Hot Gallery! We Reveal How These Actors Who Play High Schoolers Really Looked in High School

amber riley young high school yearbook photo 2002

Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library

Amber Riley, Sophomore Year at California’s La Mirada High School in 2002

amber riley young high school yearbook photo 2002 glee 2011 tv photo

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Amber Riley in High School in 2002, and Amber Riley Playing a High School Student in 2011

By the time she started playing sassy vocal powerhouse Mercedes on the hit Glee, Amber Riley was already 24. In its third season, several characters will be moved on—including, Riley. She told Entertainment Weekly, “All I know is I've been told that I'm a senior and I am graduating. If it is my last season, it is what it is. I've been given a really great platform to do other things that I love.” She has continued to do guest stints on Glee and won Dancing with the Stars in 2013.

charisma carpenter young high school yearbook photo 1988

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Charisma Carpenter, Senior Year at California’s Chula Vista School of the Creative and Performing Arts in 1988

charisma carpenter young high school yearbook photo 1988 buffy vamire slayer 1998 tv show

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Charisma Carpenter in High School in 1988, and Charisma Carpenter Playing a High School Student in 1998

Wow! All we can say is that Sunnydale High queen bee Cordelia Chase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel would never be caught dead in the getup Charisma Carpenter wore as a real high school senior. Carpenter—who was 27 when Buffy began—has appeared on series like Charmed and Veronica Mars and ABC Family's The Lying Game. She also costarred in the Sylvester Stallone movie The Expendables and the sequel The Expendables 2.

ian ziering young high school yearbook photo 1982

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Ian Ziering, Senior Year at New Jersey’s West Orange High School in 1982

ian ziering young high school yearbook photo 1982 beverly hills 90210 tv show 1990

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Ian Ziering in High School in 1982, and Ian Ziering Playing a High School Student in 1990

For a decade, Ian Ziering played Dancing with the Stars (yep, that’s him in the Elvis wig), making it all the way to the semifinal round before being eliminated. He’s done voice work on series including Biker Mice from Mars and Drawn Together, and he appeared in the Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg movie That’s My Boy. As of late, he's most well known for being in both Sharknado movies.

james van der beek young high school yearbook photo 1995

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James Van Der Beek, Senior Year at Connecticut’s Cheshire Academy in 1995

james van der beek young high school yearbook photo 1995 dawsons creek 1998 tv show

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James Van Der Beek in High School in 1995, and James Van Der Beek Playing a High School Student in 1998

James Van Der Beek was 21 when smart-talking teen romantic drama Dawson’s Creek launched; in fact, of the show’s leads—Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, and Joshua Jackson, only Williams was actually high school aged. Van Der Beek has since had series-regular roles on One Tree Hill and Mercy, as well as guest spots on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and How I Met Your Mother. In his last major TV role— he played an exaggerated version of himself in the ABC series Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23—he wasn’t shy about making light of where he’s came from. “I think once the residual money ran out, it became okay to make fun of it," he said of his time on the Creek at the Television Critics Association panel for the show.

jon heder young high school yearbook photo 1996

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Jon Heder, Senior Year at Oregon’s South Salem High School in 1996

jon heder young high school yearbook photo 1996 napoleon dynamite 2004 movie

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Jon Heder in High School in 1996, and Jon Heder Playing a High School Student in 2004

The surprise hit Napoleon Dynamite made its 27-year-old star an overnight sensation, thanks in no small part to the awesome dance moves his awkward high school outcast busts out to help buddy Pedro become class president. The movie was made on a shoestring budget and is a case study for a Sundance Festival find that struck it big. Though Heder has appeared in shows like My Name Is Earl and movies like Blades of Glory, he hasn’t left Napoleon behind; he voices the role in the animated Napoleon Dynamite series.

luke perry young high school yearbook photo 1984

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Luke Perry, Senior Year at Ohio’s Fredericktown High School in 1984

luke perry young high school yearbook photo 1984 beverly hills 90210 1990 tv show

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Luke Perry in High School in 1984, and Luke Perry Playing a High School Student in 1990

