Macaulay Culkin and other iconic 90s child stars: How old are they now?
Macaulay Culkin may have been the biggest child star of all time. His sardonic delivery and mischievous spirit in hits films like Uncle Buck, The Good Son, and the Home Alone franchise made him a household name by the time he was ten. Culkin slowed his acting output as he got older, so the fact that the eternally youthful actor just turned forty may come as a shocking revelation.
The good-spirited Culkin made light of his milestone birthday on Twitter. “Hey guys, wanna feel old? I’m forty,” he wrote. “You’re welcome.” The tweet forced many fans to consider that the kid who was once “home alone” is now old enough to have a family of his own.
Culkin also took to Twitter to funnily comment on his poker skills – which does not come across as surprising, since the Home Alone star was scheduled to participate in the Call for Action celebrity online poker tournament and also sat down at Molly Bloom’s poker tables several times, joining the likes of Tobey Maguire, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Culkin’s birthday inspired us to comb through the annals of 90s child stars and discover how old they are today. It made us feel supremely old, but it was also a unique look into the lives of each actor, and the ways in which their careers have progressed.
Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood was one of the busiest child actors of the decade. He starred in acclaimed dramas like Radio Flyer (1992) and The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) before moving on to edgier teen fare like The Ice Storm (1997) and the cult classic The Faculty (1998). Wood successfully made the transition to adult roles with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but even then, he maintained his seemingly infinite youth.
Wood is thirty-nine years old, which puts him in league with his former Good Son co-star Culkin. The actor has continued to land interesting work on film and television, including a stint on the BBC America series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and the Netflix drama I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017). He also produces horror films with his production company SpectreVision.
Jaleel White
Jaleel White was originally hired to appear in a standalone episode of the ABC sitcom Family Matters, but his performance as super nerd Steve Urkel proved so popular that he became a main cast member. The sitcom ran from 1989 to 1997, making the teenage White one of the most recognizable and quotable TV characters of all time.
White is forty-three and has remained a steady television presence. He’s done stints on popular shows like House, Boston Legal, and Bones and he participated in season 14 of Dancing with the Stars. He reprised his breakout role as Urkel in a 2019 episode of the animated series Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Jonathan Taylor Thomas was one of the quintessential teen heartthrobs of the 1990s. He was a fan favorite on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999, and he solidified his place in Disney history when he voiced Simba in the seminal film The Lion King (1994).
Today, the thirty-nine year-old Thomas prefers to work behind the camera. He directed multiple episodes of the ABC series Last Man Standing, which starred his former Home Improvement co-stars Tim Allen and Patrice. He also directed the 2006 short film The Extra.
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci made a splash as the adorably morbid Wednesday Addams in both The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). She followed up these hits with beloved family films Casper and Now and Then (both 1995), as well as adult fare like Buffalo ‘66 (1998) and Sleepy Hollow (1999). By the time she turned twenty, Ricci had become immortalized as a GenX icon.
Ricci turned forty in February and has continued to showcase her talents in various mediums. She produced and starred in the acclaimed HBO series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) and has provided voices for the video games The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon and Speed Racer: The Videogame (both 2008).
Haley Joel Osment
Few child actors possessed the talent of Haley Joel Osment. He made his screen debut in the classic drama Forrest Gump (1994), but it was his starring role in The Sixth Sense (1999) that truly solidified his place as a prodigy. Osment was nominated for an Oscar at the 2000 Academy Awards, making him one of the youngest nominees in history.
Osment is currently thirty-two, and like Ricci he prefers to spread his talents over a wide range of outlets. He voiced multiple characters in the Kingdom Hearts video game series and appeared in the Netflix drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) opposite Zac Efron.
