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(#1) Ryan Gosling
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Most people recall that Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears were part of Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club. But what you may not remember is that Ryan Gosling was also one of the Mouseketeers. The 12-year-old Canadian actor received a two-year contract in 1993 to become a member of The Mickey Mouse Club, so he packed up and moved to Orlando, FL, for the last two seasons of the show.
Gosling then became good friends with Timberlake and the pair lived together for six months; Timberlake's mother even became Gosling's legal guardian during that time.
People may forget Gosling's stint as a Mouseketeer because he wasn't given the same screen time as the other young actors who were considered to be more talented. The future Academy Award nominated actor said of his Disney experience:
"It was kind of depressing because when I got there, they realized that I wasn't really up to snuff in comparison with what some of the other kids were able to do... I remember one time they put four of us in a dance routine, but I was so off. I was on the end, so they just pushed the shot in closer on the other three guys to frame me out."
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(#2) Kristen Stewart
- 28
Kristen Stewart is known around the world for her role as Bella Swan in the Twilight series. However, her first major film role came at the age of 12 when she was cast opposite Jodie Foster in David Fincher's nail-biting thriller Panic Room (2002). The actor is not even 30 years old and already has nearly 40 acting credits to her name.
Stewart has also appeared in several independent and mainstream films since her departure from the vampire series that have made her a household name including American Ultra and Personal Shopper.
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(#3) Jake Gyllenhaal
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It wasn't a huge part, but Jake Gyllenhaal made his silver screen debut at just 11 years old in the 1990 comedy City Slickers, where he played Billy Crystal's son. Gyllenhaal played other bit parts over the next ten years on both the small and big screen before finally landing his breakout staring role in the mind-bending 2001 drama Donnie Darko.
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(#4) Katherine Heigl
- 40
Before Katherine Heigl appeared on the television show Roswell, and well before her breakout role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy, the actress had her first starring silver screen role opposite Gérard Depardieu in the 1994 drama My Father the Hero. Heigl was 16 years old when she was cast as Nicole, a teenager who pretended her father was her boyfriend in order to impress a boy she liked.
Before her small screen success in Roswell, Heigl also appeared in a few other interesting movies such as Steven Seagal's Under Siege 2: Dark Territory and Bride of Chucky.
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(#5) Christian Bale
- 45
We now know of Christian Bale as being one of the greatest method actors of his generation. However, many forget that the Academy Award winning actor got an early start on the big screen when he starred in Steven Spielberg's war drama Empire of the Sun (1987) at the tender age of 13. And it's not surprising to hear that the English thespian found his instant fame "repugnant."
He described the experience of doing press for Empire of the Sun:
"We did this huge international publicity push for Empire, and I really hated it. It was horrific. I was almost crying in interviews and running away during press conferences, pretending I was going to the bathroom and just disappearing. That has very much affected my ideas on exposure."
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(#6) Jennifer Love Hewitt
- 40
Jennifer Love Hewitt's breakout role came in the 1990s TV drama Party of Five. However, the actress got her real start by playing Robin on Disney's Kids Incorporated in 1990 at just 11 years old. At that time, Hewitt simply went by the name Love Hewitt, she later went back to her original first name in 1993 when she appeared in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
Hewitt has gone on to have a successful career on the small screen, including a stint playing Kate Callahan, an FBI agent, on the hit show Criminal Minds.
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(#7) Jerry O'Connell
- 45
Jerry O'Connell has grown up to be an extremely attractive man; however, his body wasn't always so fit. The Billions actor is nearly unrecognizable as Vern, the chubby kid from Stand by Me, a role he played at 12 years old. Vern was always the butt of the fat jokes in Rob Reiner's 1986 coming of age story.
O'Connell went on to marry supermodel Rebecca Romijn and has appeared in several television and silver screen roles including Sliders and Jerry Maguire.
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(#8) Alyson Hannigan
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Before uttering the now infamous line "and one time at band camp" in the film American Pie and appearing as Lily on the hit show How I Met Your Mother, Alyson Hannigan landed her first big-screen role at the age of 14. Her debut was in the 1988 film My Stepmother Is an Alien starring Kim Basinger.
