PERSONALITY PROFILE
Former Child Stars Take On Role Of Student
By Stacey Shackford
"For me, college is a chance to expand myself. I don't want to mentally be where I am right now in five years." Those may sound like the words of a typical college student, but Tatyana Ali hardly fits that description.
You may remember her as Will Smith's little sister on the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." She's grown up since then and is now studying Afro-American studies and government at Harvard, in between tours to promote her blossoming singing career and new album Kiss the Sky (tatyana-ali.com).
You've probably heard about some of Ali's high-profile classmates, including Natalie Portman (natportman.com) and Jonathan Taylor Thomas (members.aol. com/cummy1234), child stars who continue to act while earning their degrees at Harvard.
But whatever happened to the cast from that classic hit, "Full House?" Most of them
Barber, 23, graduated last year from Whittier College in California, and now works at the school (angelfire.com/ca/ abarber/bio.html).
Her younger "Full House" co-star Jodie Sweetin, or Stephanie "How rude!" Tanner, is entering her sophomore year at Chapman University in Orange, CA (sweetin.com /onestop).
Many former child stars are lost in the crowd at UCLA these days, including Jaleel "Urkel" White, 23, (angelfire.com/tx/skybolt/white.html) and Kellie Williams. 24, (www4.ncsu.edu/~armeadow/kellie/) both from "Family Matters." "Blossom"'s Mayim Bialik, 24, is also at UCLA, working on her Ph.D. in neuroscience.
Another famous face from the past Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper on "The Wonder Years," went to UCLA. McKellar, 25, graduated summa cum laude in 1998 with a degree in math that she puts to use posting calculus advice on her web
Natalie Portman and Jonathon Taylor Thomas are former child stars who continue to act while earning their degrees at Harvard.
returned to the real world, where they now revel in new roles—as average coeds.
"I love being a student. If I could, I'd stay in school forever," Andrea Barber, who played ditzy Kimmy Gibler, told People magazine last month (people.aol.com/ people/sp/watn).
To find out where other favorite stars are today, check out the following sites:
members.tripod.com/~former_child_
star/index.html
childstarlets.com/lobby/links.html
Her co-star Josh Saviano who portrayed ever-dorky Paul Pfeiffer, studied political science at Yale and is preparing to go to law school
thestinkers.com
biography.com/childstars
stararchive.com
site (danicamckellar.com).
danny-pintauro.com/faq/djp nd.edu/mpena/webster
For a list of where stars went to college: usaweekend.com/98_issues/981213/ 981213choices.html
(ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/reynders/saviano.htm). Not to be out-done by his brainy co-stars, Fred Savage went to Stanford, squeezing in classes while taping his new television series "Working."
Want to know about other child stars and where they went to college? Go to www.steamtunnels.net
Chris Delmas. Insert: Neal Preston/Corbie
Calculus-crazy Danica McKellar, formerly known as Winnie Cooper on "The Wonder Years."
- "Who's The Boss" baby Dan Pintauro, 24, graduated in 1998 from Stanford, where he directed student theater.
- Keshia Knight Pulliam, Rudy Huxtable from "The Cosby Show," 21, is studying sociology at Spelman College in Atlanta.
- Emmanuel Lewis from "Webster, 29, graduated from Clark Atlanta University in 1997 with a theater arts degree.
- Ben Hertzberg (Brian Tanner on "Alf") 22, is a sophomore film major at the Academy of Art College.
On the Cover
Clockwise from top right: Kelly Williams (Vern Evans/People Weekly © 2000); Danny Pintauro (Mario Ruiz/People Weekly © 2000); Tatyana Ali (Todd France/People Weekly © 2000); Natalie Portman (© Mitchell Gerber/CORBIS); Jaleel White (AP Photo/UPN, Art Streiver).
"The Cosby Show""s Rudy Huxtable then, sociologist Keshia Knight Pulliam now.
nn States/People Weekly ©2000.Inset: Deborah Feingold/Archive Photos
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