What these child stars look like today

You probably first remember Lindsay Lohan in the dual role of Hallie Parker and Annie James in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. After that film’s success, she really hit it big in the early 2000s. In 2003 she starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday before starring in both Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and the oft-quoted Mean Girls in 2004. In 2007, after a string of TV appearances and video shorts, she made her way back to film. That year she starred in Chapter 27, Georgia Rule, and I Know Who Killed Me. 

Unfortunately, that year was also the first time she was arrested for driving under the influence. With mandatory court appearances and house arrest to contend with, Lohan’s career stalled. She spent the next few years partying until she decided she “needed to grow up” and moved to London. She says it’s the best thing she’s ever done and seems to be doing well. She recently launched a lifestyle site and has started acting again. Get ready, LiLo may be making a comeback.

No, he isn’t dead. After starring in Home Alone in 1990, Macaulay Culkin became arguably the most famous child star ever. Starring in everything from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and My Girl, to the ultra wealthy kid in Richie Rich and the partially-animated bookworm in The Pagemaster, Culkin was everywhere. He even played a violent and pretty much legit evil kid in The Good Son. Oh, and he was in Michael Jackson’s music video for “Black or White” after which the two became close friends and Culkin became the godfather to Jackson’s kids. 

Then he kind of just disappeared, resurfacing briefly in the early 2000s with a role in Saved! From 2005 to 2010 he primarily voiced characters on Robot Chicken, and beginning in 2013, put his focus on his band The Pizza Underground. You may have also seen the drug rumors, that weird photo inception incident with Ryan Gosling, or the video short he did in 2015 where he played grown up Kevin McAllister suffering from the trauma of being left home alone. 

Lucky for us, Culkin is set to star in Seth Green’s Changeland, which is currently in pre-production. While we wait, we’ll just have to settle for the photos of him with his famous goddaughter.

Drew Barrymore’s successful career has spanned so many decades, it’s easy to forget she started as a child star. In 1982, she stole hearts as the adorable little sister in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, then played Charlie — the little girl with pyrokinesis — in 1984’s Firestarter, before following up with the 1985 horror film Cat’s Eye. 

Still, Barrymore dealt with her share of child star troubles, including drugs and alcohol, but kept working while in and out of treatment. With more than 20 credited roles between 1985 and 1995, it was her role in 1996’s Scream that served as her second breakout. From rom-coms like Never Been Kissed and The Wedding Singer to her roles in the cult classic Donnie Darko and as one of Charlie’s Angels, Barrymore stayed busy. 

Now clean and sober, Barrymore has said that her battles with both addictions, as well as her parents, have made her a better mom. These days, you can watch Barrymore on the horror-comedy series The Santa Clarita Diet, for which she also serves as an executive producer.

After playing Vada in My Girl and My Girl 2, you probably saw Anna Chlumsky in a lot of places, but you may not remember them. While her role as Vada was by far her most visible until recently, Chlumsky appeared in many TV movies and series between 1994 and 2012, including Early Edition, 30 Rock, Law & Order (twice, each as a different character), Covert Affairs, and White Collar along with acting on and off Broadway through 2015. 

But it was landing the role of Amy Brookheimer in Veep alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus starting in 2012 that has given Chlumsky her second big break. Chlumsky’s performance as the “Vice President’s troubleshooter” has garnered her four Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. In fact, it is a scene in which Chlumsky’s character goes off on Louis-Dreyfus’ character that many call the greatest Veep scene ever.

Whether you know her best as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, Kat in Casper, or young Roberta in Now and Then, it’s safe to say the ’90s were also kind to Christina Ricci. And her career certainly didn’t stop there. Ricci is one of the few stars who has consistently worked ever since her big break, with multiple acting credits nearly every single year since 1993. 

From her roles in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 200 Cigarettes, Sleepy Hollow, Prozac Nation, and Black Snake Moan, to her TV appearances on shows such as Ally McBeal, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Good Wife, among others, Ricci has been busy. She was also one of the stars of the short-lived Pan Am, before playing Lizzie Borden in the 2015 mini-series of the same name. 

Since 2015, she has starred as Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald on Z: The Beginning of Everything (which she also executive produces), and is currently filming Distorted set to be released in 2018. While she hasn’t stopped acting, Ricci has said that since she got married and had a baby, her most important role now is a mom and that she’s a completely different person than she was before she had her son.

