Child stars used to be closely associated with a certain image—they were often confined to those cutesy, wholesome, Nickelodeon-style roles and found it hard to transition into more serious adult roles. There weren’t many protections in place for them either, which sometimes led to exploitation and struggles for these young actors, who were meant to be learning and thriving alongside their peers.
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Recent shows like Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV and a variety of autobiographies have come out to expose the toxic and abusive environment some have faced, leading to serious discussions and controversies about child stardom. In other cases, some former child stars enjoyed their career but simply preferred to step away and lead a quieter life, using their earnings to find every new casino online with Casinos.com or travel the world. These once-celebrated child stars were big names in the 1990s and early 2000s, but what are they up to now?
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin is considered one of the most celebrated child actors of the ‘90s. If you’ve ever seen Home Alone, you’ll know him as Kevin McCallister, the cute and intelligent yet mischievous son with four siblings. This prominent role was fitting for Culkin, considering he grew up with seven siblings. While the McCallisters were wealthy, the Culkins struggled financially in New York, and Macaulay faced cruelty and violence from his father until his teenage years.
Having begun his career at age four, acting was essentially all Macaulay ever knew. Unlike several other child stars, however, he started in more serious roles, appearing in The Equalizer, Rocket Gibraltar, and Uncle Buck. But it wasn’t until his breakthrough role in Home Alone that he rose to fame. From then on, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, starred in a Michael Jackson music video, and even hosted Saturday Night Live. He took a hiatus from acting at the young age of 14 because of the pressure of fame but continues to dabble in projects today. He is married to fellow child actor Brenda Song.
Amanda Bynes
While Macaulay Culkin continued to dabble in acting after his hiatus, Amanda Bynes completely left acting in 2010. She was most famous for appearing in Nickelodeon’s sketch comedy All That, hosting her very own show, The Amanda Show, between 1999–2002, and starring in several famous teen rom-coms and comedies like She’s the Man and Easy A.
Bynes has had a highly publicized personal life, plagued with substance abuse charges and mental health struggles. After these unfortunate happenings and bizarre public appearances and social media posts, she was placed under a temporary conservatorship to protect her and her estate. As she strayed further away from her life as an actress, Bynes filed to end her conservatorship, got sober, and began working on a career as a cosmetologist out of the limelight.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Known together as the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen made their TV debut by playing the lovable Michelle Tanner on Full House. The twins grew up with the role, cast at just nine months old. By hiring twins, the show could abide by child labor laws that set limits on how long child actors could work. They continued to act together in movies made by their own company, Dualstar, such as Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, and appeared in other comedy and drama films and TV shows like 7th Heaven and It Takes Two.
The Olsens were considered such icons in the preteen market of the 2000s that people would buy shoes, purses, hats, fragrances, dolls, posters, and CD players featuring them. In the mid-2000s, they stepped away from acting and got their start in the fashion industry, starting a clothing line for young girls in Walmart and launching a couture fashion label called The Row.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Jonathan Taylor Thomas has earned countless accolades from his work as a young actor, including several Young Artist Awards, Kids’ Choice Awards, and two Saturn Awards for Best Performance by a Younger Actor (in The Lion King and The Adventures of Pinocchio). He’s best known for playing Randy Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement. Since his work in TV and film died down in the mid-2000s, people have constantly wondered what happened to the actor and what he’s doing now.
That’s because there’s never been a child star more invisible than Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He went from being on the cover of every tween magazine, like Bop and Tiger Beat, to going to university and solely wanting to direct and write. He currently lives a quiet life away from the paparazzi and media, cherishing yet leaving behind his acting past.
Frankie Muniz
After being discovered at a talent show in North Carolina, Frankie Muniz was thrust into acting in commercials and roles in TV and film. His breakout role was as Malcolm in the highly successful sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. He made appearances in much-loved shows like Lizzie McGuire, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Punk’d, and MADtv, as well as lending his voice to a variety of voice-acting roles.
Although Muniz’s story sounds similar to that of any other child star, what’s most intriguing about it is that he put his acting career on hold in 2008 to take on a racing career, which he continues to work on today. He’s also previously been a drummer for the band You Hang Up and invests in real estate and other business ventures today.
