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 catch of being a child actor on TV shows is the world watches you grow up. (That includes any awkward years.) There have been a whole lot of cases, with actors starting out either before they were teenagers or growing up from being teenagers to adulthood. While it's not completely apparent while watching the shows at a stretch, jumping from the first season to the last one shows just how dramatically transformed these child actors became by the series' finales.
Here are child actors who basically grew up in front of our eyes.
Who's the Boss? had its premise surround the main character moving to a new neighborhood to provide for his daughter Sam, who was played by then-11-year-old Alyssa Milano. In the show's conclusion, she marries her boyfriend Hank eight years after the series premiered.
Angus T. Jones' Jake Harper was the "half man" in the Two and a Half Men series, being only 10 years old when the show began. Although he left as a permanent cast member in Season 10, he was already 20 years old by that time. He returned for the series finale as a 22-year-old, where his character had gotten married.
Jodie Sweetin was only 5 years old when she started playing Stephanie Tanner on Full House with her character in kindergarten during the first season and starting high school by the end. She continued in the role for the next eight years and was about to turn 13 (although she looked older) when the series concluded.
Christopher Knight spent his transformative years on The Brady Bunch as the middle son of the family. As can be seen, his physical maturity was evident by the time the series closed its doors.
Melissa Gilbert starred as the main character in Litte House on the Priairie, a role she began playing the age of 10. The show ran for nine years, by which point she had grown into a young woman at the age of 19.
Tatyna Ali appeared as Ashley Banks, initially the youngest child of the Banks family. She was a preteen when the series premiered and had enrolled into performance arts school six years later when the finale aired.
