'80s child stars: Where are they now?

Soleil Moon Frye

After picking up early gigs in TV movies, Soleil Moon Frye became a bona fide star at the age of 7, when she nabbed the lead role on Punky Brewster. Frye played the title character from 1984 to 1988 and continued to spend her childhood acting with appearances on TV shows like The Wonder Years and Saved by the Bell.

Decades later, Frye still occasionally acts, lending her voice to animated series like Planet Sheen, Robot Chicken, and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. She reprised her role as Punky Brewster in a 2021 revival series on Peacock, which was canceled after one season. She is the mother of four children.

Sean Astin

In 1985, a young Sean Astin made his big-screen debut as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies. Then an unknown 14-year-old actor with just TV movie credits to his name, Astin led the film that would later become a cult classic.

He kept busy with projects throughout the '80s and '90s, receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short for the 1994 film Kangaroo Court. He earned further acclaim for his turn as Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Astin has filled his résumé with voice work, lending his vocals to TV shows such as Sofia the First, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Bunnicula, on top of live-action roles on shows like The Strain, Stranger Things, and No Good Nick.

Melissa Gilbert

While she picked up early roles on The Dean Martin Show and Gunsmoke, Melissa Gilbert is best known for her 1974 debut as Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. She appeared on the original series for nine years, also reprising the role for TV movies.

Gilbert competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2012, coming in fifth place. She's also still acting decades later—appearing as Lisa Daly on ABC's Secrets and Lies and in TV movies—but shifted her focus in 2016. The former child star ran for U.S. Congress in Michigan's 8th Congressional District but dropped out due to health-related issues.

Corey Feldman

Corey Feldman started acting when he was a child, appearing in commercials and making TV guest appearances. He got his big break in 1979, however, when, at the age of 8, he played Regi Tower on The Bad News Bears TV series. Feldman filled his résumé with TV and film roles throughout the '80s and '90s, and branched out with an attempt at a music career.

In 2013, Feldman released a book, Coreyography: A Memoir, which followed his friendship with fellow child star Corey Haim, Feldman's public struggle with substance abuse, and his life growing up in the spotlight. He produced a documentary in 2020, My Truth: The Rape of 2 Coreys, which alleges sexual abuse against him and Haim from older men in the entertainment industry.

Feldman still acts, lending his voice to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Slash and appearing in indie movies.

Danica McKellar

Following appearances in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, Danica McKellar snagged her second onscreen gig as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years. The child star played Winnie for five years, going on to spend her late childhood and teens in front of the camera.

McKellar, whose later credits include voice work on Transformers: Rescue Bots and Phineas and Ferb, a stint on Dancing With the Stars, and a judging gig on Lego Masters, earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from UCLA in the late-'90s. After earning a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago (2005), she authored multiple books on the subject, including 2009's Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss, and 2012's Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape.

Tracey Gold

Tracey Gold started appearing on the small screen when she was just 7 years old. At the age of 16, she became a star with her role as Carol Seaver on Growing Pains. She starred on the sitcom for seven years and continued her TV work throughout the '90s and 2000s.

Gold wrote about her experience as a child star—as well as her well-publicized battle with an eating disorder—in the 2003 book Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life, and has made appearances in TV movies and in a season of the competition series Worst Cooks in America, which she won.

Emmanuel Lewis

Before he was a teenager, Emmanuel Lewis was starring as the title character on Webster. The then-child star appeared as Webster Long from 1983 to 1989, and picked up a few sporadic TV show gigs in the '90s, before making a cameo as himself in the 2007 movie Kickin' It Old Skool.

He then ventured into music, recording his own songs and working at an entertainment company.

Joey Lawrence

Joey Lawrence had his first starring role as a child, playing Joey Donovan on NBC's Gimme a Break! from 1983 to 1987. He then picked up a gig as another Joey, playing Joey Russo on Blossom—complete with a "Whoa!" catchphrase—from 1990 to 1995.

