Where Are They Now? '90s Stars Who Grew Up To Be Hot

Claim to Fame: Boy Meets World
We and everyone else who grew up watching ABC’s TGIF lineup have a special fondness for Topanga Lawrence. From 1993 until the end of the 20th century, we witnessed Cory Matthew’s weirdly-named true love mature from a spaced-out hippie to an intelligent, poised and actually normal woman. After the show wrapped, Fishel, now 30, shifted her focus from scripted acting roles to live hosting gigs, most notably E!’s now-canceled entertainment news show, The Dish.

Claim to Fame: Waterworld (1995)
There are a lot of plot elements that didn’t make sense in Waterworld, including Enola’s (Majorino) inability to swim in a planet covered in water. Despite the Razzie awards the film earned, the 27-year-old’s career was eventually revived by recurring roles in Veronica Mars, Big Love and Bones.

Claim to Fame: One Fine Day (1996)
We know what you’re thinking: “Her?” Before Mae Whitman was George Michael’s not-so-charming girlfriend on Arrested Development and Ramona’s spurned lover in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Whitman starred in One Fine Day, in which she played George Clooney’s adorably precocious daughter.

Claim to Fame: Full House
If you were a fan of Full House, then you were probably terrified of Gia Mahan messing up your wholesome TV show. Marla Sokoloff, at the age of twelve, played the older girl who smoked cigarettes, flunked school, and was officially Stephanie Tanner’s bad influence. After progressing to sweeter roles in early-aughts teen films, including the cute girl next door in Whatever It Takes, the 31-year-old appeared in Burn Notice, CSI: NY and released her debut album Grateful.

Claim to Fame: Little Giants (1994)
For a girl who became famous for starring as a football playing tomboy nicknamed “Icebox,” the 30-year-old actress is by the far the most surprising grown-up hottie on this list. Among her recent projects, Waldron stripped down for her role as a seductive yet murderous college co-ed in the 2008 horror film Poison Ivy.

Claim to Fame: Contact (1997)
In her first major motion picture, the sci-fi film Contact, Jena Malone played the younger version of the gifted scientist Ellie Arroway (though she never quite captured Jodie Foster’s signature dramatic lisp). Now 27, Malone’s become one of the most recognizable women in the Hollywood thanks to the range of films on her resumé, which includes Donnie Darko, Sucker Punch and the upcoming mini-series Hatfields and McCoys.

Claim to Fame: My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life only aired for 19 episodes, but that was enough for Claire Danes to capture a cult following as the 15-year-old having eye-sex with Jared Leto, Angela Chase. A year later, she would cement her status as a teen idol with Romeo + Juliet. These days, the 33-year-old is reliving her small screen superstardom with her Golden Globe-winning Showtime drama Homeland, which she recently won an Emmy for.

Claim to Fame: Sister, Sister
Unlike the Olsens, Tia and Tamera Mowry never stopped capitalizing on their identical appearance. After ending their five-year run as reunited twins on Disney’s Sister, Sister, the Mowrys moved onto the made-for-TV films Twitches and Twitches, Too (yes, an abbreviated version of “twin witches”). Even today, when Tia isn't on set filming The Game, the 33-year-olds co-star in their own reality show, Tia and Tamera.

Claim to Fame: All That
Amanda Bynes’ recent whereabouts are apparent, given her mugshot taken after her arrest for drunk driving has been splashed all over tabloids and gossip sites. But in the early 90s, Amanda Bynes was the Gilda Radner of the her teen audience. Not only did she become an All That favorite, but her popularity even landed Bynes her sketch show titled, The Amanda Show.

Claim to Fame: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Admittedly, even we got a bit overprotective of Will's sheltered and privileged little cousin Ashley Banks, played by Ali. She became endearing for her fumbles, whether it was a trivial as her mishaps with boys or as grand as her secretly dropping out of private school and enrolling herself in a public high school. At 33, the actress is now a recurring character on The Young and the Restless and stars in the TV One sitcom Love that Girl!

Claim to Fame: My Girl (1991)
It’s difficult to detach Anna Chlumsky from her character Vada Sultenfuss in My Girl, considering her classic hit is intrinsically tied to the memory of the first time you’ve ever cried because of a movie. But her snarky new role in Veep might just make you man up and quit wallowing in nostalgia. As the Vice President’s Chief of Staff Amy Brookheimer, the 31-year-old actress is a thick-skinned, go-getter with no interest in any relationship outside of the professional one she has with her Blackberry.

Claim to Fame: The Cosby Show
A wisecracking three-year old who could outwit Cliff Huztable (Bill Cosby), Raven Symone's Olivia Kendall, the stepdaughter of Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet), was the most charming kid on TV. The natural comedian would eventually star in her own Disney show That's So Raven and her most recent (though now-canceled) ABC Family sitcom, State of Georgia. She's currently starring as Deloris van Cartier in the Broadway musical Sister Act.

Claim to Fame: The Addams Family (1991)
To be perfectly honest, Christina Ricci creeped us out as a kid thanks to her peculiarly haunting look that made her the perfect Wednesday Addams. In fact, she built a solid career out of playing darker, unorthodox roles including her critically acclaimed turn as Aileen Wuornos’ troubled girlfriend in Monster and a nymphomaniac in Black Snake Moan. Nowadays, however, Ricci embodies a character who’s easier to stomach, flight attendant Maggie Ryan in the ABC drama Pan Am.

