6 Child Actors Who Grew Up to Become Adult Stars

Hollywood is full of young actors with big dreams and talent that they hope will make them breakout stars. Of course, very few make it to the big time and fewer still are stars for a lifetime.

Some, however, buck the trend. Here are six adult stars who started their careers as children and made it all the way.

Christian Bale, 50

Bale began acting at nine in a cereal commercial, followed a year later by a role in a West End production of The Nerd. He broke into the public eye in the 1987 film Empire of the Sun, which earned him the award of Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor from the National Board of Review.

After appearing in Newsies in 1992 at 18, he transitioned into adult roles and was lauded for American Psycho (2000), his portrayal of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, and The Fighter (2010), for which he won an Academy Award.

Leonardo DiCaprio, 49

DiCaprio started with minor roles in sitcoms Growing Pains (1985) and Roseanne (1988) before he was a teenager. He worked in low-budget movies until his breakout performances in What's Eating Gilbert Grape” (1993), The Basketball Diaries (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997).

In 2002, he worked with Martin Scorsese on Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York in the first of many collaborations. He has portrayed a wide range of characters, such as Cobb in Inception (2010), Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (2013), and Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). DiCaprio has been nominated for seven Academy Awards and won Best Actor for 2016’s “The Revenant.”

Keke Palmer, 30

Palmer’s first movie role was in Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), at age 11, followed by Tyler Perry’s Madea's Family Reunion (2006) at 13. She gained further attention in the title role of Akeelah and the Bee (2006), contributing to its soundtrack of the movie, which launched her music career.

She has been working steadily in TV and movies ever since and her 2022 role in critically acclaimed Nope won her the Best Supporting Actress award from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Laurence Fishburne, 62

Fishburne began acting at 10 on the stage in Manhattan, followed by a recurring role in the soap opera One Life to Live at age 12. His film debut was at 14 in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975). Among his subsequent film credits were Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) and Boyz n the Hood (1991), which catapulted him to fame.

His role as Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) earned him an Oscar nomination. He has acted extensively in other films, and his stage performances have brought him widespread acclaim and prestigious awards. He has also worked as a screenwriter and editor.

Kirsten Dunst, 42

Dunst began acting in commercials at age three and appeared in Woody Allen’s New York Stories (1989) at six. She appeared in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) before her breakout role at age 12 in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994).

Before she was 18, she had appeared in in Little Women (1994), Jumanji (1995), Bring It On (2000), and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. More recently, she has taken major roles in The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, and this year’s Civil War.