Then and Now: The Child Stars Who Grew Up to Win Oscars
A sunscreen ad at three. A cousin in Home Alone at seven. A sitcom son at six. And one 1994 Oscar night when an 11-year-old won while a 19-year-old DiCaprio went home empty-handed, to wait 22 more years.
By The Birthday Edit
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November 10, 2026
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5 min read
Original editorial illustration generated with Recraft AI • Celebs Birthday Today
Opie Taylor grew up to win Best Director. Kevin's cousin from Home Alone grew up to win an Oscar. Child acting has a reputation as a dead end, where the cute kid gets famous, grows up, and the work dries up. Sometimes that is true. But a short, stubborn list of performers did the opposite: they started in front of a camera before they could legally drive, kept going through the awkward years, and eventually walked onstage to collect an Academy Award as adults. Line up their birthdays against their Oscar nights and a pattern jumps out: the gap between the first job and the trophy is often measured in decades.
How we chose
Started as kids, won as grown-ups
Everyone below was working professionally on screen as a child and later won a competitive Oscar. Award dates come from the Academy's own ceremony records. We note one famous exception who won while still a child, because her story runs the other way.
From First Job to the Podium
Jodie Foster
Then: a Coppertone commercial at age three • Now: Best Actress, 1989 and 1992 • born November 19, 1962
At three, she was already on TV selling Coppertone sunscreen (1965). At 13 she appeared in Taxi Driver (1976), which earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the March 1977 ceremony. She lost that night to Beatrice Straight, went on to graduate magna cum laude from Yale in 1985, and then won Best Actress twice in four years: for The Accused in 1989 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1992. Then, more than four decades after Taxi Driver, Nyad brought her back to the nominees' list.
Then: Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show • Now: Best Director, 2002 • born March 1, 1954
Howard was six when The Andy Griffith Show premiered on October 3, 1960, with him as Opie Taylor, Andy Griffith's son. He played the lisping Winthrop in The Music Man, grew up into Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, and moved behind the camera. On March 24, 2002, A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture and Howard won Best Director, more than 41 years after the show's premiere.
Then: Empire of the Sun at 13 • Now: Best Supporting Actor, 2011 • born January 30, 1974
Out of more than 4,000 young actors considered, 13-year-old Bale landed the lead in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987), and the National Board of Review gave him its first-ever award for a juvenile performance. Twenty-four years later, his first Oscar nomination, for The Fighter, ended in a win for Best Supporting Actor.
Then: Léon: The Professional at 12 • Now: Best Actress, 2011 • born June 9, 1981
Portman began her film career at 12 in Léon: The Professional (1994). She kept acting while earning a psychology degree from Harvard in 2003, picked up a supporting nomination for Closer, and won Best Actress for Black Swan. That was the same night, February 27, 2011, that Bale won his, so two former child stars walked off the same stage with acting Oscars at the very same ceremony.
Then: Growing Pains and Gilbert Grape • Now: Best Actor, 2016 • born November 11, 1974
DiCaprio started in commercials and TV, joining Growing Pains in 1991 as Luke Brower, a homeless boy taken in by the Seaver family. At 19 he earned his first Oscar nomination for What's Eating Gilbert Grape. The win took another 22 years: he was named Best Actor for The Revenant on February 28, 2016, and the room gave him a standing ovation.
Then: cousin Fuller in Home Alone at seven • Now: Best Supporting Actor, 2025 • born September 30, 1982
In Home Alone (1990) Culkin played Fuller, Kevin's youngest cousin, and has said he had no idea what the movie was about while filming it. He built an adult career through Igby Goes Down and an Emmy-winning turn as Roman Roy on Succession, then won Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain on March 2, 2025, about 35 years after Home Alone.
Anna Paquin, born July 24, 1982, flipped the pattern. She won Best Supporting Actress at 11 for The Piano, her first film, at the March 21, 1994 ceremony, making her the second-youngest winner in that category after Tatum O'Neal. Also nominated that night was a 19-year-old DiCaprio, for Gilbert Grape. One child left with the trophy. The teenager nominated alongside her would need 22 more years. Paquin kept working too, later winning a Golden Globe for True Blood.
Line up the birth dates and a few rhymes appear. Bale and DiCaprio were both born in 1974; Paquin and Culkin were both born in 1982. Foster and DiCaprio are November birthdays, eight days apart. And the ages at the podium are anything but childlike: Foster was 26 for her first win, Portman 29, Bale 37, DiCaprio 41, Culkin 42 and Howard 48.
Our read: child stardom wasn't the shortcut here. It was the opening scene, and none of these people mistook it for the finale. They studied, switched lanes, took supporting parts, directed, and waited, sometimes for decades. Ke Huy Quan, who went from The Goonies to a 2023 Oscar, belongs on this list too; we tell his story in the scene-stealers who became leading stars. For more second acts, see that piece or what other famous people were doing before they were famous.
Pick your side, then send it to someone who will argue back.
Opie grew up to win Best Director. Home Alone's cousin Fuller won an Oscar. Meet the child stars who grew up to win Academy Awards, and how long it took.
Sources & further reading
We verify dates against the Celebs Birthday Today database and link to the strongest available primary or authoritative sources.
Editorial method: every award date and result here is tied to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' ceremony records, with career details from Biography.com, HOLA! USA and Wikipedia's documented biographies. Ages at each win are calculated from published birth dates and ceremony dates. The closing reading is opinion, labeled as such. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any person or organization named, including the Academy.
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