Bright Young StarsLists about unforgettable child actors who nabbed the spotlight and how they have navigated life after fame at such vulnerable stages in their development.
The 2000s was a pretty fun time to be a kid. Boy bands reigned supreme, our phones flipped and slid every which way, and best of all, the movies were hella great. But what happened to our favorite child stars of the era once the Blockbuster Videos started to close and the age of multimedia began?
Which child stars went on to be mature thespians? Which decided to pursue another calling? Are our favorite child stars still as adorable as they were all those years ago?
Scroll on to get a peek at what our favorite child stars of the 2K's look like today. We dare you to get to the bottom without feeling some serious nostalgia along the way!
With films like My Dog Skip, Big Fat Liar, and Agent Cody Banks on the big screen, plus top billing on the hit show Malcolm in the Middle for an impressive 150 episodes, the 2000s were quite saturated with young Frankie Muniz. Even a bundle of energy like Ryan Seacrest would have called Muniz a busy kid between 2000-2006.
Muniz has dialed it down a bit in subsequent years with only a handful of guest spots on popular shows like Criminal Minds and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, and even a cameo as Buddy Holly in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. You can also see Muniz playing… himself in AMC’s fantasy drama Preacher.
Dakota Fanning first turned heads as Sean Penn’s darling pixie daughter in 2001’s I Am Sam, and catapulted into superstardom after appearing in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi epic War of the Worlds alongside Tom Cruise.
Fanning hasn't completely abandoned Hollywood, but she has certainly taken a well-deserved breather from her insanely busy career during her youth. Dakota began to slow down around the same time that her younger sister Elle joined the business and proved to be an equally formidable performer. However, the elder Fanning did go on to study at New York University and join the female-centric cast of Ocean’s Eight.
Haley Joel Osment’s pinnacle child star role in The Sixth Sense may have been in 1999, but it doesn't invalidate the many doe-eyed roles he played throughout the start of the 21st century. Osment starred in some of the most buzz worthy films of the decade, including Pay It Forward, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and Secondhand Lions.
Osment turned to voiceover acting in his teens and early twenties, with his most notable being Sora in the Kingdom Heartsvideo game series. He later became involved in more comedic projects with roles in the star-studded hit series The Spoils of Babylon, Drunk History, and Silicon Valley.
