Bizparentz Foundation Announces Former Child Actors Who Make the Grade
Bizparentz Foundation Announces the Newest Inductees to the A+ List Awards Season: 500 Former Child Actors Who Impacted Society in a Positive Way
LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Child actors are closely tied to Academy Award nominations, with at least 55 former child actors claiming nominations as adults. Blame it on Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 rule" or innate talent, but it is an undeniable statistic: the best way to bring home the trophy is to have had a career as a child. This year's Oscar nominees include former child actors Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Gosling, Jodie Foster and Margot Robbie, in addition to the whopping 12 former child actors in best picture nominee Oppenheimer.
Not everyone spins their career into Oscar gold. Most professional child actors grow up, go to college, and move on to careers out of the spotlight. The Bizparentz A+ List celebrates them all, and provides a welcome respite from the "child-actor-gone-bad" narrative.
The 2023 A+ List contains 500 former child actors with 51 new inductees. For many, the list is a fun bit of trivia, or a moment of nostalgia. But for the hundreds of thousands (literally) of current and former young performers, this list is validation that their childhood wasn't a mistake. "This list is a counter-balance to the repetitive coverage of child-actors-gone bad, or the news about horrid stage parents, Of course there are bad apples and there are struggles! But it is a fact that the majority of young performers grow up just fine, and they thrive as creative, interesting community leaders. They just don't make the news," says Anne Henry, Co-founder of BizParentz Foundation.
Sure, there are star names, Oscar winners, and more than a few Oppenheimer cast members on the list. But there are also writers, the Prime Minister of France, urban planners, luxury designers, an MMA fighter, and a high school librarian. Here are some of the more unexpected additions for 2024:
Alia Bhatt – India's highest paid actress
Betty Ann Ka'ihilani Bruno – a Wizard of Oz munchkin who graduated from Stanford and became an Emmy winning news journalist
Larry Sims – played Pete Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. He grew up to be an aeronautical engineer at JPL
Lee Broom – British luxury furniture and lightning designer
Mitch Mitchell – the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer for Jimi Hendrix
Emma Cline – best-selling author of The Guest
Seo Hee Ham – female South Korean champion MMA fighter and kickboxer
Tracy Stratford Shaw – voiced Lucy in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and is now a high school librarian in Washington.
Gabriel Attal – Prime Minister of France. Fun fact: the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, is also a former professional child actor.
And Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Abigail Breslin all turned 27 this year, hitting the mark for inclusion in the list for the first time. The actors inducted for 2024 are listed below.
Bizparentz Foundation uses the following guidelines for inclusion:
- The actor must be at least 27 years old now.
- The actor must have performed their first professional acting job before the age of 18.
- The actor must be credited with a recognizable role (ie. IMDb.com, Broadway credit, or recognizable commercial).
- The actor's public presence must be void of major controversy and illegal activity. In other words, arrests, ugly court battles with parents, etc. Yes, it is recognized that "the most celebrated are the rehabilitated" but for the purposes of the List, Bizparentz is celebrating those who were successful in avoiding these issues.
- Respected members of their community, in whatever field they chose to pursue.
The full A+ List of 500 former child actors including their child roles, adult career, and the age of their first job, can be found on the Bizparentz Foundation website here: https://www.bizparentz.org/the-a-list/
The alphabetical list can be downloaded it its entirety, including the details of their first professional appearances: https://www.bizparentz.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BizParentz-A-List-MASTER-2024-FINAL-030424.pdf
Bizparentz Foundation is a California non-profit organization that serves families of professional performers, helping families navigate the entertainment industry in a safe and professional way. For more about Bizparentz, see their website at www.bizparentz.org.
Former Child Actors Inducted to the A+ List for 2024:
Margot Robbie
Alden Ehrenreich
Alia Bhatt
Brian Cox
Yoo Seung-ho
David W. Harper
Ross Malinger
Eliza Clark
Spencer Treat Clark
Amber Tamblyn
Wale Ojo
J. Paul Zimmerman
Spencer Breslin
Abigail Breslin
Jeremy Allen White
Gabriel Attal
Tina Majorino
Jeremy Suarez
Ross Bagley
Alison Porter
Matt Bomer
Saoirse Ronan
Gabriel Basso
Betty Ann Ka'ihilani Bruno
Carl Barlow
David Krumholtz
Scott Grimes
Matt Shakman
Alex D. Linz
Glen Powell
Gabriel Macht
Kyla Pratt
Jonathan Kasdan
Larry Sims
Judy Nugent
Kiami Davael
Richard Thomas
Michael Cera
Lee Broom
Zendaya (Coleman)
Tom Holland
Bel Powley
Emma Cline
Madisen Beaty
Tracy Stratford Shaw
Seo Hee Ham
Jillian Henry
Mitch Mitchell
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Allisyn Snyder
Nicholas Braun
Ike Eisenmann
Michael Angarano
About Bizparentz Foundation
BizParentz Foundation is an IRS 501 c(3) nonprofit organization devoted to protecting professional child performers and helping them become healthy and successful adults. We partner with parents, government and industry organizations to advocate for children in the entertainment industry, while supporting and educating parents. Learn more About Us here: https://www.bizparentz.org/about/
Press Contact:
Anne Henry
909-262-4742
https://www.bizparentz.org/the-a-list/
SOURCE Bizparentz Foundation
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