The Biggest '90s Child Actors, Then and Now

The '90s were a great decade to be a talented kid. Child actors were winning Academy Awards, pulling in huge box office takes, and becoming bona fide media moguls. But we all have to grow up sometime. And while some of these show business veterans are still at the top of the Hollywood A-list, others have left their acting days in the past. Keep reading to find out how the biggest child actors of the '90s skyrocketed to fame in the first place and what they're up today. And to see what's new with the most popular alums of the Disney Channel, check out The Biggest Disney Channel Stars, Then and Now.

From bit parts in The New Lassie and Roseanne to a few commercials to a longer stint on Growing Pains, Leonardo DiCaprio was working pretty steadily by the early '90s. But it was roles in This Boy's Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and The Basketball Diaries that proved he was a young actor to be reckoned with. Later, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Titanic made him a teen heartthrob.

For more stars who made it big on the small screen, check out The Biggest '90s TV Teen Idols, Then and Now.

What did ever happen to that guy? He only became of the biggest stars on the planet. DiCaprio got his sixth Oscar nomination for acting earlier this year for his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (four years after winning for The Revenant), and he's also become a powerful producer and environmental activist.

Raven-Symoné became a star by playing one of the cutest kids in television history: Olivia on The Cosby Show. From there, she went on to act in Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, release an album, and appear in films like The Little Rascals. She went from child star to teen star with her Disney sitcom, That's So Raven.

For more kid stars from other eras, check out The Biggest Child Actors Ever, Then and Now.

Disney revived her psychic character with the revival, Raven's Home, and the actor also has a recurring role on black-ish as Dre's sister. This year, she also showed up in episodes of The Bold Type and in the LGBTQIA+ documentary Visible: Out on Television, among other things.

He's the reason you know that the human head weighs eight pounds. His first role ever was that of Ray in Jerry Maguire, and he built on that success with the Stuart Little movies and a role on Dawson's Creek.

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Lipnicki most recently appeared in the 2019 film A Second Chance and was a great sport on the celebrity edition of The Worst Cooks in America. He's also trained in mixed martial arts, but hasn't yet fought professionally.

You probably remember Madeline Zima as Grace, the youngest charge of "the nanny named Fran." She starred in the sitcom from 1993 to 1999, later appearing in Californication, Heroes, and A Cinderella Story.

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Zima has kept busy since her days in the Sheffield mansion. Most recently, you may have seen her in HBO's Perry Mason, Netflix's You, or the Fox News scandal flick, Bombshell.

Macaulay Culkin found himself a blockbuster box office draw when Home Alone was released in 1990. Other childhood roles included The Good Son, Uncle Buck, My Girl, and the video for the song "Black or White," by his friend Michael Jackson.

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Culkin has taken a few breaks from acting here and there, directing shorts and even fronting a pizza-themed band (yes, you read that correctly). But in 2019, he appeared in the film Changeland with partner Brenda Song and has been reportedly cast in the upcoming season of American Horror Story.

On Boy Meets World, Topanga went from being the school's resident flower child to the ride-or-die girlfriend (and later wife) of Cory Matthews. That made Danielle Fishel, who played the character, a star. She also got a lot of teen attention for her relationship with *NSYNC singer Lance Bass.

Along with costar Ben Savage, Fishel returned to her Boy Meets World character to star in Girl Meets World, the sitcom centering Cory and Topanga's daughter. She also directed a few episodes of that series and a couple of others, including Raven's Home.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

Kenan Thompson introduced countless kids to sketch comedy via the Nickelodeon show All That. He also starred in the spinoff series Kenan & Kel and the feature Good Burger with Kel Mitchell, as well as two Mighty Ducks movies.

Thompson is the only All That cast member to graduate to Saturday Night Live, and he's also that show's longest-serving current cast member. Coming up, he has roles in Clifford the Big Red Dog and Spinning Gold, plus his own family sitcom, Kenan.

Famous before they could even talk, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen memorably played Michelle Tanner on Full House. That role launched them as a brand, and they starred together in a series of straight-to-video movies as well as another sitcom.

The Olsens stepped away from acting in early adulthood, turning their interest to fashion. They passed on the opportunity to appear in the Netflix revival Fuller House and continue to run their couture label, The Row.

Devon Sawa was among one of the most popular teen idols in the '90s, thanks to his roles in Casper and Now and Then.

Sawa may not be recognizable as the bowl-cut blonde from so many Teen Beat issues, but he's still quite active in the business. Recent work includes The Fanatic, Jarhead: Law of Return, and guest roles on Hawaii Five-O and MacGuyver. He also posted a super-cute video of his six-year-old seeing him in Casper for the first time.

In 1993, Mara Wilson could be seen at the movie theater in both Mrs. Doubtfire and Miracle on 34th Street. Three years later, she starred in the feature adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda, providing a role model for avid readers everywhere.

Wilson took a long break from acting, but in recent years, she's done a lot of voice work (both on TV and radio) and has made the occasional guest appearance. But she's mainly a writer these days. Her memoir, Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, came out in 2016.

You can spot little Haley Joel Osment in the last scenes of Forrest Gump, but his big break came in 1999 with the psychological thriller, The Sixth Sense, for which he was critically acclaimed. Other early roles include the movies Pay It Forward and AI: Artificial Intelligence.

Another kid star who left Hollywood behind for a spell, Osment has been acting steadily since his return. In 2019, he appeared in the Ted Bundy biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and his 2020 TV roles include What We Do in the Shadows, Goliath, and Star Trek: Lower Decks.

After a role on the soap opera Guiding Light, young Hayden Panettiere made the jump to films, including Remember the Titans, Raising Helen, and Ice Princess. She became iconic with the fantasy series Heroes, in which she played a high school cheerleader with extraordinary powers.

From 2012 to 2018, Panettiere played troubled country star Juliette Barnes on the musical drama Nashville. While she hasn't appeared onscreen since then, the actor has kept fans in the loop with her life, including her experience with domestic abuse. This summer, she tweeted a message of support and solidarity to other survivors.

Fred Savage became the quintessential boy-next-door when he was cast as Kevin Arnold in the coming-of-age dramedy series, The Wonder Years. Chances are, you remember him first from that or from The Princess Bride, in which he played Grandson.

Savage still acts (Friends From College, The Grinder, What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage), but he's also expanded his horizons. He was a favorite guest host when Live With Kelly was searching for a permanent replacement for Michael Strahan, and he's a seasoned director, helming episodes of Fresh Off the Boat, Single Parents, black-ish, and several other shows.

Already a soap opera veteran, Lindsay Lohan blew up when she played the dual role of identical twins in Disney's beloved remake of The Parent Trap. Her fame grew in the early '00s with movies like Life-Size, Mean Girls, and Freaky Friday.

Over the years, Lohan has struggled with substance use disorder and some legal dustups, but she's continued working on several projects, both successful and ill-fated. She seems to be attempting a comeback in both music and movies—she released a well-received single this year and reportedly has a few films in the works.

Anna Paquin won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the tender age of 11 (making her the second-youngest winner to Tatum O'Neal) for her role in 1993's The Piano. She continued to grow up onscreen, acting in movies like Fly Away Home, Amistad, and She's All That.

Paquin's defining adult role has to be that of Sookie Stackhouse in the supernatural drama True Blood, who she played from 2008 to 2014. She's currently starring in the series Flack, about a public relations professional handling various controversies and crises. She also appeared in the 2019 film, The Irishman.