Even if it's been years since you caught a Growing Pains rerun, you probably remember Chrissy Seaver, the curly-haired youngest child of the family, who was introduced in the later seasons of the show. First, Chrissy was portrayed by a pair of infant twins. Then, a different pair of twins took on the role for her toddler years until finally, Chrissy was played by child actor Ashley Johnson in the final two seasons of the show.
As Johnson herself put it in an interview with Today, "I think at that time, I was so young, Chrissy wasn't that different from me, because I didn't really know anything else at that time. I didn’t know really how to build a character or anything like that, so she was just kind of your annoying little sister. But I had fun with her, and I had such a fun time on that set."
Now, Johnson is 38 years old, her Growing Pains days are behind her—except for when fans of the show approach her, of course—and she's still working in entertainment. Read on to learn more about her life today.
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She continued acting into adulthood.
Featureflash Photo Agency / ShutterstockJohnson continued acting after Growing Pains. She has played roles in the movies What Women Want, The Help, The Avengers, and Much Ado About Nothing, and she's also worked a lot in TV. From 2015 to 2020, Johnson starred in the series Blindspot, and she's also appeared in shows including The Killing, Providence, Roswell, and Drunk History. She currently takes part in the role-playing game webseries Critical Role.
She also does voice work.
Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesJohnson has an extensive career as a voice actor, including playing characters in animated series including Recess, King of the Hill, and Teen Titans, and in video games, including The Last of Us and Minecraft: Story Mode. For video games, Johnson has also performed in motion capture gear to become the character physically.
"For me, my favorite form of entertainment is video games because it’s immersive," Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020. "Of course I love television and movies, but for me video games is the ultimate because you feel like you’re a part of the story. Being able to shoot with the headcam and with the motion capture suit on is a really weird adjustment, but it really forces you to access that imagination that you had as a kid."
She's in a long-term relationship.
Johnson has been with her partner, Brian W. Foster, for nine years, as she explained in a recent post on Instagram. "9 years with this stud. I’m one lucky broad," she wrote. The two have also worked together, including on Critical Role.
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She has great memories of her childhood on set.
Today / YouTubeJohnson has opened up about her memories of Growing Pains and shared that she believes people connected with the Seavers because the relationships were real.
"They felt like such a normal family. They were all relatable. They were in real situations as teenagers," Johnson told Today in 2019. "I do think one of the special things about the show was that the family unit was really strong. And I think that was also in real life. And I think that sort of bled through the screen, and everybody was very close." She said of her co-stars, "That was a second family to me, for sure."
She also shared that viewers of the show sometimes approach her but don't quite realize why she looks familiar.
"It's funny," she told Today. "Most of the time, people don't know what they know me from, I think because I was so little. And they're, like, 'Did we go to school together, or how do I know you? I feel like I knew you when you were little,' which is such a weird thing to say to somebody, but it's true."
