They were once familiar faces on screens, growing up in front of millions of viewers. Years later, these former young stars have built lives audiences might never have expected.
For some, leaving Hollywood meant more than walking away from acting. They found new careers, built families, and settled into quieter lives – and a few have become almost unrecognizable from the characters audiences remember.
“The Sandlot” brought together a young cast for a story that became a 1990s favorite. Decades later, some of its stars would take paths far removed from movie sets. | Source: Getty Images
Amanda Bynes
Amanda Bynes followed an unexpected path after stepping away from the screen, pursuing new interests that gradually took her in a different professional direction.
Amanda Bynes first found fame as a child performer on Nickelodeon, eventually becoming the face of “The Amanda Show.” Movie roles followed as she carried her early television success into the 2000s. | Source: Getty Images
In June 2019, the “She’s the Man” star graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She documented the milestone herself on X, posting a photo in her cap and gown with the simple message, “FIDM graduate 2019.” Her studies continued after graduation.
In April 2022, Bynes told E! News that she was continuing with a bachelor’s degree at FIDM, majoring in Creative Industry Studies with a focus on Beauty Marketing and Product Development. She also said she planned to travel to New York that June to work on developing a fragrance intended for a holiday launch.
By October 2022, the former Nickelodeon star was learning another skill in the beauty field. Access Hollywood reported that she wrote in her Instagram bio that she was “in cosmetology college to become a manicurist.” She also shared a video from school that showed her training space and three nails painted with black and glittering silver polish.
Danica McKellar
Danica McKellar found an unusually academic path beyond child stardom. According to IMDb, McKellar is best known for playing Winnie Cooper on “The Wonder Years,” which ran from 1988 to 1993.
Danica McKellar became widely known as Winnie Cooper on “The Wonder Years,” a role she played throughout the show’s 1988-1993 run. The series made her one of the era’s recognizable young television stars. | Source: Getty Images
After growing up on television, however, she pursued an interest far removed from her famous character and graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics.
Her work in mathematics went beyond earning a degree. McKellar’s official website says she co-authored a mathematical physics theorem that bears her name, the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem. Her work was also recognized by Britain’s “Journal of Physics” and The New York Times.
McKellar returned to acting after UCLA, including a role as Elsie Snuffin on “The West Wing,” but she also found a way to turn mathematics into another profession.
She began writing books aimed at making math more approachable for young students, with early titles including “Math Doesn’t Suck,” “Kiss My Math,” “Hot X,” and “Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape.”
She later expanded her work to younger children. “Goodnight Numbers,” published in 2017, was followed by books including “Ten Magic Butterflies,” “Bathtime Mathtime,” “Do Not Open This Math Book,” “The Times Machine,” and “Double Puppy Trouble.”
According to her website, “Goodnight Numbers” has also been included in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library since 2018.
McKellar’s life away from work has also changed since her “Wonder Years” days. The site lists her as married to Scott Sveslosky since November 2014. She was previously married to Mike Verta from 2009 until their 2013 divorce, and they have one child, Draco McKellar Verta.
Omri Katz
Omri Katz stepped away from acting not long after “Hocus Pocus,” beginning a post-Hollywood life that took several unexpected turns.
According to IMDb, Katz played Max Dennison in the 1993 Disney film alongside Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Thora Birch. His Hollywood career did not last much longer.
Omri Katz was still a young performer when he took on the role of Max Dennison in “Hocus Pocus.” The 1993 movie would become his best-known screen credit. | Source: Getty Images
Katz said in a 2024 interview with Bootleg Betty that starting young and maintaining a nonstop schedule eventually made him want a break. “I left the industry not too long after ‘Hocus Pocus’ and kind of never really looked back,” he said.
He spent the next five years following the Grateful Dead, then stayed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for five snowboarding seasons while surfing during the summers. After running out of money, Katz returned to Los Angeles and acting for what he later called “the wrong reasons.”
The comeback did not stick. Katz said his years away had left him with stage fright, and he realized acting was no longer for him. He waited tables before finding another profession and working as a hairdresser for eight years.
Cannabis eventually became a longer-term pursuit. Katz told Bloody Disgusting in 2022 that he had been involved with it since 2002, initially keeping his activities quiet. “Obviously I had to be discreet, stay under the radar, but I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.
He later established his own cannabis brand, The Mary Danksters. Katz told the outlet that the business was operating legally, while the brand described itself as “exotic craft cannabis cultivators.”
Decades after “Hocus Pocus,” Katz has occasionally resurfaced for events connected to the movie. He appeared onstage at a “Hocus Pocus Returns” panel during Fan Expo Chicago in August 2026. | Source: Getty Images
Katz’s adult years have looked markedly different from his early days as a Disney actor. His time away from the industry included years spent traveling, snowboarding, surfing, and eventually working outside entertainment. | Source: Getty Images
Katz attended a 25th-anniversary celebration for “Hocus Pocus,” showing the lasting connection between him and the movie. His appearances related to the film have offered audiences occasional glimpses of the former child star. | Source: Getty Images
Danny Pintauro
Danny Pintauro’s life after “Who’s the Boss?” took him far beyond television, through college, restaurant work, and animal care, before another unexpected job put him back in the public eye.
