15 Former Teen Idols Who are Killing It on Primetime

If you’re an older millennial, you’ve probably noticed most of your childhood crushes are now killing it in primetime. Check out the list below to see what the stars of our favorite teen shows are up to now.

Note: This is all about stars from teen shows who have recent major roles on TV. So, as much as we love Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Alyson Hannigan, How I Met Your Mother hasn’t been on the air since 2014. And even though we squealed with delight when we realized My So Called Life’s Wilson Cruz was the lawyer in 13 Reasons Why — five minutes of screentime hardly count as a starring role.

1. Mark-Paul Gosselaar

In the 90s, every girl had a crush on Saved By The Bell‘s Zach Morris. Mark-Paul Gosselaar has had a string of great roles since then — from NYPD Blue to Franklin and Bash –– but most recently he’s traded in his giant cell phone for a catcher’s mask.

Sadly, Pitch was not renewed for a second season, but the Fox drama gave Gosselaar a chance to prove he’s only gotten better with age.

2. David Boreanaz

Technically, David Boreanaz isn’t killing it in prime time anymore. Bones finished its incredible 12-season run in March, and we’re not totally over the loss of the beloved FOX drama.

But given that between Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Bones — Boreanaz has been consistently on our screens since 1997 — we know he won’t be gone for long. He’s already signed on for a Navy SEAL drama pilot for CBS.

3. Kristen Bell

Listen up, Marshmallows! Neptune’s greatest teen P.I, Veronica Mars, is currently on one of the best network comedies — and certainly the best one to premiere in 2016.

If you haven’t seen her on The Good Place, you have to check it out. Bell stars with Ted Danson. It’s created by Mike Shur (Parks and Recreation). What else do you even need to know?

4. Scott Foley

How is it that no matter what role he plays — the responsible RA on Felicity or the crazy spy on Scandal — he always seems like the more reasonable choice in a love triangle? Even though Felicity preferred Ben to Noel and Olivia was always going to choose Fitz over Jake, we still love having Foley on our screens – especially now that he has those killer abs.

5. Keri Russell

Does anyone else think it’s kind of crazy that people said, for years, that cutting her hair in 1999 caused a rating disaster for Felicity? And now, on The Americans, her hair style changes like twice every episode. Either way, her performance is killer and she always looks amazing.

6. Busy Phillips

Busy Phillips actually starred in two huge teen shows in the early aughts — Freaks and Geeks and Dawson’s Creek. In addition to her annual appearances as Michelle Williams’s preferred date for the Academy Awards, Phillips is currently starring on HBO’s Vice Principals.

7. Joshua Jackson

Joshua Jackson’s Dawson’s Creek character, Pacey, was crushed on by just about every teenage girl with the WB. He was so cute and charming that he not only managed to snag the girl away from title character – but we rooted for him to do so. Now Jackson’s good looks and charm can be seen on Showtime’s The Affair.

8. Claire Danes

My So Called Life was the teen drama of the 90s that was canceled too soon and Homeland is a modern drama that has been allowed to go on for way too long. But whether Claire Danes is pining for Jordan Catalano or Sgt. Brody, two things remain constant — her amazing acting chops and her distinctive cry face.

9. Mayim Bialik

If you’re a thirty-something woman reading this, raise your hand if you had a Blossom hat in the 90’s. That’s right – Mayim Bialik made such an impression on us all back in the day that we all wore big ugly flower hats in homage to her.

And now, she’s known as the somewhat less fashionable, but always brilliant, Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory.

10. Shiri Appleby

Shiri Appleby starred as the teen who fell in love with an alien on Roswell. She’s had a ton of other great TV roles since then, including stints on ER and Girls, but she’s made a huge splash recently as the star of Lifetime’s original drama UnReal as a young, unscrupulous reality show producer.

11. Ben McKenzie

Who would’ve thought that The O.C.’s Ryan Atwood would have grown up to be such an amazing TV cop? He did five seasons as Officer Ben Sherman on Southland and is currently starring as Gotham’s last honest man, Detective James Gordon.

12. Anthony Anderson

You probably don’t remember this, but back in the nineties, there were a ton of Saved By The Bell copycats on Saturday mornings. Among them were California Dreams and Hang Time.

Anthony Anderson starred in the latter — a show about a girl on a boy’s high school basketball team. Anderson played one of the guys on the team and went on to all kinds of success after, including roles on Law and Order and the ABC comedy Black-ish.

13. Alexis Bledel

Rory Gilmore was everyone’s favorite bookworm, but we didn’t see much of Alexis Bledel on the small screen after Gilmore Girls wrapped in 2007. Her resurgence started in 2016 when she reprised her role as Rory for Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life and she can now be seen as Ofglen on The Handmaid’s Tale.

14. Chad Michael Murray

Chad Michael Murray essentially played a handsome high schooler in every WB drama. He was Tristan on Gilmore Girls, Charlie on Dawson’s Creek and eventually starred as Lucas Scott on One Tree Hill. His current gig has him playing Sam Phillips in Sun Records — the CMT adaptation of the Broadway musical, Million Dollar Quartet.

15. Leighton Meester

Leighton Meester reigned as the ultimate mean girl of the Upper East Side for six seasons on Gossip Girl. Unfortunately, it looks like she might not get that kind of longevity out of her current role as Deborah Revere on Making History. Fox cut the series order from 13 episodes to nine before it even premiered in March.

Honorable Mentions:

Friday Night Lights stars Matt Lauria (Kingdom) and Jurnee Smolette (Underground), Gilmore Girls favorites Liza Weil (How To Get Away With Murder) and Jared Padalecki (Supernatural), Judd Apatow alums like UnDeclared’s Jay Baruchel (Man Seeking Woman) and Freaks and Geeks’ Martin Starr (Silicon Valley), and former Beverly Hills 90210 hunk Luke Perry (Riverdale).