The actor continued to appear on TV for the next decade and later played another character who bears his first name: Lawrence starred with Melissa Joan Hart on the ABC Family series Melissa & Joey from 2010 to 2015. Post-Melissa & Joey, Lawrence appeared as a contestant on the reality shows Cupcake Wars, Celebrity Big Brother, and The Masked Singer.

Ricky Schroder

Viewers first met Ricky Schroder in 1979, when the child star appeared alongside Jon Voight and Faye Dunaway in The Champ. After a handful of other big-screen turns, Schroder hit the small screen as Ricky Stratton on Silver Spoons. He grew up in front of the camera, spending five years on the sitcom from 1982 to 1987.

He filled his filmography over the next two decades, playing Dr. Dylan West on Strong Medicine and Mike Doyle on 24. He made a cameo as himself in 2010's Get Him to the Greek and stepped behind the camera with directing and production company work. He has also courted controversy in later years, contributing to the bail fund of Kyle Rittenhouse and harassing a Costco employee for their mask mandate policy in 2021.

Fred Savage

Thanks to early roles in The Princess Bride (1987), Little Monsters (1989), and The Wonder Years, Fred Savage rose to fame at an early age. The older brother to Ben Savage played Kevin Arnold from 1988 to 1993, transitioning soon after to NBC's Working, which filled his time from 1997 to 1999.

Following various 2000s projects, Savage returned to TV with a starring role on The Grinder, appearing opposite Rob Lowe in the Fox series. After The Grinder, a costume designer accused him of assault, and while his name was cleared after an investigation, he would later be fired from The Wonder Years reboot for additional allegations of misconduct.

Kirk Cameron

Gaining experience through TV movies and small-screen guest gigs, Kirk Cameron became a household name thanks to his turn as Mike Seaver on Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992.

The child star then got his own spin-off with the short-lived Kirk and soon turned his focus to religious work. The actor, who is an evangelical born-again Christian, largely restricts his onscreen work to projects that align with his faith, such as 2008's Fireproof, 2014's Saving Christmas, and 2022's Lifemark.

Gary Coleman

When he was 10 years old, Gary Coleman made his debut as Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes. The young star spent eight years on the show, also making appearances on The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, and Silver Spoons.

He continued to act throughout the '90s and 2000s, and ran for governor of California in 2003. Coleman died in May 2010 at the age of 42.

Lisa Bonet

As a teenager, Lisa Bonet started playing Denise Huxtable, debuting the character on The Cosby Show in 1984 and later bringing Denise to A Different World in 1987.

She transitioned to the movies soon after, making sporadic appearances throughout the '90s and early-2000s. In the 2010s, she popped up in episodes of Drunk History, New Girl, Girls, and Ray Donovan.

She married Lenny Kravitz in 1987, welcoming with her now ex-husband a daughter, Zoë Kravitz, who has become a star in her own right. Bonet entered a relationship with actor Jason Momoa in 2005, marrying in 2017 and having two children together. They separated in January 2022.

Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis started acting at a young age, appearing in commercials, TV movies, and a 1985 episode of The Twilight Zone. She acted throughout the late-'80s and early-'90s, with projects including episodes of The Golden Girls, Growing Pains, and Roseanne, and the 1989 movie Troop Beverly Hills.

Lewis successfully pivoted to music in the late-'90s as a part of Rilo Kiley and continues to lead a successful solo career, seeing critical acclaim with her 2014 album, The Voyager, and 2019's On the Line. She has, however, shown up occasionally on TV, with credits for Comedy Bang! Bang!, A Very Murray Christmas, and her 2019 streaming special Jenny Lewis' On the Line Online.

Lukas Haas

Lukas Haas spent his childhood in front of the camera, making big-screen turns in 1983's Testament and 1985's Witness, in addition to other film and TV projects.

He filled his filmography with dozens of roles in the '90s and 2000s and, in his adulthood, has been featured in various critically-acclaimed films. Haas appeared alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, and Tom Hardy in 2010's Inception, reunited with DiCaprio for 2015's The Revenant, and appeared in 2018's First Man and Widows. He also earned a Screen Actors Guild award nomination as part of the cast of 2022's Babylon.