Image via Complex Original
Yesterday, we hit you with the perfect throwback Thursday post: The 25 Best Disney Channel Original Movies. If you, too, realized that you can still quoteJohnny Tsunami, Brink! and Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century perfectly, then you're probably wondering what happened to those childhood heroes of yours, the ones you spent every Friday night of your middle school career watching in awe. The curiosity is mutual. Through Google's assistance, we've tracked down your favorite DCOM stars.
Where are they now? Hit the jump and find out.
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Frankie Muniz
Most iconic role: Justin Yoder in Miracle in Lane 2 (2000)
Age: 26
Place of birth: Ridgewood, NJ
Most recent project: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (TV series, 2012)
Frankie Muniz seemingly made a pact with the devil to never age beyond his Malcolm in the Middle days, a stark contrast against his character in Miracle in Lane 2, in which God told him to become a soapbox racer. The oddly youthful star recently appeared as himself in ABC's Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, and is the drummer of the band Kingsfoil (though it it kind of looks like he's just photoshopped in all their band pictures). —TA
Taylor Handley
Most iconic role: Pete Riley in Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)
Age: 28
Place of birth: Santa Barbara, CA
Most recent project: Mentryville (movie, 2012)
After working alongside Greatest Living Mummy Puppet of All Time Mickey Rooney in Phantom of the Megaplex, Taylor Handley decided he needed to work with another great actor. And that's how he wound up on Dawson's Creek during the final season, stirring up trouble for Katie Holmes. Just kidding, he probably just needed to eat.
From a few moments on Dawson's Creek, he graduated to The O.C. for six episodes. Last year, he took part in Battlefied: Los Angeles. Forgive him, though, for he'll never be as offensive as his brother. That dude started a clothing label called Pornstar. —RS
Raven-Symoné
Most iconic role: Galleria Garibaldi in The Cheetah Girls (2003)
Age: 26
Place of birth: Atlanta, GA
Most recent project: Sister Act (Broadway musical, 2012)
Raven-Symoné is one of Disney's golden children. She appeared in multiple made-for-TV movies for the channel, including three Cheetah Girls films, and starred in her own original series, That's So Raven, on which she has uncontrollable premonitions that cause her to make this stupid face. More recently, the millionaire entrepreneur lost those psychic abilities and made her Broadway debut as Deloris van Cartier in Sister Act. —TA
Joey Lawrence
Most iconic role: Michael Woods in Horse Sense (1999)
Age: 36
Place of birth: Philadelphia, PA
Most recent project: Melissa & Joey (TV series, 2010-present)
One-third of the Lawrence brothers phenomenon, which has paved the way for other teen siblings heartthrobs like the Jonas Brothers, Joey "Whoa" Lawrence once dwelled in the heart of every teen girl across the nation. Known for his Blossom role, Joe/Joseph (or whatever the heck he wants to be called now) currently appears as a manny on the ABC family sitcom Melissa & Joey.
Note to all middle-aged soccer moms who grew up with him: He was contracted as a Chippendales dancer in Las Vegas last June. —TA
Ryan Merriman
Most iconic role: Kyle Johnson in The Luck of the Irish (2001)
Age: 29
Place of birth: Choctaw, OK
Most recent project: Hawaii Five-0 (TV series, 2012)
What do you expect from Ryan Merriman? As a child he appeared in Smart House, a movie about a programmed house that goes awry and would probably try to kill him if the situation arose on a different channel. He also starred in The Luck of the Irish, in which he doesn't realize he's Irish until he can't stop step dancing and is knocked down by a carnie (which turns him into a leprechaun and is also a really hard way to find out you're Irish).
Of course he's going to play a murderer (in Pretty Little Liars) and try to jump off a roof (in Hawaii Five-0)—he has a dark past, man! —TA
Michael J. Pagan
Most iconic role: Scott Marshall in Up, Up and Away (2000)
Age: 27
Place of birth: Los Angeles, CA
Most recent project: Prime Suspect (TV series, 2012)
It seems like Pagan has gotten over the fact that he didn't have superpowers like the rest of his family in Up, Up & Away, which inspired us to get over the fact that we'll never have an impressive lawyer job like our cousin or live up to our grandpa's military expectations.
