'90s Child Actors: Then and Now

The 1990s were a long time ago. For proof, you can ask the decade's TV and movie child actors: Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone), Jaleel White (Family Matters), and Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and more '90s child stars are now in their 40s, or pushing the big 4-0. Even the relative youngsters, such as Amanda Bynes (All That), Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire), and Mara Wilson (Mrs. Doubtfire), are all north of 30, or getting there.

So, how has the grownup world been treating these former child stars, people who once upon a time ruled the pop culture world before they were old enough to drive?

PHOTOS: See where these 30 child stars of the 1990s are today

Most, including Keshia Knight Pulliam (The Cosby Show) and Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense), are still in Hollywood. Some, such as Kenan Thompson (All That), have even gone on to achieve greater fame.

Whatever happened to your favorite child star of the '90s? Click ahead to find out what's up with these 30 stars.

For nine TV seasons, from 1989-1998, Jaleel White strapped on the suspenders of his Family Matters alter-ego, Steve Urkel. Though his character initially wasn't part of the show, White all but took over Family Matters after Urkel popped up in the sitcom's 12th episode, "Laura's First Date." His character helped introduce some of the most popular -- and memorable -- catchphrases of the 1990s, including "Did I do that?"

Jaleel White, seen at a Los Angeles Lakers game in 2020, once told TV Guide that, unlike Steve Urkel, he "wasn't a nerd by any stretch of the imagination and [was] decidedly more a jock."

When White's not enjoying hoops -- or lending his voice to the video game, NBA 2K20 -- the former Family Matters star is appearing in TV comedies such as Disney Channel's Raven's Home, Fresh Off the Boat, and Comedy Central's Drunk History.

After wowing audiences as the younger version of Bette Midler's character in the 1988 film Beaches, and headlining the short-lived Fox sitcom Molloy, Mayim Bialik, in our opinionation, became a full-fledged star and tween icon as the title character in the 1990-95 NBC sitcom Blossom. 

After Blossom, Mayim Bialik went on to study neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish studies at UCLA. In 2007, the mother of two achieved a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Bialik's scientific field of expertise just so happened to coincide with that of Amy Farrah Fowler, the character the actress played on The Big Bang Theory (pictured) from 2010-19.

In May 2020, Fox gave the green light to a new sitcom, Call Me Kat, that stands to reunite Bialik with her Big Bang Theory TV husband, Jim Parsons. 

In 1996, Amanda Bynes was 10, and the newest cast member of Nickelodeon's now-classic sketch-comedy show, All That. At the time, All That was starting its third season. Bynes quickly became one of the show's breakout stars. By 1999, she had her own Nick show, The Amanda Show.

Amanda Bynes' career continued to blossom in the 2000s, with a starring role in the 2002-06 WB sitcom, What I Like About You, and roles in the films Big Fat Liar, She's the Man, Hairspray, and Sydney White. However, the next decade was marked by DUI arrests, and the actress's reps have asked for privacy as she seeks treatment for ongoing mental health issues.

From the ages of 13 to 18, Danica McKellar appeared as Winnie Cooper, the object of young Kevin Arnold's devotion on  The Wonder Years, the nostalgic, Emmy-winning 1988-93 comedy-drama.

Like her TV and generational peer, Mayim Bialik, Danica McKellar left Hollywood for UCLA, where McKellar earned a degree in mathematics. The STEM star is the author of Math Doesn't Suck and other math-themed books. 

And just as Bialik returning to acting, McKellar has gone on to do voice-over work, and star in several Hallmark movies, including 2019's Christmas at Dollywood (pictured). 

PODCAST: Hear TV Guide's All I Want for Christmas Is This Podcast discuss Christmas at Dollywood

Haley Joel Osment's first significant role came in 1994: He played Tom Hanks' movie son in Forrest Gump. A string of sitcoms followed. He was a series regular on Thunder Alley and The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and he played Candice Bergen's TV son in Murphy Brown.

