Being a celebrity is no joke, and while some adults have problems with handling wealth and fame, several child stars had to deal with so much pressure at a much earlier age.
Child actors have been known to have very tough lives outside of the lighthearted shows they’ve been on, and their transition to adulthood is usually paved with all kinds of mistakes made public because of their status.
Not everyone manages to make the peaceful transition from child actor to just actor, and we take a look at the status of some promising young talents from before and where they ended up today.
Emily Osment
Emily Osment was introduced to the public eye as the best friend of Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) Lilly in Hannah Montana, and though she hasn’t starred in anything as big since the show ended, she found herself in one of the most beloved sitcoms of today, Young Sheldon.
Now she’s starring in the spinoff as one of the leads in Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.
Cole and Dylan Sprouse
The twins that lead The Suite Life of Zack and Cody have admittedly branched out in different directions when it comes to their careers. Dylan Sprouse may have been working on more obscure projects since the series ended, but his brother Cole has managed to keep himself in the spotlight by getting cast as Jughead in Riverdale.
Sprouse also managed to get cast in what some consider a future cult hit— Diablo Cody’s Lisa Frankenstein.
Kyle Massey
Kyle Massey had played the pesky younger brother Cory in That’s So Raven and even starred as the lead in the spinoff Cory in the House. He was lost to obscurity after that show ended, but he did end up making headlines back in 2021 when a warrant for his arrest was issued after he missed a court date for a count of immoral communication with a minor.
Sad to say, Massey isn’t the only child actor on this list that’s had a problem with minors.
Jennette McCurdy
Jennette McCurdy is best known for the role of Sam Puckett in shows iCarly and Sam & Cat, but she has since put showbusiness behind her.
The reasons for her leaving showbiz were revealed with her recently released memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died which detailed her abusive relationship with her mother, and the hardships she had to go through while she was shooting all those kid shows. McCurdy apparently has no desire to return, even refusing an appearance in the iCarly revival.
Dafne Keen
Dafne Keen made her big screen debut as X-23 in 2017’s Logan, and she had been cast as the lead Lyra in HBO’s His Dark Materials series.
Most recently, Keen was able to jump into the Star Wars universe by being cast as Jedi padawan Jecki Lon, and she also reprised her role as Laura in the billion-dollar-earning Deadpool & Wolverine. There have been rumors that Keen could come back and reprise Laura in the future, but so far nothing has been confirmed.
Daniel Radcliffe
A generation of kids had watched Daniel Radcliffe grow from an awkward child actor in the Harry Potter series to a young adult; and ever since Potter ended Radcliffe has more or less gone the path of Elijah Wood and has just been accepting weird and artsy projects here and there.
Most recently he played Weird Al in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and was also a regular on Miracle Workers.
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Breslin captured the hearts of audiences in Little Miss Sunshine and was kind of the go-to child actress in the early 2010s. Probably one of her most famous roles is that of Emma Stone’s kid sister Little Rock in the Zombieland films.
Her latest big film, Stillwater had her playing Matt Damon’s convicted teen daughter.
Kiernan Shipka
Kiernan Shipka was best known for playing the part of Don Draper’s daughter Sally in Mad Men, and when that show ended, she started doing projects aimed at young adults with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Now Shipka has an upcoming rom-com on Netflix called Sweethearts, and she occasionally appears in films once in a while from blockbusters like Twisters to artsy horror films like Longlegs.
Keke Palmer
Singer/actress Keke Palmer started out pretty young, having a small role in a Barbershop movie, but she then took center stage in Akeelah and the Bee starring alongside Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne. Most kids, however, probably remember her for starring in Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP where she plays a teen executive of a fashion company.
Palmer has a thriving music career, but her latest big film had her as the co-lead in Jordan Peele’s Nope.
Drake Bell
Drake Bell is no doubt one of the biggest stars to come out of Dan Schneider’s hay day in Nickelodeon. Starting out on The Amanda Show, Bell became a star when his sitcom Drake & Josh took off.
Admittedly, the only memorable thing he did after Nickelodeon was that he voiced Peter Parker in Ultimate Spider-Man, but he had also gone public when he was accused of child endangerment back in 2021 (the same year as Kyle Massey).
He also had an appearance in the eye-opening docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV where he revealed he was assaulted by acting coach Brian Peck.
Millie Bobby Brown
Millie Bobby Brown was the face of Stranger Things when she played Eleven at 11 years old, and she has since grown to be Netflix’s it girl; starring in movies like the Enola Holmes films and recently Damsel—in which she’s also credited as producer.
Recently Brown got married this year to Jake Bongiovi, and it looks like she’s managed to escape a lot of the same pitfalls that child stars usually fall into like drugs and addiction. Admittedly, her Netflix projects haven’t been as massive hits as Stranger Things, but hopefully, when the series ends next year, Brown will be freed up to pursue some bigger projects.