But that's all gone to shit now as we've realized that Pagan has competed in the Junior Olympics, is totally ripped, and he's appearing in television shows. Meanwhile, we're tweeting pictures of our burgers and public drunkenness that grandma doesn't want to see on our family Christmas cards. —TA
Erin Chambers
Most iconic role: Frances Bacon McCausland in Don't Look Under the Bed (1999)
Age: 33
Place of birth: Portland, OR
Most recent project: The Glades (TV series, 2012)
Not counting Joey Lawrence, who we all knew was old as shit, Erin Chambers is the elder stateswoman of DCOM's stars. Another surprise: Chambers has done significant work in the genre of LDS films. Don't confuse the letters—Chambers wasn't throbbing in pink and purple neon at the sex hotel seen at the end of Enter the Void. We're talking about Mormon cinema, a.k.a. Mollywood. Again, not a drug reference (though they should really try harder to avoid that association).
She makes movies that support the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Which is exactly why you haven't heard anything about her recently. —RS
Shia LaBeouf
Most iconic role: Eddie Walker in Tru Confessions (2002)
Age: 26
Place of birth: Los Angeles, CA
Most recent project: The Company You Keep (movie, 2012)
You already know what it is—LaBeouf, after a Louis Sachar adaptation (Holes, 2003), some Michael Bay work (the Transformers flicks), gigs with Oliver Stone (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 2010) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008, is a legitimate actor now.
He's done with Hollywood, though, and appears only in Sigur Rós videos and Lars von Trier skinflicks. If the art house will prevent more disasters like the aforementioned Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the world will be a much better place. —RS
Chez Starbuck
Most iconic role: Cody Griffin in The Thirteenth Year (1999)
Age: 30
Place of birth: Lakewood, CO
Most recent project: Recipe for Disaster (TV movie, 2003)
Puberty is really tough for most kids, but at least you didn't find out you were a mermaid when you turned thirteen. Sorry, Chez, a merman.
Most of us just grew hair in new and exciting places, while Starbuck's character in The Thirteenth Year grew some fins. More recently, the now-30-year-old actor co-starred in the made-for-TV movie Recipe for Disaster, is rumored to be a waiter in Universal City, and appeared in the Showtime reality series The Real L Word, on which he had a model of his penis made. —TA
Selena Gomez
Most iconic role: Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009)
Age: 20
Place of birth: Grand Prairie, TX
Most recent project: Spring Breakers (Movie, 2012)
Known mostly for her role as fictional wizard Alex Russo, Selena Gomez has been casting a spell over Justin Bieber in real life. Adding onto her grown-up persona, she's currently moving on from her Disney-friendly persona: She will appear in the R-rated 2013 release Spring Breakers in mostly a bikini. —TA
Hilary Duff
Most iconic role: Kelly Collins in Cadet Kelly (2002)
Age: 25
Place of birth: Houston, TX
Most recent project: She Wants Me (Movie, 2012)
Upon airing in 2002, Cadet Kelly became the most watched Disney program of all time. And it wasn't the script or the director or the film festival accolades that tuned viewers in—it was star Hilary Duff, riding high on the success of Lizzie McGuire.
The show had premiered the year prior. Duff could do no wrong, swollen with the kind of success that lets you release a pop LP, which she then did (Metamorphosis dropped in 2003). Duff has released three more pop albums and starred in many films. She also found time to marry an NHL player and create a child with him. The baby's name is Luca. She dropped in March 2012. —RS
Demi Lovato
Most iconic role: Mitchie Torres in Camp Rock (2012)
Age: 20
Place of birth: Albuquerque, NM
Most recent project: The X Factor (reality show, 2012-present)
The Disney starlet from the highly entertaining Camp Rock, who also starred in her own DC show, Sonny With a Chance, is only 20-years-old, but she's worked with some of the biggest names in the industry (Simon Cowell, the Jonas Brothers, Barney and Friends). Plus, Ms. Lovato is already giving advice and deciding the fates of potential pop superstars as a judge on The X Factor. —TA
Andrew Lawrence
Most iconic role: Will Browning/Twoie in The Other Me (2000)
Age: 24
Place of birth: Philadelphia, PA
Most recent project: October 31 (short film, 2012)
Poor Andrew Lawrence—his two brothers, Matt and Joey, were always waiting ahead of him to hog the spotlight. Though the star of Disney's The Other Me found some success as a voice actor on ABC's Recess, it just wasn't the same.
