped in your job.
Then you start to daydream about ditching your 9-to-5 job for A-list fame. For Dylan Sprouse,
though, it was pretty much the complete opposite experience – well, minus the 9-to-5 office job.
He began acting with his twin brother Cole when they were just tykes.
Their careers really took off when they starred on the Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life of
Zack & Cody from 2005 to 2008 and its spinoff The Suite Life on Deck from 2008 to 2011.
Dylan eventually began to branch out by brewing his own mead, and in 2017 he opened All-Wise
Meadery in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. As he noted to Vanity Fair in 2018,
"I think that if you are an actor, or you are an entertainer, and you don't invest
money in something that is more stable than the commission job that is acting,
then you are a fool [...] I know I don't want to be on television."
"We found real estate and built a business around
the idea of rebirthing the world's oldest known alcoholic beverage."
First, he urged viewers to stop watching his own show.
Then he journeyed miles away from the spotlight. We're talking about Angus T.
Jones, who played Jake Harper on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men from 2003 to 2015. During the
later years of the series, the actor joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Christian sect
that recognizes Saturday as a day for rest and worship. As he pleaded in a 2012 video,
"If you watch Two and a Half Men,
please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it.
Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth."
You might think that after that moment, Jones would end up delivering sermons on the regular,
but it didn't quite work out that way. Instead,
he partnered up with Sean "Diddy" Combs' son Justin and created a multimedia and
event planning company called Tonite. As Jones revealed to Billboard in 2016,
"I really hadn't been imagining trying to pull off something like this because
I feel like this is out of my league a lot of times [...] [Two and a Half
Men] was the opportunity of a lifetime and everyone’s always told me that but I’m really
actually understanding myself now. It’s showed me what it takes to put on a good show."
From The Wonder Years to Yale then to a New York City law firm. That's the journey that
Josh Saviano has experienced. In his younger days, he played Paul Pfeiffer
on the ABC sitcom from 1988 to 1993. He then became an Ivy League man after that,
earning himself a degree in political science at Yale in 1998. He was later hired as a lawyer at
Manhattan's Morrison Cohen law firm after getting his Doctor of Law degree at Yeshiva University.
Saviano went on to co-found the Spotlight Advisory Group, which according to its LinkedIn page is an
independent advisory firm that's designed exclusively for artists. Clearly, the power
of reinvention is strong with this former child star. As he describes himself on his Twitter bio,
"Yesterday, I was a child actor. Today I am a father,
husband and strategic advisor to influencers and brands. Tomorrow...???"
As for his acting career, Saviano appeared in only one more show after The Wonder Years,
as he showed up on three episodes of Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit from 2014 to 2016 as, naturally enough, a lawyer.
"Save it for the judge. May I?"
Lisa Whelchel was in her mid-20s when The Facts of Life ended in 1988. She then
became a stay-at-home mom after marrying her husband Steve Cauble that same year.
She also would go on to homeschool their three children.
That's a long way from playing Blair Warner, arguably one of the most popular TV characters
of the 80s. In 2003, Whelchel published a book called So You're Thinking about Homeschooling,
thus proving just how fully immersed she was in educating her little ones.
Whelchel's marriage to Cauble eventually ended in divorce in 2012,
and she went on to start a website called MomTime, as well as become a life coach on top of that. She
then returned to the spotlight in 2014 when she showed up in the TV movie For Better or For Worse.
She's appeared in a handful of other made-for-TV-films as well,
and she was even a contestant on a season of Survivor in 2012, where she tied for second place.
The 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High brought fast fame to Phoebe Cates after she
played the red bikini-sporting Linda Barrett. She soon moved onto a host of other roles until 1994,
at which point she stepped out of the spotlight entirely. She did later appear
in 2001's The Anniversary Party, but as of 2022, that was her last on screen acting job.
In 1989, Cates married fellow actor Kevin Kline,
and she eventually became a stay-at-home mom to their two children. Then in 2005,
she opened Blue Tree in New York City, a boutique that sells clothing, jewelry, accessories,
and other unique items. Initially, her husband advised Cates against opening the boutique. Cates
explained to CNBC in 2008 why she decided to take the plunge and steer clear from acting, saying:
"I knew that acting wasn't really an option for me. I wasn't driven to do it again.
I knew I had a certain amount of hours in my day, and it didn't include going
off on 15-hour shoot days. The store thing, it really just was on my mind."
Being diagnosed with a serious condition and wanting to help others are just two of the reasons
that Jennifer Stone transitioned from acting to nursing. If you watched the Disney Channel at
all from 2007 to 2012, you probably remember her as Harper Finkle from Wizards of Waverly Place.
One year after that show ended, she received a diagnosis that changed everything for her.
As she wrote on her LinkedIn page,
"I decided I wanted to become a nurse when type 1 diabetes touched my life in 2013.
From the moment I experienced the ramifications of autoimmune
disorders on patients and those close to me, I knew I had to do something."
