This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve it by adding citations to reliable sources. Tagged since December 2010. It may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Tagged since December 2010. It may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Tagged since January 2011.

Shirley Temple in The Little Princess, circa 1939.

The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor. Closely associated is teenage actor, an actor who reached popularity as a teenager.

Regulation of child actors[link]

In the United States, the activities of child actors are regulated by the governing labor union, if any, and state and federal laws. Some projects film in remote locations specifically to evade regulations intended to protect the child. Longer work hours or risky stunts prohibited in California, for example, might be permitted to a project filming in British Columbia. US federal law "specifically exempted minors working the Entertainment Business from all provisions of the Child Labor Laws." Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state law.

California[link]

Due to the large presence of the entertainment industry in California, it has some of the most explicit laws protecting child actors. Being a minor, a child actor must secure an entertainment work permit before accepting any paid performing work. Compulsory education laws mandate that the education of the child actor not be disrupted while the child is working, whether the child actor is enrolled in public school, private school or even home school. The child does his/her schoolwork under the supervision of a studio teacher while on the set.

Additionally, the hours a child actor may work are limited. Generally, stricter time limits are imposed for younger actors. A very young infant might be allowed "under the lights" only a few minutes a day. It is common in television production for the role of a young child to be portrayed by identical twins or triplets to reduce each child's time on set. When the child turns 18, the legal limits on work time are lifted.^{[citation needed]}

Issues involving child actors[link]

Ownership of earnings[link]

Many child actors never got to see the money they earned. Jackie Coogan earned millions of dollars from working as a child actor only to see most of it squandered by his parents. In 1939, California weighed in on this controversy by enacting the Coogan Law which requires a portion of the earnings of a child actor to be preserved in a special savings account called a blocked trust.

Competitive pressure[link]

Some people also criticize the parents of child actors for allowing their children to work, believing that more “normal” activities should be the staple during the childhood years. Others observe that competition is present in all areas of a child’s life—from sports to student newspaper to orchestra and band—and believe that the work ethic instilled or the talent developed accrues to the child’s benefit.

The child actor may experience unique and negative pressures when working under tight production schedules. Large projects which depend for their success on the ability of the child to deliver an effective performance add to the pressure.

Effects[link]

Many actors' careers are short-lived, and this is also true of child actors. Peter Ostrum, for example, is now a successful large-animal veterinarian after a starring role in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Most notably, Shirley Temple became a successful public figure and diplomat, eventually becoming U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, then United States Department of State Chief of Protocol under the Nixon Administration, and then in the late 1980s U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Brandon Cruz is a successful punk rocker, after a co-starring role in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Jenny Lewis, formerly of Troop Beverly Hills, is a well-known indie rock musician, and Kirk Cameron, star of Growing Pains, is now a minister of Ray Comfort's evangelist ministry The Way of the Master.

However, there are child actors who have achieved successful thespian careers into adulthood. These have included Jodie Foster, whose adult career has earned her two acting Academy Awards; Roddy McDowall, who had a long distinguished career including as the regular star of the Planet of the Apes series; Ron Howard, who, in addition to being the star of the long running Happy Days television series, became an Oscar-winning director in adulthood; Elijah Wood, who continued his career successfully into adulthood from playing Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings film series and starring as Ryan Newman in the T.V. series Wilfred. Other Child Actors who have continued their careers into adulthood include Christina Ricci, Macaulay Culkin and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Post-success troubles[link]

It has been seen in many cases that the failure to retain stardom and success has caused many child actors to lead adult lives plagued by legal troubles, bankruptcy, and drug abuse. Examples include the cast members of the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, which starred child actors Todd Bridges, Gary Coleman, and Dana Plato.

Plato went on to pose for Playboy magazine and was featured in several softcore pornography films. She was arrested twice for armed robbery and forging prescriptions. She died in May 1999 from an overdose of prescription medication, deemed suicide.

Coleman famously sued his parents for misuse of his trust fund and, although awarded over $1,000,000, filed for bankruptcy in 1999. After many charges of assault throughout the next years, Coleman died in May 2010.

Bridges was plagued with many legal troubles as well as an addiction to cocaine. After breaking this habit, he traveled across the US, touring schools and warning about the dangers of drug abuse. He has since made several cameo appearances on multiple television programs.

The popular television sitcom Full House made child stars out of Jodie Sweetin and the Olsen twins. After the show, Sweetin went on to develop an addiction to methamphetamine, as well as alcoholism. She later overcame this and wrote a memoir describing her experiences. Mary-Kate Olsen developed an eating disorder, for which she was treated with intensive rehab.