Luckily, shows like Bones, Castle, and whichever city CSI is currently drowning in blood exist to keep actors like the youngest Lawrence sibling paid. It's a conspiracy of welfare for actors used to a certain lifestyle. But that's fine, because it keeps middle-aged people from meddling with the outside world. —RS
Camilla Belle
Most iconic role: Sydney Miller in Rip Girls (2000)
Age: 26
Place of birth: Los Angeles, CA
Most recent project: Open Road (movie, 2012)
Camilla Belle stole our young hearts in Rip Girls but, unless you're rocking a purity ring, she may not even give you a second glance. Belle has dated some of pop culture's most innocent men, including Joe Jonas and Tim Tebow. She returned to the acting scene as the lead in When a Stranger Calls (2006) and this year's indie Open Road. —TA
Lee Thompson Young
Most iconic role: Jett Jackson in Jett Jackson: The Movie (2001)
Age: 28
Place of birth: Columbia, SC
Most recent project: Rizzoli & Isles (TV series, 2012)
The Disney machine didn't grind up young Lee Thompson Young. No, his lead role on The Famous Jett Jackson and the DCOM it spawned allowed the South Carolina native to get work on other shows that appealed to DCOM stans as they aged. He had a stint on Smallville, then Scrubs, with other film and TV work scattered in between.
TNT pays him regularly now, thanks to his supporting role on Rizzoli & Isles, a show someone must watch, certainly. Maybe it's left on at the retirement home, a sign of where all DCOM stans will eventually reside, when their children tire of them. —RS
Lindsey Haun and Shadia Simmons
Most iconic roles: Mahree Bok & Piper Dellums in The Color of Friendship (2000)
Age: 28 (Haun); 26 (Simmons)
Places of birth: Los Angeles, CA (Haun); Toronto, ON, Canada (Simmons)
Most recent projects: True Blood (Haun, TV series, 2012); Life With Derek (Simmons, TV series, 2005-2009)
OK, obviously the world missed the point of The Color of Friendship because all Shadia Simmons' Wikipedia entry says is she's a Canadian actress, while Haun's portfolio has a little more informative meat. Racist? Also, Simmons gets Life with Derek, on which Derek doesn't even like her back, and Haun gets to play Hadley Hale in True Blood and have a sweet band called Haun Solo. Life just isn't fair. —TA
Erik Von Detten
Most iconic role: Andy "Brink" Brinker in Brink! (1998)
Age: 30
Place of birth: San Diego, CA
Most recent project: Toy Story 3 (movie, 2010)
In early 2000, Erik Von Detten was a Teen Beat heartthrob. So what's he been up to since representing Team Pup 'N Suds and appearing on the posters on your little sister's wall? He was in the supernatural Disney channel original series, So Weird, and voiced the troubled child, Sid, in Toy Story.
Lately, his slicked blond hair and baby blues look less like a tween's dream and more like a pretty cool guy who could tell you where the sweetest bud in Venice is located. —TA
Kimberly J. Brown
Most iconic role: Marnie Piper in Halloweentown (1998)
Age: 28
Place of birth: Gaithersburg, MD
Most recent project: Friendship! (Movie, 2012)
Heavy in the game, Kimberly J. Brown was a veteran by the time she stepped onto the set of Halloweentown. By age 9, she'd played Cosette in a stage rendition of the classic musical Les Miserables. In addition to playing Marnie Piper many, many times, she also portrayed the third incarnation of Marah Lewis, a character from the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. It was a good version. —RS
Alana Austin
Most iconic role: Andrea "Andi" Carson in Motocrossed (2001)
Age: 30
Place of birth: Palm Springs, CA
Most recent project: Close to Home (TV series, 2006)
Alana Austin is not currently, as we originally hypothesized, a crossdressing motocross contestant in the X Games. She is, however, really hot, and currently studying medicine at the University of Southern California after starring in a string of direct-to-DVD movies. And we know she's smart, because she did help Aaron Carter with his failing math grades in Popstar. —TA
Kyle Schmid
Most iconic role: Alex Thompson in Alley Cats Strike (2000)
Age: 28
Place of birth: Mississauga, ON, Canada
Most recent project: Arrow (TV series, 2012)
Ask any DCOM star, and they'll tell you how much can change in a few years. Ask Schmid, and he'd likely have a pretty nice story to tell.