Then when he was all of 11, he scored his really big break: 1999's The Sixth Sense (pictured). The big-screen thriller, featuring Osment as the dead-people-seeing Cole Sear, earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Haley Joel Osment is seen in 2019 at a 20th-anniversary screening of The Sixth Sense. After the success of that film, Osment starred in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Secondhand Lions. He graduated from NYU's Tisch School of Arts in 2011.

Osment continues to work regularly in TV and film, with a recurring role in HBO's Silicon Valley and a starring part in Hulu's Future Man. He also recently showed off his acting range as a guest star in the FX vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows.

As a grade-schooler in the 1980s, Tatyana Ali had a recurring role on Sesame Street, competed as a singer on Star Search, and even popped up on an episode of The Cosby Show. Ali, of course, became best known for the TV show she booked in 1990: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (pictured).

For six seasons on the NBC sitcom, Ali played Ashley Banks, the youngest daughter of Philip and Vivian Banks.

In a move that surely would've made her Fresh Prince character proud, Tatyana Ali went on to attend Harvard. She graduated from the university in 2002 with a degree in African-American studies and government.

Seen here attending the 28th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival in Los Angeles in 2020, Ali continues to act. She has two children with her husband, Vaughn Rasberry, a college professor.

Jonathan Lipnicki was the 5-year-old who stole scenes from Tom Cruise in 1996's Jerry Maguire (pictured). He also starred as George Little in 1999's Stuart Little and 2002's Stuart Little 2.

Since the 1990s, Jonathan Lipnicki has lent his voice to such shows as Family Guy, and he appeared in the streaming comedy series Mr. Student Body President. He's seen here in 2017 promoting his horror film, Circus Kane.

In 1993, Ariana Richards starred as the velociraptor-stalked granddaughter of John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) in the Steven Spielberg blockbuster, Jurassic Park (pictured). She also appeared in the 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Ariana Richards is seen at the 2018 Los Angeles premiere of Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom. Though Richards has had a couple of post-1990s screen credits, she has shifted her focus from the performing arts to the fine arts: She's now a portrait artist.

Edward Furlong turned 14 the summer that James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day became the blockbuster movie of the season. Furlong starred in the 1991 film as John Connor, the son of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor.

After Terminator 2, Edward Furlong starred in movies such as American History X and Detroit Rock City before addiction struggles slowed his career. In 2013, Furlong was ordered to undergo domestic-violence counseling following a string of arrests.

Furlong is seen here at a horror convention in New Jersey in 2019, the same year he was glimpsed, briefly, in the James Cameron-produced Terminator sequel, Terminator: Dark Fate.

Keshia Knight Pulliam was the one-and-only Rudy from The Cosby Show. Though the Cosby's Huxtable family first appeared on our TV screens in the mid-1980s, the top-rated show ran until 1992, making Pulliam one of the first child stars of the decade.

Keshia Knight Pulliam starred in the 2019 Lifetime holiday movie, Radio Christmas (pictured). The Cosby Show alum played Miranda Lucas-Payne on Tyler Perry's House of Payne from 2007 to 2012.

PODCAST: Hear TV Guide's All I Want for Christmas Is This Podcast discuss Radio Christmas

In the 1990s, Macaulay Culkin wasn't just a famous child actor, he was one of the most bankable box-office actors of any age, period. His resume from the decade includes Home Alone, Home Alone 2, My Girl (pictured), The Good Son, The Pagemaster, and Richie Rich.

Macaulay Culkin, pictured at an event in San Francisco in 2019, has been cast in 10th season of FX's American Horror Story. He played a version of himself on the 2015-16 sitcom,The Jim Gaffigan Show.

A pint-sized Orlando Brown is seen guesting on a 1995 episode of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. The same year, he starred in the big-screen comedy Major Payne. Brown was also known for his sitcom roles in Family Matters and Two of a Kind.

In the 2000s, Orlando Brown became a Disney Channel star via 2003-07's That's So Raven. He also lent his voice to the 2001-05 animated comedy The Proud Family.