See also[link]

• Lists of current and former child actors by nationality
• Child singer

External links[link]

• Child Stars at the Open Directory Project

Seth Green
Seth Green in July 2011.
Born	Seth Benjamin Gesshel-Green (1974-02-08) February 8, 1974 (age 38) Overbrook Park, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, voice actor, writer, producer, television director
Years active	1983–present
Spouse	Clare Grant (2010–present)
Website
www.sethgreenonline.com

Seth Benjamin Green (born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, television producer and screenwriter. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris Griffin on Family Guy. He also voices Lieutenant Gibbs in Titan Maximum and Jeff "Joker" Moreau in the Mass Effect video game series. Green is one of the creators and producers of the stop motion comedy series Robot Chicken, in which he also voices several characters. He has appeared in many other movies, such as Rat Race, The Italian Job, Can't Hardly Wait, Without a Paddle, as a child in Woody Allen's Radio Days, and in the horror films Stephen King's It and Idle Hands.

Early life[link]

Green was born and raised in Overbrook Park, West Philadelphia, a section of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents are Barbara (née Gesshel), an artist, and Herbert Green, a math teacher.^[1] After his parents' divorce, he has stated that camp was a place where he could reinvent himself and be good at anything he wanted.^[2] This camp was called URJ Camp Harlam^[3] in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania. After a camp production of Hello, Dolly!, Green decided that he wanted to be an actor.

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Green's first movie-role was in the 1984 film Billions for Boris. At eight, Green landed his first film assignment, a co-starring role in the 1984 film The Hotel New Hampshire with Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe. He appeared in the 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love, playing the part of Patrick Dempsey's character's little brother, Chuckie Miller. He also starred in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987) as Joe, a 1940s boy, and appeared in Big Business (1988) and, in the same year, in My Stepmother Is an Alien, which also starred Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Alyson Hannigan.

In 1991 Green rose to fame in a Rally's "Cha Ching" commercial, which earned him an appearance at the 1991 Super Bowl. Green was given a key to New Orleans in honor of his role in the popular commercial.^[4]

Green appeared in the miniseries It (as Richie Tozier, age 12), Infested (aka Ticks - 1993), all three Austin Powers movies as Dr. Evil's son, Scott, and Enemy of the State and The Italian Job as a computer specialist. He was also in the films Can't Hardly Wait, Rat Race, Without a Paddle, Idle Hands and Sex Drive. Green also had a role in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the scene he was in was subsequently cut.

In 1994, he starred alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt in the short-lived series The Byrds of Paradise. He worked with Hewitt again in 1998's Can't Hardly Wait, which also featured Paige Moss, who would later play with him in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Amber Benson (Tara Maclay, Buffy) was also in this film, but her scenes were cut in order to get a PG-13 rating.

Green appeared as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne, a werewolf, in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer during the second through fourth seasons, and one episode in the first season of the spinoff Angel. Seth is not related to Bruce Seth Green, who directed some episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On occasion, some sources confuse the two and have credited Seth as the director.

Green has also been featured in roles on Greg the Bunny, Tucker, The X-Files, That '70s Show, Will & Grace, MADtv, Reno 911!, Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes and My Name Is Earl. Also voiced the character Joker in the game trilogy Mass Effect.

[edit] Family Guy

Seth Green at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International for Family Guy.

Green went in to the casting of an animated television sitcom called Family Guy, created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the dysfunctional Griffin family and stars MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis and Mike Henry. Green primarily voices Chris Griffin, the teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger version of his father, Peter Griffin; and Neil Goldman, a geeky and annoying neighbor.^[5] Green admittedly did an impression of the Buffalo Bill character from the thriller film The Silence of the Lambs during his audition.^[6] His main inspiration for Chris' voice came from envisioning how "Buffalo Bill" would sound if he were speaking through a PA system at a McDonald's.^[7]

After two episodes of the second season, Family Guy was taken off the network's permanent schedule and shown irregularly thereafter. The show returned in March 2000 to finish airing the second season which contained 21 episodes, all the cast came back for the series return. The third season contained 21 episodes and began airing from July 11, 2001 to February 14, 2002. During its second and third-season runs, Fox publicly announced that the show had been canceled at the end of the second season in 2002.^[8] In spite of the announced cancellation, in 2003 Fox decided to make the third season.^[9] During the third season, Fox announced that the show was canceled for good.^[10][11] The series was renewed later in 2005 for its fourth season due to strong DVD sales and its syndication on basic-cable networks.^[12][13] Once again Green and the rest of the cast came back for their voice works.