Three years after 2000's Alley Cats Strike, after wearing clothes purchased from a catalog found in the back of a bowling alley, he was pushing back rich gold locks of hair with an aloof hand while wooing Raven-Symoné in The Cheetah Girls. From there, it was an easy progression to such disparate projects as A History of Violence and The Pacifier. Think about it for a second—you could swap those titles and they would still work for their respective movies. Wild, right?
Now he stars on Copper, BBC America's drama about crime in 19th century NYC. —RS
Zac Efron
Most iconic role: Troy Bolton in High School Musical (2006)
Age: 25
Place of birth: San Luis Obispo, CA
Most recent project: The Paperboy (movie, 2012)
Where is Zac Efron now? Resting on a bed of money. He sleeps well on pillows and mattresses flush with cash from High School Musical sequels and the opportunities afforded by them. He reclines in underwear his friend Lee Daniels picked out for him. They're small and cocaine bright. He grins every now and then thinking about how his friend Nicole Kidman pissed all over his bare body in The Paperboy. Yes, jokes.
Unlike so many DCOM stars, Efron is a golden god, untouchable for right now in the womb of his recent success. Servants bring him the single piece of hate mail we send each morning about Charlie St. Cloud and that motherfucker just shrugs it off. —RS
Trevor Morgan
Most iconic role: Charlie Boyle/Chaz Anthony in Genius (1999)
Age: 25
Place of birth: Chicago, IL
Most recent project: Buttwhistle (Movie, 2012)
After co-starring in Jurassic Park III, Trevor Morgan appeared in an episode of CSI: Miami, and some small indies. Nowadays, he's all grown-up with a mug that calls to mind a goonish, full-bodied Robert Pattinson. He just recently completed a film called Buttwhistle, where he plays a community college student. Surprisingly, it's not a porno. —RS
Katie Volding
Most iconic role: Angie Cooper in Smart House (1999)
Age: 23
Place of birth: Santa Monica, CA
Most recent project: Au Pair 3: Adventure in Paradise (TV movie, 2009)
Need a precocious little sister with big, gooey eyes? For a while, Volding was every director's first choice, flexing her smile-face in both Brink and Smart House. Recently she's had a steady gig playing Katie Caldwell in ABC Family's Au Pair trilogy. —RS
Kirsten Storms
Most iconic role: Zenon Kar in Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999)
Age: 28
Place of birth: Orlando, FL
Most recent project: General Hospital (TV series, 2005-2012)
And you thought you had it bad as a 13-year-old. At that age, Zenon Kar had to orbit the Earth with her family, and there was literally no escape. Since returning to her home planet, Storms, not her fictional character, has had a rough go at things. In 2007, she was pulled over while intoxicated and has since been trying to get back into the acting world.
Storms returned to her humble beginnings as a soap star in 2005 on General Hospital, but often had to leave the set due to pain from her serious case of endometriosis. —TA
Brandon Baker
Most iconic role: Johnny Kapahala in Johnny Tsunami (1999)
Age: 27
Place of birth: Anaheim, CA
Most recent project: Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (TV Movie, 2007)
Disney's had their mitts on Brandon Baker for too long. When he was 13, the studio put him in a diaper to damage the image of South Asians onscreen a little bit for 1998's live-action version of The Jungle Book. The next year, the suits had him hanging ten on a surfboard and then whatever the equivalent of that feat is for snowboarding in Johnny Tsunami. They even put him on Even Stevens and The Proud Family.
In 2007, Baker reprised his Hawaiian role for Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board. He's out now. In fact, his role in the possibly soon-to-be-released The Formula will be the first work he's done as an actor since '07. How's the break been, brah? —RS