"I wanted to learn more about my disease, and I also wanted to make
sure that nobody ever had to experience that when they were going through uncertainty."
After volunteering as a nurse, Stone then attended the Glendale Community College School of Nursing
beginning in 2019. She went on to complete a preceptorship at Providence St. Joseph Medical
Center Burbank, and on April 7, 2020, she revealed some major news, as she wrote on Instagram,
"A very good friend of mine [...] pointed out to me that today is [World Health Day]. It is also
the day I went from a volunteer, then a student nurse, and now an RN resident. I just hope to live
up to all of the amazing healthcare providers on the front lines now as I get ready to join them."
By 2008, things seemed to be going superbly for Hayden Christensen.
He had two Star Wars movies under his belt, and he was looking for a new place to live,
as he was considering buying a home in New York City. But he ultimately
opted for a different location, as he moved north of Toronto, Canada, where he bought
a farm and started taking care of the land himself. As he told the Toronto Star in 2008,
"It's a hobby, but I want to have the appearance of being a proper farmer.
I'm trying to figure it out. It's all new to me, but I would eventually like it to be a fully
operational farm with livestock and different crops. It's very much a departure for me."
Christensen also called the farm his "sanctuary" and noted that he's been
doing things like fixing up an old farmhouse and learning how to operate equipment. As it turns,
his folks had a farm when he was a child, which he has fond memories of and wanted to replicate.
"I love it up there. It's, uh, it's a real escape for me, and um, I just, I just,
I like that environment."
Nikki Blonsky went from acting in Hairspray to using hairspray on her clients. She first gained
fame as excitable Baltimore high school student Tracy Turnblad, but then a few years later,
she was working at a salon in her hometown of Great Neck, New York. After 2007's Hairspray,
which was based on the Broadway musical that was in turn based on the 1988 John Waters movie,
Blonsky starred on the ABC Family sitcom Huge in 2010, before it was cancelled after one season.
She tweeted about her new gig in 2011, as she revealed,
"It's true I'm working @ Superstar Salon as a makeup artist & more.
I'm proud 2 b workin & helpin pay bills BUT I'll NEVER lose sight of my dream.
Just cause I'm part time working doesn't mean I'm gonna give up on my dreams
[and] don't give up on yours. I might book something big soon. Keep positive."
Blonsky's optimism eventually paid off when she landed a part in the 2013 film
The English Teacher, alongside Julianne Moore and Greg Kinnear,
and then 2017's The Last Movie Star, alongside Burt Reynolds.
Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again is the name of Andrea Barber's 2019 memoir,
and it perfectly describes what she's been through. She first gained fame in the 80s
and 90s as annoying neighbor Kimmy Gibbler on the iconic ABC sitcom Full House. A few decades later,
she revisited the character on the Netflix sequel series Fuller House, which ran from 2016 to 2020.
While she’s kept fans up to date via vlogs on her YouTube channel, Barber’s kept herself busy.
In between those two shows, Barber left entertainment for academia, as she attended
Whittier College in California and got an English degree. She then headed to the University of York
in England before coming back to Whittier and taking a job as the Assistant to the Director
of the school's International Programs. She also spent some time interning at the United Nations.
"A lot of people are surprised to learn that I'm
a little smarter than, than Kimmy Gibbler in real life."
As Barber noted to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016,
"I left Hollywood, so no sadness about that whatsoever. I was very content to pursue other
interests in my life. And I then had kids and was a stay-at-home mom for several years
when my kids were babies and toddlers and I found that very fulfilling as well.
Right up until [Full House creator] Jeff Franklin called me a few years ago asking
about reprising the role of Kimmy Gibbler, and that happened at a perfect time too."
Barber has continued acting following the end of Fuller House, as she's been playing
the character of Principal Willingham on the Nickelodeon sitcom That Girl Lay Lay.
Remember Grandmaster B? If that name doesn't ring a bell, maybe you at least know Bud Bundy.
Grandmaster B was his rapping alter ego during his time as the younger brother on the Fox sitcom
Married... with Children. Bud was played by David Faustino, and he and Grandmaster B have something
in common: they're both ardent hip-hop fans. The former child star is now a DJ who's known for
spinning rap tunes every week on Dash Radio. DJing on a digital radio station might not
necessarily be considered the most regular of jobs, but it's certainly a long way away from
his ten year stint as the wise-cracking Bud Bundy on Married... with Children.
Faustino has also been known to get the party started outside of the radio confines.
In 2009, Club Planet reported that he was spinning records
every Monday night at Beauty Bar in Los Angeles. Alas, it appears that he's not
completely content with his current gig. As he admitted to LA Weekly in 2011,
"I love the fame, I love the attention, and I love the perks [...] So I mean, yeah,
I've made some pretty decent investments so I feel comfortable financially. But is that enough? No,
not really because, you know, I like the attention and the fame. That's part of the whole package."
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