{"id":57047,"date":"2026-09-27T18:12:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/?p=57047"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:12:34","slug":"these-former-child-stars-are-almost-unrecognizable-today-heres-where-they-ended-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/?p=57047","title":{"rendered":"These Former Child Stars Are Almost Unrecognizable Today \u2014 Here&#8217;s Where They Ended Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many former child stars who once dominated television and movie screens have taken surprisingly different paths as adults. Amanda Bynes, remembered for her Nickelodeon fame and films such as <em>She&#8217;s the Man<\/em>, moved away from acting and pursued fashion and beauty. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design &amp; Merchandising and later studied Creative Industry Studies, while also exploring fragrance development and cosmetology. Danica McKellar, famous as Winnie Cooper on <em>The Wonder Years<\/em>, took an even more unexpected route, graduating summa cum laude from UCLA with a mathematics degree. She co-authored the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem and became a successful children&#8217;s math-book author while continuing occasional acting work. Omri Katz, best known as Max Dennison in <em>Hocus Pocus<\/em>, left Hollywood after becoming tired of the industry&#8217;s demands. He traveled, snowboarded, surfed, worked as a hairdresser, and eventually became involved in the cannabis industry, launching his own brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other former child stars also built careers far removed from entertainment. Danny Pintauro, who starred in <em>Who&#8217;s the Boss?<\/em>, attended Stanford and later worked in restaurants, at an animal shelter, and as a veterinary technician before returning to Los Angeles and pursuing acting again. He has also worked delivering packages through Amazon Flex. Mike Vitar, forever remembered as Benny Rodriguez from <em>The Sandlot<\/em>, left acting and became a firefighter, giving audiences a very different glimpse of the former child star. Jamie Walters, known for <em>Beverly Hills, 90210<\/em> and his music career, also traded Hollywood for public service. After becoming interested in firefighting, he joined the Los Angeles Fire Department and went on to work as a firefighter-paramedic. Their stories show how dramatically life can change after childhood fame, with each finding a new identity beyond the characters audiences once knew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many former child stars who once dominated television and movie screens have taken surprisingly different paths as adults. Amanda Bynes, remembered for her Nickelodeon fame and films&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":57048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":5,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57049,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57047\/revisions\/57049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}