Claim to Fame: Full House
In the 1990s, Jurnee Smollett was best known for playing Michelle Tanner’s witty best friend, Denise. Since then, the 25-year-old has foregone playing the smart-alecky sidekick with a starring role as the leader of the East Dillon Spirit Squad, Jess Merriweather in Friday Night Lights and as the stripper-turned-lawyer Lisa Tyler in the short-lived legal drama The Defenders.

Claim to Fame: Party of Five
Chabert broke out as the loquacious child prodigy Claudia Salinger in Party of Five, though she’s more famous for trying to “make fetch happen” as the dimwitted Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls. Although the 29-year-old hasn’t made a film as memorable since, Chabert has been assuming a steady stream of voice-over roles, most recently as Zatanna Zatara on the Cartoon Network series Young Justice.

Claim to Fame: Charlie Grace
Charlie Grace was just a single dad trying to understand his teen daughter Jenny (Sobieski). Although that sitcom was canceled after just one season, Leelee found success playing another misunderstood teen in Never Been Kissed, before starring as the ultimate misunderstood teen: Joan of Arc. Currently, the 28-year-old appears in the CBS crime drama, NYC 22, in which she plays a rookie cop.

Claim to fame: Interview with the Vampire (1994)
If your breakout film has you co-starring with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and your performance earns better reviews than theirs, then you can pretty much bank on making a steady living in Hollywood. Despite the lull in her career after Spider-Man 3, Dunst’s career is regaining momentum with a string of highly-praised turns in the festival favorites All Good Things, Melancholia and the upcoming female ensemble comedy Bachelorette.

Claim to Fame: Full House
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen dominated the 90s not only by double-teaming as Michelle Tanner in Full House, but also with their countless straight-to-VHS movies, their catchy cassette tapes of nursery-rhyme singles and their series of books entitled, The Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. It wouldn’t have taken a mathematician to predict that the famous twins would be on the verge of becoming billionaires at just 25-years-old. While Mary Kate is still appearing in movies, most recently 2011’s Beastly, the twins are more focused on establishing their fashion lines, including the high-end collection The Row, which already boasts famous female patrons, including the First Lady.

Claim to Fame: The Wonder Years
Danica McKellar is your storybook ugly duckling who transformed into a beautiful swan. After starring as Kevin Arnold's nerdy soulmate Winnie Cooper, McKellar studied math at UCLA and nabbed a spot on New York Times bestseller list with her book Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, without turning into a crazy cat lady in the process. When she's not doing genius things, she's perpetuating fanboy fantasies as the voice of Miss Martian in Young Justice and guest-starring in sitcoms such as the The Big Bang Theory.

Claim to Fame: Party of Five
Jennifer Love Hewitt spent the ‘90s perfectly embodying the quintessential gorgeous girl-next-door; simply recall her role in Party of Five, House Arrest and Can’t Hardly Wait. Now, Hewitt is dropping the “America’s Sweetheart” act in Lifetime’s sexy new series The Client List, which follows the 33-year old as a modern-day Belle de Jour.

Claim to Fame: The Parent Trap (1998)
After convincing us she had an actual twin in The Parent Trap (that we assume Lindsay later ate to maintain her acting career and beauty), Lohan moved on to Disney made for TV films like Life Size and Get a Clue. Possibly in an attempt to shed the “Disney Kid” image, Lohan, now 25, followed these movies with the hilarious Mean Girls, and then a few stints in jail.

Claim to Fame: Harriet the Spy (1998)
Aside from playing Little Pete’s BFF Nona F. Mecklenberg in Nickelodeon’s The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Trachtenberg was known for snooping around (and jotting down her observations in a Mead notebook) as the titular character of Harriet the Spy. Nowadays, the 26-year-old starlet essentially plays the evil grown-up version of her beloved childhood character: An intrusive and omniscient blogger’s temporary surrogate, Georgina Sparks, on The CW series Gossip Girl.

Claim to Fame: Leon: The Professional (1994)
Most 12-year-olds want to be astronauts or doctors, but Mathilda (Portman’s first role) wanted to be a “cleaner,” i.e. a professional hitman like her old pal Leon. At 30-years-old, it seems that Portman never outgrew her penchant for deranged characters; she even earned a Academy Award for one in Black Swan.

Claim to Fame: A Little Princess (1995)
Before the 25-year-old ever modeled for Vera Wang, starred in the big-budget popcorn flick 10,000 B.C. and inspired Taylor Swift to write a retalitation song ("Better Than Revenge"), Belle grew up playing shy and harmless characters, including her debut film role as Jane in A Little Princess and Sydney Miller in the Disney movie Rip Girls.

Claim to Fame: Family Matters
As Gwendolyn, the new neighbor to the Winslows and the bumbling Urkel, Rivera was already trying to woo boys while she was still interviewing for preschools. Granted, that’s difficult to do at an age when boys are more interested in hunting spiders in a basement than having Valentines. Rivera, now 25, is making up for lost time on boys by making both genders fall in love with her sassy cheerleader, Santana Lopez, in Glee.