Child actors - Where are they now?

Think back to your favourite TV show or film from a few years ago, and chances are that there was a cute little child actor who stole the show, but then seemingly grew up and disappeared.

LocateTV have gathered the 5 (well, 6 really!) greatest child stars (in our opinion anyway!) and taken a look at what they've been up to since the role that launched them.

Haley Joel Osment

"I see dead people". Haley Joel Osment will most likely never escape the line he famously delivered in 1999's The Sixth Sense. Having already starred opposite Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Whoopi Goldberg (Bogus), Osment got critics talking after his impressive portrayal of Cole Sear, being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1999. Aged 12, Osment went on to star in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, before lending his voice to several animation ventures including The Jungle Book 2. Having been in the limelight since he was four years old, it wasn't really a surprise when he was arrested for drug possession and driving under the influence in 2006, but the legal troubles seem to be firmly in his past as he graduated university in 2010. A role on Broadway in 2008's American Buffalo opened to mixed reviews, but roles in four upcoming movies, one of which Osment also produces, has secured his place as a young actor in Hollywood.

Melissa Joan Hart

Clarissa Explains It All - the comedy that guided teenage girls through everyday life, as played out by Hart, supported by her annoying younger brother, best friend and parents. Hart was 15 when she hit the screens as Clarissa, and so followed 4 years of award nominations, Nickelodeon guest appearances and two albums. After the series, Hart began studying for a degree which was put on hold when she landed her best known role as the young witch in the TV film Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which lead the way for the successful 7 seasons of the TV show of the same name. Roles as director and producer followed, as well as a venture into the sweet shop business! Married with 2 children, Hart has competed in Dancing with the Stars, filmed commercials for various products and can currently be seen in Melissa & Joey- a kind-hearted sitcom also starring Joey Lawrence.

Mayim Bialik

Starting off her acting career in episodes of MacGyver, The Facts of Life and Beauty and the Beast, Bialik will be best remembered for two roles. Firstly as the child depection of CC Bloom in Beaches, with Bette Midler playing the adult version of the character. And secondly as the title character in Blossom, an American sitcom featuring Bialik as the youngest child in a family whose matriarch has recently left the father to raise 3 children. Facing a life without her mother, Blossom relies on best friend Six, brother Joey and father Nick to guide her through puberty where she finds herself dealing with alcohol and drugs (courtesy of elder brother Tony), divorce and pregnancy scares. Following the end of Blossom in 1995, Bialik stayed mostly off-screen with voice over work. In late 2005, guest roles in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fat Actress, Bones, 'Til Death and The Secret Life of the American Teenager lead to a starring role in The Big Bang Theory. Married with 2 children, Bialik has a degree and PhD in neuroscience, and plans to continue acting in favour of an academic career.

Macaulay Culkin

Perhaps the best known child actor ever, Culkin's life has often been in the tabloids for the good and the bad. Living a life that could be a Hollywood movie in its own right, Culkin began acting at age 4 in TV roles, on stage and in the film industry. His big role came with Home Alone in 1990 and the sequel two years later. Playing the adorable but tragic Thomas in My Girl, Culkin's next few films didn't enjoy the box office success of their predecessors, and he remained relatively low on the radar until a cameo in TV series Will & Grace and Saved! convinced audiences that he was capable as an adult actor. A teenage wedding and divorce, an arrest for drug possession, estrangement from his father and a friendship with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson ensured Culkin's name was never far away from the media glare. With a voice role in Robot Chicken, and the possibility of further acting roles, Culkin could still carve his way in the world of child-to-adult acting.

Charlie Korsmo & Amber Scott

Playing the kidnapped children of the (now grown up) Peter Pan, Korsmo and Scott captured audiences as Jack and Maggie Banning in 1991's Hook. The fairytale was Korsmo's sixth role in the movie world, following it with Can't Hardly Wait as his last acting job in 1998. Having completed a degree in physics, Korsmo has worked for the US Federal Government and as a university law professor, proving that child actors can have successful careers after leaving the business. Scott seems to have given up on the acting career, as only a voice role in a television documentary followed in 2005. According to IMDb, Scott attended college in Connecticut. Guess these two child stars were content with starring opposite Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts in Hook!