Brie got on Hollywood’s radar with her role in Short Term 12, but she had been acting long before that. One of her first roles was in a sketch on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at age eight, playing a girl in a fake commercial for a “Roadkill Easy Bake Oven.” Of course, Brie is super famous now that she’s playing Captain Marvel in the MCU.
Scarlett began acting at a young age, with one of her first big hits being in the Elijah Wood film North (1994). She was only nine years old when the film was made. A little less than 10 years later, she rose to stardom when she starred in Lost in Translation at the age of 17.
Reese’s first major hit was the film The Man in the Moon (1991) when she was 14 years old. It wasn’t until 1998/99 that she had great success with “Pleasantville”, “Election” and “Cruel Intentions”. Since then, of course, she has had great success both as an actress and as a producer.
It’s perhaps not very surprising that Jake was a child star considering he was quite young when he starred in Donnie Darko. But his first credit is in City Slickers (1991), ten years ahead of Donnie Darko and Bubble Boy.
Canadians would know better than Americans, but Ryan got his start on a teen drama called Fifteen (1990) when he was – you guessed it – 15 years old.
Before becoming the Oscar-winning star of If Beale Street Could Talk and Watchmen, Regina got her start in a sitcom called 227. She was 14 when she started on the show in 1985 and stayed until the show ended in 1990.
Ben is a long-time actor, producer, writer and director. Most people know that Good Will Hunting made him and Matt Damon stars, but he started acting when he was a kid, back in 1981’s The Dark End of the Street. Here he is on the 1984 PBS educational program Voyage of the Mimi when he was just 12 years old:
Jason – now known for his roles in Arrested Development and The Ozark, to name a few – began filming Little House on the Prairie back in 1981. He was about 12 years old when he first came on the show!
Laurence is probably best known for his roles in The Matrix and more recently Black-ish. The real ones will know him from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse as Cowboy Curtis. But his acting career goes much earlier, since his first known role was in 1972 in the TV movie If You Give A Dance, You Have To Pay The Band. Here he is in his second role in the film Cornbread, Earl and Me in 1975 when he was only 14 years old.
While American audiences probably first noticed Ana through her roles in Blade Runner 2049 or Knives Out, she has been acting in Cuba and Spain for years. Her first feature film was Una Rosa de Francia (2006) when she was 16 years old.
Hey look, another MCU actor! Of course, we all know Michael now from his roles in Black Panther and as the face of the Creed franchise, but his credits stretch back even further than his breakthrough performance on Fruitvale Station. He got his start in a 1999 episode of Cosby when he was just 12!
Keira was famously quite young when she broke out: she was 17 when Bend It Like Beckham hit theaters and 18 in In Love Actually. But before that, she was an actress for almost a decade: Her first role was in 1993’s Screen One. Here she is in her second known role in The Bill (1995), at the age of 10:
Kurt had a loooong career, including roles in films like Escape from New York, The Hateful Eight and, you guessed it, a Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol was such a big star, many people don’t know that he was first a child actor in the ’60s. His first known role was in the TV series Dennis the Menace when he was 11 years old, but here he is in 1964 at the age of 13 in The Man From UNCLE:
Felicity has one hell of a resume, including Star Wars: Rogue One, indie darling Like Crazy, and The Theory of Everything, for which she earned an Oscar nomination title. However, she has been playing since 1996! Here she is in her second credited role in The Worst Witch when she was 14-15 years old:
Katherine’s big break, of course, was her Emmy-winning role as Izzie on Grey’s Anatomy. However, her Hollywood career began more than a decade earlier with her debut role as Kathryn (natch) in That Night. The film came out in 1992 when Katherine was just 11 years old.
Did you recognize the girl in the middle next to Katherine Heigl? Yes, this is Dollhouse and Bring It On star Eliza Dushku, who landed a lead role on That Night at age 12… her first big hit!
Tom may have played a teenage Peter Parker when he was cast in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, but he was already 20 years old. However, his career took off six years earlier with his first on-screen role in The Impossible (2012). The film hit theaters when Tom was 16, but he was only 14 at the time of filming.
Jurnee had a slew of big roles in her 20s — on Friday Night Lights, Parenthood and True Blood, to name a few — and recently earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in Lovecraft Country. But she’s been working non-stop since she was just 6 years old! Here she is in one of her earliest roles, as Denise on Full House in 1992:
With Elizabeth Taylor being so successful and iconic in her later career – in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butterfield 8 to name a few – it’s easy to forget that she was a teen star. Her first role was in There’s One Born Every Minute (1942) when she was only 10 years old.
Although Emma was 19 when she starred in Superbad, she had previously worked in Hollywood for a number of years. Her first known role was in 2004’s The New Partridge Family when she was 16 (and under the name Emily Stone!).
Just one more MCU actor: Robert Downey Jr. has had an incredible career, but you may not realize just how early on he got started. His first known role was in Pound (1970), when he was only five years old! He was also referred to as “Bob Downey”. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a 5 year old who calls himself Bob.
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