In the 2010s, Brown was arrested on a variety of charges, including suspected DUI and failure to appear in court for a domestic-battery case. In 2019, he mingled with big cats in a video for his hip-hop music (pictured).

In the 1990s, Mara Wilson lit up the big screen in Mrs. Doubtfire, Matilda, and the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street (pictured).

Mara Wilson has been heard as a voice in Netflix's BoJack Horseman and Disney Channel's Big Hero 6: The Series. She also published a memoir, Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, in 2016. She's seen here at the 2019 red carpet premiere of Knives Out in Los Angeles.

Anna Chlumsky found big-screen fame in the 1990s as the star of My Girl (pictured) and My Girl 2.

Anna Chlumsky is seen at the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards, where she was a nominee for the sixth and final time for her role in HBO's Veep. She's set to star in the upcoming Shonda Rhimes-crafted Netflix miniseries, Inventing Anna.

In the 1990s, Jonathan Taylor Thomas played middle child Randy Taylor on Tim Allen's Home Improvement and voiced young Simba in Disney's original take on The Lion King en route to becoming one of the premiere teen magazine pin-ups of the era.

Following the box-office flop of his 1998 movie I'll Be Home for Christmas, Jonathan Taylor Thomas began a slow retreat from Hollywood and the spotlight. Pictured here in 2013, Thomas has appeared on a handful of episodes of former TV dad Tim Allen's latest sitcom, Last Man Standing.

In 1994, Kenan Thompson made his debut as one of the original cast members of All That (pictured). By 1996, he was paired with fellow All That star Kel Mitchell for their own Nickelodeon sketch show, Kenan & Kel. The duo then paired for the 1997 big-screen comedy, Good Burger.

Kenan Thompson took his sketch-comedy skills to NBC's Saturday Night Live in 2003, and never looked back. As of 2020, he has been with the show for 17 seasons and is the longest-tenured SNL cast member of all time.

Pictured at an event in New York City in 2019, Thompson is set to star in the upcoming NBC sitcom The Kenan Show. Along with Kel Mitchell, he is an executive producer of Nickelodeon's All That revival, which launched in 2019.

Christina Ricci was everywhere as a child actor in the '90s: the Addams Family movies, Casper, Now and Then, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain and more. By the end of the decade, she'd transitioned to more mature roles in the likes of Buffalo '66 and Sleepy Hollow.

Recent credits for the always-working Christina Ricci include the 2015-17 Amazon series, Z: The Beginning of Everything. She is pictured here at a Paris Fashion Week event in 2020.

The Canadian-born Ryan Gosling scored his big break after attending an open casting call in Montreal for the 1989-94 reboot of Disney's The Mickey Mouse Club, known as The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. He appeared on the show for two seasons, from 1993-94, alongside the likes of Britney Spears (pictured).

Today, Ryan Gosling is a Hollywood leading man and two-time Oscar contender. He's seen here at the 2019 Critics' Choice Awards, where he was nominated for First Man. Other credits include La La Land and The Notebook. He has two children children with his partner, Eva Mendes.

Melissa Joan Hart came to '90s fame in the classic Nickelodeon series, Clarissa Explains It All (pictured), then broke even bigger with the ABC sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and the 1999 teen movie Drive Me Crazy.

Seen at Hallmark Channel's 2019 ChristmasCon, Melissa Joan Hart has become a staple of holiday movie season with titles such as Christmas Reservations. She starred in the 2019 Netflix comedy series No Good Nick and the 2010-15 sitcom Melissa & Joey with Joey Lawrence.

PODCAST: Hear Melissa Joan Hart discuss Christmas Reservations on TV Guide's All I Want for Christmas Is This Podcast

From 1987-95, Andrea Barber appeared in nearly 150 episodes of Full House as Kimmy Gibler, the spunky and arguably annoying best friend of D.J. Tanner (Candace Cameron-Bure, then Candace Cameron).

