Lisa Bonet
Lisa Bonet is an incredibly recognizable child star from the ’80s. In fact, she’s still a pretty recognizable face now, even decades later.
Back in the ’80s, you might have seen her on The Cosby Show or A Different World. Her personal life has made a lot of headlines since then, including her marriage to Lenny Kravitz back in the ’80s. More recently, she was in a relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Jason Momoa.
Danica McKellar
Danica McKellar was well-known for a few roles in the ’80s. This included appearances in The Twilight Zone and The Wonder Years. In more recent years, you can hear her work in appearances on Phineas and Ferb or Transformers: Rescue Bots.
More surprisingly, she’s worked hard alongside that to earn a Ph.D. in math! If you want to learn math with her, she’s also written Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape and Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss.
Sean Astin
When it comes to some pieces of media, it’s hard to find an ’80s kid who wasn’t aware of them. Who could have missed The Goonies? One actor that made his first silver screen appearance there was Sean Astin, who played Mickey Walsh.
Of course, most people know his later work in Lord of the Rings as Samwise Gamgee. The rest of his career has varied in genre, ranging from voice acting on Sofia the First to appearing as a fan-favorite character in Stranger Things.
Emmanuel Lewis
If you were a fan of Webster anytime during its run from 1983 to 1989, you’ll quickly recognize Emmanuel Lewis as the main character.
The star has continued to act as well, although he hasn’t been seen on screen much since his 2013 appearance on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. A year later, he would appear on the podcast TV Guidance Counselor. In 2019, he briefly appeared in a music video done by Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz.
Corey Feldman
As a kid, you might have caught Corey Feldman in The Bad News Bears. If you became a fan of his when he was a bit older, you might have seen him in the vampire film The Lost Boys.
Moving into the ’90s, Feldman switched up from just acting. He branched out into work as a musician and has even written an autobiography and starred in an autobiographical documentary. He’s even lent his voice to a few video games over the years!
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis has a laundry list of credits from the 1980s. As a child star, she appeared in Growing Pains, Roseanne, The Twilight Zone, and The Golden Girls.
In the later half of the ’90s, Lewis added music to her repertoire as well. In fact, it was successful enough to continue to this day. Her most recent album came out in 2019 and is titled On the Line. Alongside this, she hosted the online special Jenny Lewis’ On the Line Online.
Tracey Gold
Tracey Gold made her ’80s debut when she appeared in Growing Pains as Carol Seaver — a role she’d keep well into the ’90s. The star would continue to work as an actress even after Growing Pains, but she branched out into a few other roles as well.
If you want to see a bit more of her personality, she appeared on and won a season of Worst Cooks in America and wrote an autobiography titled Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life.
Kirk Cameron
Another star you might recognize from Growing Pains is Kirk Cameron. During his tenure on this show, he played Mike Seaver. He picked up a variety of smaller roles in the ’80s as well.
The star even managed to get himself a spinoff show bearing his name, Kirk. Since then, he’s become a lot more selective with the titles he chooses to star in. A few notable ones throughout the 2010s and 2020s include Saving Christmas and Lifemark.
Ricky Schroder
Ricky Schroder made his initial debut in 1979 in The Champ. He’d later show up in a recurring role on Silver Spoons as well. His most recent movie appearance was in 2010 for Get Him to the Greek
But you can catch this child star on TV more recently than that. In both 2015 and 2016, he played Robert Lee Parton in Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love.
Joey Lawrence
Joey Lawrence had his first roles in the ’80s when he was still quite young. You might have seen him on Blossom or Gimme a Break! back then.
There are plenty of child stars that help bring our favorite childhood shows to life. A lot of them don’t stop there, either. Many move on to continue their celebrity status in one way or another. Here, we’ll take a look at where some of your favorite child stars from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s are today!