Grace Under Fire is worth considering. Dylan and Cole Sprouse (mentioned a lot upthread) have this show as their earliest credit, and Noah Segan played Quentin in the pilot episode, with maybe a little too much intensity. He was quickly replaced and has kept very busy ever since.
There were a lot of other child actors on the show, but most of them did not transition to adult acting careers. This show was the end of the line for poor Jon Paul Steuer, and it was kind of the highlight for Caitlin Cullum and Sam Horrigan.
In their later seasons, they had a younger daughter named Chrissy, who was played by Ashley Johnson, who has become well-known as the voice of Ellie in the The Last of Us video games. She also had a cameo role as Anna, Ellie’s mother, in the HBO adaptation of the game. She also had a bit part in The Avengers as a waitress saved by Captain America.
Ashley Johnson has worked a hell of a lot. 164 credits in IMDB. A lot of those roles are voice acting but she is also in front of the camera. She was one of the main characters on the show Blindspot (100 episodes). Her role in Avengers was supposed to be bigger but it wound up on the cutting room floor.
Until yesterday I had no idea what this show was. Even the mention upthread didn’t register with me, I’d never seen it, my kids were past the target age by the time it was on. I was thinking Selena Gomez may have been on some sitcom and found out about it. The ages have to be checked, but I see Gomez, Justice, Ashley Tisdale, those Sprouse kids, Zack Efron, Miley Cyrus, and Vanessa Hudgens as names I recognize so depending on the air dates and birth dates this one could be a contender.
Tinsdale was outside of age range. Several of the others were guests and not regulars, which was in the OP title. Raven Symone was also a guest (crossover ep) but was older than the specified age.
Yeah, I glossed over a large part of Johnson’s résumé, including Blindspot, but that wasn’t intended to be a critique on her abilities. I never watched Blindspot, so it just completely slipped off my radar.
I know it doesn’t really fit the category, but I was surprised to learn that Natasha Lyonne was one of the little kids who appeared regularlay on Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
A lot of children’s programming is written well enough to appeal to adults, too. But in my experience Disney and Nickelodeon live-action series are not those shows. Forget the horrible writing, everybody on the shows is almost universally a horrible actor. Just unwatchably bad stuff.
This is the thread-winner IMO. Ribeiro was kind of a one-trick pony as Carlton, but it was a pretty damned big trick. Bateman is now known mostly for the major roles he’s played as an adult, his (significant) child role is barely remembered.
Sucks to be Shroeder, the star of Silver Spoons, who didn’t do much afterward. I guess that’s why he’s on the MAGA circuit now, the last refuge of washed-up actors who blame everyone else for their diminishment.
After being forced to watch a lot of that programming over many years I have to say that the exception to that is the show Good Luck Charlie. I’m not saying it was like watching the Royal Shakespeare Company. Or even that it was good. I thought that it was the only show on Disney that was equal in quality to the typical family sitcom of the time.
I’m not sure if the cast qualifies for this thread. It’s pretty amazing what Bridget Mendler has done since the show. She was either 17 or 18 when the show started. Afterwards along with continuing to act she graduated from USC. Then she got a masters from MIT, a JD from Harvard and is either a doctoral candidate or a phd from MIT. She is the CEO of a company called Northwood Space.
The younger brother on the show has continued to act and do new media stuff.
Mia Talerico who played Charlie the baby has over 1 million followers on instagram which I understand can be very lucrative. She is also starting to act again.
Damn, my kids were just past the age to watch that. I swear, The Suite Life was like nails on a chalkboard. Worse than Hannah Montana. Much worse.
Thank goodness we all loved the non-Disney “Malcolm in the Middle”. None of the child stars did the transition to adult stardom, nor seemed to care to. The kids all seem to have fulfilling lives. Bryan Cranston made the jump, but he was just a bit older than 18.
Don’t recall him on 24, never watched NYPD Blue, never even heard of Strong Medicine, so I’ll stand by the characterization of “he didn’t do much”. Things, perhaps, but not much.