Could it really be? Is that... Beverly Hills, 90210's Dylan McKay, pre-perma-scowl and pre-smoldering frown? It’s Luke Perry, all right, as a real high school kid—and though Dylan was supposed to be 16, Perry was actually already 24 when the show started. His post-Beverly Hills career has included memorable performances as an embezzling preacher on Oz and in the post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah. Though he hemmed and hawed about whether he would make an appearance on the reimagined 90210, it became pretty clear that he had outgrown the role—and that he really didn’t want to talk about it. Most recently he has starred in the Goodnight for Justice series of Hallmark Channel Westerns (the first of which was directed by his old castmate Jason Priestley).

matthew broderick young high school yearbook photo 1980

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Matthew Broderick, Senior Year at New York City’s Walden School in 1980

matthew broderick young high school yearbook photo 1980 ferris buellers day off movie photo

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Matthew Broderick in High School in 1980, and Matthew Broderick Playing a High School Student in 1986

He was the coolest, most popular, most fearless high school kid, like, ever. We’re talking about Ferris from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, of course. In playing the high school senior who manages to rally his girl, his best friend, and the whole town behind his effort to play hooky, Matthew Broderick—then 24—set the bar impossibly high for any aspiring delinquent to follow. Broderick has won acclaim and awards (including two Tonys) for movies like Glory and The Tale of Despereaux and Broadway productions like The Producers, but he’ll forever be Bueller to us.

michael j fox young high school yearbook photo 1978

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Michael J. Fox, Grade 11 at Burnaby Central Secondary School in British Columbia in 1978

michael j fox young high school yearbook photo 1978 family ties 1982 tv show

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Michael J. Fox in High School in 1978, and Michael J. Fox Playing a High School Student in 1982

The funny thing about 21-year-old Michael J. Fox starring in Family Ties is that dedicated Republican and aspiring businessman Alex P. Keaton always acted so “old” for his age. Fox continued to play teens for years to come—including in Teen Wolf and Back to the Future—before moving on to more adult fare like Spin City, Rescue Me, and The Good Wife. He’s also been a prominent advocate for Parkinson’s disease research and has written three books.

minka kelly young high school yearbook photo 1997

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Minka Kelly, Junior Year at Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Valley High School in 1997

minka kelly young high school yearbook photo 1997 friday night lights 2011 tv show

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Minka Kelly in High School in 1997, and Minka Kelly Playing a High School Student in 2006

Minka Kelly was 26 when she took on the role of cheerleader Lyla in the high school football drama Friday Night Lights. The actress has also appeared in (500) Days of Summer, Parenthood, and the short-lived Charlie’s Angels reboot. She costarred with look-alike Leighton Meester in the thriller The Roommate.

sissy spacek young high school yearbook photo 1968

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Sissy Spacek, Senior Year Homecoming Queen at Texas’s Quitman High School in 1968

sissy spacek young high school yearbook photo 1968 carrie 1976 movie

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Sissy Spacek in High School in 1968, and Sissy Spacek Playing a High School Student in 1976

You’ve got to hand it to her: She knows how to wear a tiara. Though she has had numerous Oscar-nominated roles through the years, Sissy Spacek may forever be remembered as the outsider teen at the center of one of the most horrifically gruesome scenes in cinematic history. She was 27 when Carrie was released; four years later, she won the Oscar for Coal Miner’s Daughter. Spacek has appeared in movies like Affliction and In the Bedroom, as well as TV series like Big Love. She costarred in The Help and was last seen in Deadfall.

topher grace young high school yearbook photo 1994

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Topher Grace, Freshman Year at Southborough, Massachusetts’s Fay School in 1994

topher grace young high school yearbook photo 1994 that 70s show 1998 tv show

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Topher Grace in High School in 1994, and Topher Grace Playing a High School Student in 1998

The boyish Topher Grace was 20 when he became the king of his basement in That '70s Show alongside such other future stars as Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. Truth be told, he looked almost unbelievably young as a high school freshman in 1994; by the time he hit 20, he made a believable high schooler. Grace has starred in Traffic, In Good Company, Spider-Man 3, and Too Big to Fail. Next up: Interstellar and 2015's American Ultra.