If you didn’t grow up in the ’90s, chances are you may not know who Edward Furlong even is. His big breakout was in 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day where he played John Connor, the son of Linda Hamilton’s character Sarah Connor. Together with Arnold Schwarzenegger, they work to save themselves (and the world) from an evil cyborg. And it made Edward Furlong a certified ’90s heartthrob. He was in all the girls’ magazines at the time — you know, Teen Beat, Bop, and the like. 

Furlong followed T2 with mostly smaller movie roles and appeared in Aerosmith’s music video for “Livin’ on the Edge“. Then, in 1998 he starred as Danny Vinyard in American History X alongside Edward Norton and in 1999 as Hawk in Detroit Rock City. Poised to make a comeback, he found himself hospitalized in 2001 of a suspected overdose. Drug abuse, arrests, and restraining orders defined the next several years while he occasionally took on smaller acting projects. A pivotal role in 2011’s The Green Hornet could have been a turning point, but he once again found himself in jail. He does, however, currently have two projects in the works, The Reunion and Karma. Here’s hoping he can get out of his own way.

Remember the days before DVRs and on-demand television when you actually had to watch commercials? If so, you probably remember Hallie Eisenberg as the Pepsi girl from the ’90s. 

While the younger sister of actor Jesse Eisenberg used her Pepsi success to nab roles in Bicentennial Man and How to Eat Fried Worms, after a small role in 2010’s Holy Rollers, alongside her brother, Eisenberg has seemingly retired from acting. If her Twitter and Instagram accounts are any indication, she’s leading a pretty normal life these days and is relishing being an aunt to Jesse’s son.

As one half of “The Two Coreys” of the ’80s and ’90s, Corey Feldman — alongside the other Corey (Haim) — was a huge star. While Feldman appeared in several TV series in the late ’70s and early ’80s, his role of Tommy in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, followed by his role as “Mouth” in The Goonies, set him up for superstardom. 

He went on to appear in more than 30 movies and TV shows in the ’80s and ’90s, including seven during those years with Haim. But by the 2000s, Feldman was relegated to mostly small parts until starring alongside Haim in the reality show The Two Coreys, which was canceled before the end of the second season. Once again back to bit parts, Feldman returned into the spotlight after Haim’s death when he spoke out about alleged sexual abuse he and Haim suffered at Hollywood parties. 

In 2016, Feldman appeared on the TODAY show to promote his album — a performance that was dubbed “bizarre”. Just a few weeks later, Feldman and his band returned to the show to defend the performance saying they were “not letting the bullies get to us.” In 2017 the band set out on a summer tour, proving that they really aren’t letting anyone hold them back.

Even if you don’t know her name, you definitely know her face. Depending on where you first saw her, Tina Majorino may be best known as the young Enola (alongside Kevin Costner) in Waterworld, the adorable Toni (alongside the titular seal) in Andre, or as little Molly (alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta) in Corrina, Corrina. Regardless, the early ’90s were good to her. But it wasn’t until her 2004 role as the glamour shot taking, handicraft-wielding Deb in Napoleon Dynamite that fans were left asking, “Where have I seen her before?” and then, “What ever happened to the girl that played Deb?” 

True fans will know that between her child-actor blockbusters and her appearance as Deb, Majorino was in an assortment of TV movies and, after her Dynamite fame, she played Cindy ‘Mac’ Mackenzie on Veronica Mars from 2004-2007. Along the way she continued to make multi-episode appearances on other TV shows like The Deep End, Big Love, Bones, and True Blood. But it was perhaps her run on Grey’s Anatomy as Dr. Heather Brooks that thrust her back into the spotlight, which she reportedly left to reprise her role as Mac on the Veronica Mars movie along with the short-lived TNT series Legends. Whether that was the right or wrong decision is debatable. Majorino hasn’t done much acting since Legends, though she does maintain an active Twitter presence.

It may sound cliché, but it isn’t easy being a child star. While it’s entirely possible to experience childhood fame and go one to be completely well-adjusted and successful, there’s a reason the “child star curse” is still something we talk about. 

Lucky for these child stars, the future still holds promise, whether they’re acting or pursuing something else entirely. Let’s hope it stays that way.