Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Child Actors

Most child stars tend to burn out after they charmed everyone with their cuteness and youth. For instance, where's the little kid from Jerry Maguire, Jonathan Lipnicki? Or Tahj Mowry, of Smart Guy? A select few—Leonardo DiCaprio, Drew Barrymore, and the Olsen twins, just to name some of the most recognizable—are able to escape the cluthces of child stardom and go on to act in great TV shows and movies.

In between these two groups, there are those actors and actresses who have never capitalized on their former lives as child stars. Like Don Draper, their past, captured in cereal commercials and sitcom guest-spots, is hidden. Here are 25 celebrities you didn’t know were child actors.

Laurence Fishburne

Notable role (as a child): Joshua Hall in One Life to Live (1973-1976)

Best known for his role as Neo's mentor Morpheus in The Matrix, Fishburne made his acting debut at the age of 12 on the New York-based soap opera. And most people think he got his start working under Francis Ford Coppola on 1979's Apocalypse Now. That would've been a far more auspicious start.

Alyson Hannigan

Notable role (as a child): Jessie Mills in My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988)

She may have been the weird one in American Pie who had the most eventful time at band camp, but it was Hannigan who realized something funny was going on with her stepmother Celeste (Kim Basinger) when she started eating cigarettes and sticking her bare hands in boiling water.

Odette Yustman

Notable role (as a child): Rosa in Kindergarten Cop (1990)

You know her Dr. Jessica Adams on Fox's House, Yustman made her acting debut as Rosa, the Spanish-speaking student in the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick. She was not one of the children talking about tumors or human genitalia. Surely this made her transition in the adult world of acting easier.

Elisabeth Moss

Notable role (as a child): Christina in Midnight's Child (1992)

Before she became the first female copywriter at the elite advertising firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Moss played the daughter of an overworked mother who is possessed by a satanic Swedish nanny in what you can probably guess is a Lifetime movie.

Fergie

Notable role (as a child): As herself in Kids Incorporated (1983-1990)

When she was still known by her government name, Stacy Fergunson, the only member of the Black Eyed Peas with lady lumps starred in this little-known American children's show where a group of teens formed a rock band. Fergie stuck around for seven years. That's a lot of practice for "My Humps."

Jake Gyllenhaal

Notable role (as a child): Danny Robbins in City Slickers (1991)

How's this for a shitty break: Jake Gyllenhaal's parents forbid him from auditioning for The Mighty Ducks as a young kid, but he was allowed to star in 1991's City Slickers as Billy Crystal's son. Flying with Gordon Bombay vs. getting noogies from the old guy who hosted the Oscars? That's not a real argument.

Christian Bale

Notable role (as a child): Alexei in Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986)

He's our favorite Bruce Wayne, but before Bale portrayed Batman in the best superhero trilogy, he starred in this 1986 made-for-TV movie. Wasn't so bad, though—it paved the way for his work in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun the next year. A WWII prison camp drama, it's one of Spielberg's most underrated works.

Naya Rivera

Notable role (as a child): Gwen in Family Matters (1992-1993)

On Glee, Rivera built a following playing Santana, a certified badass. Turns out she'd been perfecting her sharp-tongued comebacks since the early '90s, when she was young Richie's love interest on Family Matters. She took no mess.

Anna Kendrick

Notable role (as a child): Dina in the Broadway musical High Society (1998)

This funny lady has only recently become one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. As her star rises, more and more people will become familiar with her childhood acting experiences. In the late '90s, Kendrick boarded a bus to NYC where she tried out for and eventually landed the role of Dina in the Broadway play High Society, with music by Cole Porter.

Michelle Williams

Notable role (as a child): April Porter in Lassie (1994)

Cutting her teeth before Dawson's Creek, Michelle Williams played April Porter in the 1994 Lassie reboot. She helped the new kid in town, Matt Turner (played by Tom Guiry, a child actor who never reached the highs of other names on this list), adjust to life in the country. That collie helped, too.

Paul Walker

Notable role (as a child): Professor Bennett in Monster in the Closet (1986)

If Paul Walker had to deal with a monster in his closet today, he would just drive a car through it. Through the closet, the monster, a small house—whatever. But before he became so fast and so furious, he was a child in the Fast & Furious series, but before he was driving cars around the world, Paul Walker was a teen dealing with the monster of closeted homosexuality. That's right, Monster in the Closet is a metaphorical horror story. Makes you wonder what those cars are all about.