Pintauro told Fox News Digital in May 2026 that starring on the hit sitcom from 1984 to 1992 did not leave him financially set for life. Residuals from television contracts of that era can be much smaller than viewers assume, he explained. For some early episodes, he said he now receives only “five to six cents per episode.”
Much of his earnings from the series went toward a different future.
Danny Pintauro grew up in the public eye as a cast member of “Who’s the Boss?,” which ran for eight seasons. The money he earned during those years later helped him attend Stanford and support himself after the sitcom ended. | Source: Getty Images
Pintauro used the money to help pay for Stanford and support himself after the show ended. He also began working outside entertainment, starting with a job at the Gap.
More jobs followed. Pintauro waited tables and moved into management at P.F. Chang’s, then tried to become a theater director in New York. After moving to Austin, he worked at an animal shelter caring for cats while training to become a veterinary technician.
Eventually, the pull of acting returned. Pintauro left the animal shelter and moved to Los Angeles with his husband in 2022 to give the industry another shot. But pursuing acting full-time did not mean acting was paying the bills.
That is where Amazon Flex came in. Pintauro began using his own vehicle to deliver packages, groceries, and same-day orders. In April 2026, a selfie he posted while working as a delivery driver went viral, showing a side of former child stardom that many people may not associate with a successful sitcom.
“For me, as a working actor, I’m not working as an actor,” Pintauro said. The experience also gave him greater respect for people doing whatever work is necessary to support themselves and their families.
His husband, Wil Tabares, has shared much of that post-Hollywood journey with him. In an April Instagram post celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary, Pintauro wrote, “I’m still so thankful for this life with you,” and thanked Tabares for “the love, the memories, the laughter” they had shared.
Mike Vitar
Mike Vitar went from playing a gifted young baseball player on screen to a life far removed from movie sets and Hollywood premieres.
According to IMDb, Vitar played Benjamin “Benny” Franklin Rodriguez in the 1993 film “The Sandlot.” Set during the summer of 1962, the movie follows a new kid who joins Benny and his neighborhood baseball team, leading to a series of adventures.
Years after Vitar left acting, his “The Sandlot” co-star Patrick Renna offered a rare update on the former child star’s life. Renna contrasted the character fans remembered with the work Vitar later chose.
He said, “You know, the man started out as a childhood hero of everyone, and became a real-life hero, like he’s a firefighter. From what I’ve gathered, he’s just a private dude now.”
That career faced a serious interruption following a 2015 Halloween confrontation in Chatsworth. The Los Angeles Times reported that Vitar pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and received three years’ probation and 90 days of community service. He and fellow Los Angeles firefighter Eric Carpenter were suspended for six months without pay.
The suspension did not end Vitar’s career with the fire department. An LAFD spokesman told the newspaper that both men had returned to full duty.
Mike Vitar found a new calling years after audiences knew him as Benny Rodriguez in “The Sandlot.” His former co-star Patrick Renna later highlighted Vitar’s work as a firefighter while sharing this image. | Source: Instagram/patrickrenna
Jamie Walters
Jamie Walters found fame as an actor and musician in the 1990s, but the demands of Hollywood eventually pushed him toward a career he had long considered from afar.
Walters played aspiring musician Ray Pruit on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” appearing in 40 episodes through 1996. The role followed earlier work in the film “Shout” and the television series “The Heights,” which produced his hit song “How Do You Talk to an Angel.”
His time on “90210” became more complicated when Ray’s relationship with Donna Martin, played by Tori Spelling, turned abusive. Walters recalled receiving hate mail and being confronted by viewers who struggled to separate him from his character.
The reaction contributed to his growing doubts about acting. Walters eventually decided to pursue a very different profession.
Jamie Walters balanced acting with a music career during the height of his fame in the 1990s. Here, he was photographed during an appearance at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City in June 1995. | Source: Getty Images
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, he said becoming a firefighter had interested him for years, although getting there proved difficult. The application process took about three years and included medical exams, background checks, psychological screening, and physical tests before he received an offer to enter the training academy in 2003.
More than two decades later, Walters was still working as a firefighter-paramedic with the Los Angeles Fire Department. The career change occasionally surprised people who remembered him from television.
“A lot of years have gone by and I don’t think people are expecting when the fire department shows up that the guy in uniform might be somebody from a TV show in the 90s,” he said.
His two careers even crossed paths unexpectedly. Walters recalled responding to a traffic accident when his former “90210” co-star Luke Perry happened to drive past the scene. Perry recognized him in uniform and called out his name, giving the former castmates a brief reunion on the job.
Walters also built a family away from his teen-idol years and described himself as a single father of four. Looking back, he said leaving show business gave him work that both he and his children could take pride in.
“I’m thankful that I was able to switch gears and do something that I’m proud of and that my kids find interesting and cool,” he said.
Despite spending more than 20 years in the fire service, Walters has not completely closed the door on entertainment. He continues to play music and said he would consider acting again after his firefighting career ends.
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