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The Brat Pack took the entertainment world by storm when they dominated the film scene in the 1980s. The group of highly successful film actors in their early 20s starred in classics such as John Hughes‘ The Breakfast Club and Joel Schumacher‘s St. Elmo’s Fire.

In 2024, most of the gang reunited for the documentary film Brats, directed by Brat Pack member Andrew McCarthy. Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe and more appear in the doc, which follows the group of actors who frequently appeared together in coming-of-age films.

Emilio Estevez

Emilio, who appeared in the films The Outsiders, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire and Wisdom, has remained relatively out of the spotlight since his days as a teenage heartthrob. The son of Martin Sheen and brother to Charlie Sheen, Emilio went on to direct films, including 2006’s Bobby, which won a Hollywood Film Award, and 2010’s The Way. Though he also became known for his work in the Mighty Ducks franchise, he has said that the term Brat Pack “will be on my tombstone.” He told The Guardian in a 2020 interview, “It’s annoying because Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon have worked together more than any of us have. We just made two movies and somehow it morphed into something else.”

Anthony Michael Hall

Starring in films such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Hail Caesar, Anthony eventually wanted to break away from being typecast as the “nerd.” He went on to join the cast of Saturday Night Live and starred in films including Out of Bounds, Johnny Be Good, Edward Scissorhands and Six Degrees of Separation. In a 2021 interview with Business Insider, Anthony claimed that the Brat Pack was nothing more than a “media ploy” after New York Magazine created the nickname. “It didn’t exist,” Anthony said. “Whoever was the editor of New York Magazine at the time, it was a set up. ‘Let’s get all these guys together and get them talking s–t.’ The truth is in that time frame, I was at the very young end of that group. I was literally still in high school. When we did The Breakfast Club, Emilio and Judd were in their early 20s and they are going out and having beers and I was a teen. So when they did that article I did feel that was a ploy to get all them yapping.”

Rob Lowe

In the ’80s, Rob appeared in the films The Outsiders, Class, Oxford Blues, St. Elmo’s Fire and About Last Night…. However, he later went on to multiple television shows, including The West Wing, for which he received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Looking back on the Brat Pack, he told People, “To be a part of something that has the staying power is something. The fact that people are still interested, remember, love the Brat Pack is really, really cool. What was fun about that and what I think is fun about the documentary and fun about talking to Andrew, is how differently we all perceived being a part of that phenomenon. Some people really struggled with it.”

Andrew McCarthy

Andrew, who appeared in the films Class, St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink and Fresh Horses, went on to become a TV director (he’s known for his work on Orange Is the New Black) and a travel writer. After celebrating his 60th birthday, he knew he wanted to look back on the past with his fellow Brat Pack members. “I turned 60 last year, and you start to look at your life a little differently,” he said, per Deadline. “I looked back at this seminal moment in my past, that I’d been dragging around for so many years, and it seemed frozen in the past. And I wanted to bring it up into my present. And by examining it, I could sort of honor it. And if I honored it, it started to turn into a blessing. And then I was fascinated by the journey.”

Demi Moore

Before truly rising to stardom for her performance in Ghost, Demi appeared in St. Elmo’s Fire, About Last Night… and Wisdom. After her Brat Pack days, the actress went on to become one of Hollywood’s A-list, starring in films like A Few Good Men, Striptease, G.I. Jane and more. She also penned the memoir Inside Out, which became a New York Times Best Seller. With the release of Brats, she looked back on the Brat Pack with mixed emotions. “The greatest loss of it was the time we’ve lost with each other over these years,” she said, per Deadline. “There was a fear that if we didn’t try to just move out on our own that we would somehow be seen as less. And the joy of this has been the reconnection and the opportunity that we have now, for something that was really a defining and beautiful moment of joy in all of our lives.”

Judd Nelson

The actor, who appeared in The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Blue City and Hail Caesar, went on to various film and television projects. He also authored four books released on Kindle: The Power of Speech, Nine of Diamonds, The Gig and Water Music. However, he had no interest in reuniting with the gang for the documentary Brats. “I don’t even know who’s in the Brat Pack,” he told Us Weekly in March 2024. “It’s like, why kind of rebirth something that wasn’t necessarily fun? … How can we be experts on something that didn’t ever really exist?”

Molly Ringwald

She may have been a teen idol with films like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Fresh Horses and Betsy’s Wedding, but Molly has an extensive résumé after her teenage years came to a close. Aside from her work on film and television — including Riverdale, Creepshow and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story — the actress has also performed on Broadway, including as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. While Molly is not featured in the Brats documentary, she told Variety she felt the term “was kind of a way to dismiss us,” adding, “I’ve definitely had enough of anything having to do with teenagers.”

Ally Sheedy

Ally, who appeared in Oxford Blues, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Blue City and Betsy’s Wedding, went on to star in 1986’s Short Circuit and 1998’s High Art, among other films. As of year 2021, she’s been a professor at the City College of New York. She reunited with some of her fellow Brat Pack members when Brats had its world premiere at Tribeca Festival on June 7, 2024.