Keri Russell

Notable role (as a child): Mandy Park in Honey, I Blew Up the Kids (1992)

It was only after joining the dark child cabal known as the Mickey Mouse Club that Russell was able to get blown up in this Disney dud. J.J. Abrams saw some spark in the young star, and she was cast to play Felicity Porter in Felicity, one of the low-key best TV dramas ever. Her hair was important.

Nicole Kidman

Notable role (as a child): Annie in Five Mile Creek (1983-1985)

Disney brought the Australian TV melodrama Five Mile Creek to American audiences, introducing all of us to Nicole Kidman in the process. The '80s western doesn't have much to offer today, but her work in Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, and Birth certainly does. It's all in the face.

Milla Jovovich

Notable role (as a child): Lilli Hargrave in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991)

Taking the reins from Brooke Shields, Jovovich starred as a teen discovering sex in the sequel to the controversial Blue Lagoon. This was years before she was flaunting her multipass in The Fifth Element or slaying the undead in one of the approximately 5,000 Resident Evil movies. It was a simpler time, when all you teen stars had to do was explore jungle fauna in as little clothing as possible.

Scarlett Johansson

Notable role (as a child): Manny in Manny and Lo (1996)

Scarlett Johansson is a household name and fixture on the walls of college students everywhere. Before she became a sex symbol, she had a knack for playing awkward little girls. Case in point: runaway foster kid-turned-kidnapper Manny in Manny and Lo.

Helen Hunt

Notable role (as a child): Helga Wagner in The Swiss Family Robinson (1975)

Academy Award winner Helen Hunt began working as a child actor in the 1970s, with roles in TV movies Pioneer Woman and Death Scream. However, her most recognizable role was Helga Wagner, an orphaned girl taken in by the Robinson family.

Katherine Heigl

Notable role (as a child): Kathyrn in That Night (1993)

Fun fact: Katherine Heigl started off as a child model before she turned to acting. Another fun fact: her first on-screen role was shared with then-youngin' Eliza Dushku, the star of the film. Not so fun fact: These days, she's known for her insufferable amount of rom-coms, such as One for the Money and The Ugly Truth.

Ethan Hawke

Notable role (as a child): Ben Crandall in Explorers (1985)

Before becoming the only genetically imperfect man in a genetically perfect world in Gattaca, Ethan Hawke starred in another sci-fi flick, Explorers, as a space geek who creates a dimension-traveling spaceship with his genius BFF, played by River Phoenix.

Johnny Galecki

Notable role (as a child): Toby Reardon in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988)

Johnny Galecki is best known as the neurotic science nerd Leonard on the comedy The Big Bang Theory, but he got his start as River Phoenix's younger brother in the movie A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon.

Megan Fox

Notable role (as a child): Brianna Wallace in Holiday in the Sun (2001)

Before pissing off Michael Bay enough to get her kicked out of the Transformers franchise, she built her career on playing the resident mean girl in both Holiday in the Sun, opposite Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, with Lindsay Lohan.

Eliza Dushku

Notable role (as a child): Alice Bloom in That Night (1993)

Eleven-year-old Eliza Dushka made her film debut in That Night, where she starred as a naive girl who becomes obsessed with her teenage next-door neighbor, played by Juliette Lewis. Since then, Eliza has been in many films such as Bring It On and hit television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse.

Matt Dillon

Notable role (as a child): Richie White in Over The Edge (1979)

Most people remember a 19-year-old Dillon playing the reckless and rebellious Dallas in the classic film adaptation of The Outsiders. However, Dillon established himself as the go-to actor to cast in gritty dramas with his starring role in Over the Edge, where he leads a group of bored misfits neglected by their parents.

Jeff Bridges

Notable role (as a child): Davey Crane in Sea Hunt (1958-1960)

Before Jeff Bridges became the guy to call to play cowboys and beer-gutted bumbling burnouts, namely in The Big Lebowski, Crazy Heart and True Grit, he was the pudgy young star of Sea Hunt, where his dad starred as the show's protagonist, scuba diver Mike Nelson.

Ashley Benson

Notable role (as a child): Abby in Days of Our Lives (2004-2007)

These days, Benson is best known for being a sexy pseudo-Sherlock Holmes on Pretty Little Liars and gunning down Gucci Mane's goons in Spring Breakers. But before becoming a bona fide badass, she was played the wholesome daughter of the show's resident power couple.

Jessica Alba

Notable role (as a child): Gail in Camp Nowhere (1994)

From Dark Angel to Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four, Jessica Alba has become an international sex symbol. But before puberty hit, she was bouncing around from kids movie to kids movie, first as a flirty camper Camp Nowhere and then, most memorably, as a gearhead in P.U.N.K.S.