Between the American Pie movies and HIMYM, Hannigan also played Willow Rosenberg for seven seasons on Joss Whedon's WB drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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(#9) Ethan Hawke
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Ethan Hawke made his big-screen debut at the age of 15, starring as Ben Crandall in the sci-fi film Explorers (1985). The actor's breakout role came just a few years later in Dead Poet's Society (1989). Hawke, who is also a published author and director, is one of the most prolific actors of his generation. Some of his more famous movies include Reality Bites, Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy, Training Day, and Boyhood.
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(#10) Keri Russell
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Another former member of The Mickey Mouse Club, Keri Russell served as a Mouseketeer from 1991 to 1993. In between those years, she also appeared as Mandy Park in Honey, I Blew Up the Kids (1992).
Russell popped up in few small roles over the next few years before finally landing the titular breakout part on Felicity in 1998. The actress would go on to appear in several more film and television roles, including a starring turn in the independent film Waitress (2007). More recently, Russell has been showing off her acting chops as a Russian spy in the critically acclaimed FX series The Americans.
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(#11) Laurence Fishburne
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(#12) Elisabeth Moss
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Elizabeth Moss made her acting debut at age eight in the television mini-series Lucky Chances. Two years later, she landed her first starring role in the 1992 Lifetime Original movie Midnight Child. She then appeared in several more film and television roles before finally landing her breakout role as Zoey Bartlet, the youngest daughter of President Jed Bartlet, on The West Wing.
Moss has gone on to have a prolific career as an adult actor with her role as Peggy Olson in Mad Men and starring as Offred in The Handmaid's Tale.
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(#13) Seth Green
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Seth Green has had a prolific Hollywood career. Perhaps his most well-known big-screen role came as Dr. Evil's son Scott Evil in the Austin Powers films; however, Green had been in show business a long time before that. His career started in 1984, at just 10 years old, when the actor made his debut in A Billion For Boris. Green also appeared that same year in the film The Hotel New Hampshire starring Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe.
Green also had dozens of roles before landing the part of Oz on the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997. The actor has also gone on to have a productive career in animated television, voicing Chris Griffin on Family Guy and serving as creator, executive producer, and voice-actor on Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.
He can also be seen playing Christopher Guest in the Netflix biographical film A Futile & Stupid Gesture, which is about the troubled life and career of "National Lampoon" co-founder Doug Kenney (Will Forte).
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(#14) Hayden Panettiere
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Before even reaching 30 years old, Hayden Panettiere had almost 70 acting credits to her name - the kind of accumulation that only happens when an actor gets a very young start. In fact, she was only five years old when she began her role as Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live in 1994.
After spending three seasons on the daytime soap, Panettiere went on to work steadily on mainstream television shows like Ally McBeal and Malcolm in the Middle, before becoming a household name on Heroes in 2006 and Nashville in 2012.
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(#15) Naya Rivera
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Before Naya Rivera's breakout role as Santana Lopez on the hit TV show Glee, she played Gwendolyn on the TGIF comedy Family Matters from 1992 to 1993. In 1991, she made her small screen acting debut on The Royal Family, the short-lived comeback sitcom vehicle for Red Foxx. Unfortunately, the series ended early because Foxx suffered a fatal heart attack during a rehearsal.
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(#16) Ashley Benson
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As another soap opera child star turned successful adult actor, Ashley Benson launched her career at 15 by taking on the role of Abby Deveraux, the oldest child of Salem's resident power couple, Jack Deveraux and Jennifer Horton, on Days of Our Lives in 2004. It was not Benson's first time in front of the camera, but it was her first prominent acting part.
The competitive dancer is best known for her role as Hanna Marin in the long-running series Pretty Little Liars.
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The rising of more young actors can not help but think of many adorable child stars. Among them, few have come out on the list of successful actors. Whether the era of young actors is about to come may have to be proved by more high-quality works. Many outstanding child roles have been praised by the public in the past, and these actors continue to hone their acting skills in more TV dramas and movies, now serve as lead actors to meet with the audience.
The label of "child star" on some outstanding actors has gradually been replaced by "genius actors". The random tool introduced 16 actors who started their careers as child stars.
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