After Full House ended, Andrea Barber focused on her education and starting a family. Pictured here at a 2019 event in New York City, Barber returned to Hollywood in a big way in 2016 as one of the stars of Netflix's Full House spin-off, Fuller House.

From 1993-2000, Rider Strong played Shawn Hunter, the best friend of Cory Matthews (Fred Savage) on Boy Meets World.

Rider Strong appeared in multiple episodes of the 2014-17 Boy Meets World spin-off, Girl Meets World. He also lent his voice to the 2015-19 Disney XD animated series Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

An "It" actress of the 1990s, Jennifer Love Hewitt starred on Fox's original Party of Five before going on to headline a string of trendy teen movies, including 1998's Can't Hardly Wait, 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the latter's 1998 sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

Still a primetime fixture, Jennifer Love Hewitt is seen here in a 2020 episode of Fox's 9-1-1, a drama she's starred on since its 2018 premiere. Hewitt has also had runs in Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds and The Client List.

The younger brother of Sister, Sister stars Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry, Tahj Mowry found his own 1990s fame as the star of the 1997-99 sitcom Smart Guy.

Pictured at the 2019 Season 3 premiere of Netflix's Stranger Things, Tahj Mowry starred in the 2012-17 comedy series Baby Daddy.

Back in the day, Michelle Trachtenberg was a Nickelodeon megastar thanks to her appearances on The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Clarissa Explains It All. In 1996, she starred in the Nickelodeon big-screen film, Harriet the Spy (pictured).

After moving on from Nickelodeon, Michelle Trachtenberg moved right into a three-season run on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She later won a coveted role as Georgina on Gossip Girl. She's lent her voice to Robot Chicken, and she starred in the thriller The Scribbler (pictured).

Then billed as Bryton James, Bryton McClure played Richie Crawford, the young son of Rachel Crawford (Telma Hopkins) on eight of Family Matters' nine seasons.

Bryton McClure has won one Daytime Emmy and scored seven overall nominations during his 16-year (and counting) run as Devon Hamilton on the CBS soap The Young and the Restless.

Seth Green was 16 when he appeared as Richie Tozier in the original 1990 TV adaptation of Stephen King's It. He went on to star in '90s favorites such as Can't Hardly Wait and the small-screen version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Seth Green has won three Primetime Emmy Awards as an executive producer of the Adult Swim animated series Robot Chicken, which he co-created. Elsewhere, he's the voice of Chris Griffin on Fox's Family Guy.

In 2019, he wrote, directed, and starred in the indie drama Changeland (pictured).

Jurnee Smollett-Bell was first widely known as Michelle Tanner's stylish and spunky best friend on Full House.

Jurnee Smollett-Bell has had recurring roles on True Blood, Parenthood, and Friday Night Lights, and will star in the forthcoming HBO series Lovecraft Country.

As the burger-serving Ed, Kel Mitchell served up laughs on All That, as well as in Good Burger, the 1997 big-screen film based on the All That "Good Burger" sketches.

Kel Mitchell returned to his Good Burger ways in a 2019 sketch for Nickelodeon's all-new All That. Mitchell and Kenan Thompson are executive producers of the revival.

Real-life twins Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry, the elder siblings of Tahj Mowry, found TFIG fame as long-lost twins on Sister, Sister, a sitcom that ran from 1994-99.

Tia Mowry, sometimes billed by her married name, Tia Mowry-Hardrict, and Tamera Mowry are no longer a sister act, per se, but they continue to do big things. Tamera is a host on the daytime talk show, The Real, while Tia stars on Netflix's Family Reunion.

From 1993-99, Madeline Zima played Grace Sheffield, the youngest member of Maxwell Sheffield's offspring on The Nanny.

Since her Nanny days, Madeline Zima has racked up dozens of credits, including a run on Californication as David Duchovny's TV daughter. Of late, she's been seen on Good Girls and on Showtime's Twin Peaks revival (pictured).