Neil Goldman is Mort's stereotypical nerdy son, who has an unrequited crush on Meg Griffin. He is the editor of the school newspaper and is part of the A/V Club. He is more confident than his father, so much so that he does not seem to realize that Meg has nothing but contempt for him. At one point in the series, both Neil and Meg become interns at Channel 5, and they share a kiss. Neil speaks with a lisp when he wears his retainer, but when he removes it, he speaks with a deep, smooth bass (cf. the apocryphal story that Demosthenes improved his elocutionary skills by holding stones in his mouth during everyday speech). Seth MacFarlane does his voice until Neil puts his retainer back in. He has made few appearances in the series in recent years, being absent entirely in the fifth and eighth seasons, and only making a silent cameo appearance during the ninth. "Peter's Daughter," "Stew-Roids" and "You Can't Do That on Television, Peter" are to date the only episodes since the fourth season where he has spoken (and in the latter, he only spoke one line).

Chris Griffin is the second child. He is fat, dim-witted, blond, and emotionally effusive. A recurring gag was that an evil monkey lives in his closet, which he found out was not evil in the episode Hannah Banana. He also tries to fit in with his peers but clearly doesn't, because he has the brains of his father.

Later work[link]

Green is a co-creator and producer of the stop motion TV series Robot Chicken, for which he does many voices and has even appeared in animated form. Green is friends with the band Fall Out Boy, making a cameo in their music video, "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", and the band returned the favor with an appearance in Green's film Sex Drive. He also appeared in "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White & Nerdy" music video. He made two appearances on The Soup in 2007 and 2008, using his first appearance to lampoon Internet celebrity Chris Crocker.^[14] He voiced the character Jeff "Joker" Moreau, pilot of the SSV Normandy and later the Normandy SR2, in the video games Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3.^[15][16] He is a producer of The 1 Second Film and appears in the "making of" documentary that accompanies its feature-length credits. Green is also the co-creator (with Hugh Sterbakov) of the comic Freshmen, published by Top Cow Productions.

Green, along with Robot Chicken co-producer Breckin Meyer, appeared in the NBC show Heroes during the 2008–09 season.^[17] In January 2009, Green worked with David Faustino (Bud Bundy from Married with Children) for an episode of Faustino's show Star-ving – Faustino is often mistaken for Green.^[18]

On July 13, World Wrestling Entertainment's official website announced Green as the special guest host for the July 13 episode of WWE Raw, and on that night, Green competed in the main event, a six-man tag team match, which his team won by disqualification.^[19][20] He was also in attendance for WWE's biggest event of the year, WrestleMania XXVI on March 28, 2010.

Personal life[link]

Green and Clare Grant at the 2009 American Music Awards

Green married actress Clare Grant on May 1, 2010; the couple lives in Los Angeles.^[21] They worked together on Robot Chicken, Warren the Ape, and her "Geek and Gamer Girls Song" viral video.^[22][23]

Green filed papers at Los Angeles County Superior Court in August 2011 asking a judge to legally shorten his name to Seth Benjamin Green "to reflect my professional stage name."^[24] The change became official on October 20, 2011.^[25]

Seth Green has stated that his Scottish ancestry accounts for his ginger hair.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Video games[link]

Awards and nomination[link]

Annie Awards

• 2008: Won, "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" – Robot Chicken: Star Wars
• 2009: Won, "Best Writing in an Animated Television Production" – Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II

Chlotrudis Awards

• 2004: Nominated, "Best Supporting Actor" – Party Monster

Emmy Awards^[26]

• 2007, 2008, 2009: Nominated, "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)" – Robot Chicken (shared w/producers & writers)
• 2009, 2010, 2011: Nominated, Outstanding Voice-Over Performance – "Robot Chicken"
• 2010: Won, Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program - "Robot Chicken" (Shared w/producers, writers & directors)

Teen Choice Awards

• 2000: Nominated, "Choice TV Actor" – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• 2002: Nominated, "Choice Comedic TV Actor" – Greg the Bunny
• 2005: Nominated, "Choice Movie Dance Scene" – Be Cool

Young Artist Awards

• 1989: Won, "Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Syndicated Comedy, Drama or Special" – The Facts of Life
• 1992: Nominated, "Outstanding Young Comedian in a Television Series" – Good & Evil

Slammy Awards

• 2009: Nominated, "Best Raw Guest Host"

See also[link]

• List of recurring That '70s Show characters
• List of celebrities who have been the subject of pranks on Punk'd

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Seth Green

• Official website
• Seth Green at the Internet Movie Database
• Seth Green Producer Profile for The 1 Second Film
• Robot Chicken page on AdultSwim.com
• Seth Green at Emmys.com

For the Welsh rugby union player see Adam Thomas (rugby union player)

Adam Thomas (born on 11 August 1987 in Manchester, England)^[1] is a British actor, currently starring in British ITV soap opera Emmerdale as Adam Barton. He is also well known for his former role in BBC drama Waterloo Road as Donte Charles from 2006 to 2009.

Career[link]

It was in 2002, at the age of 15, that Adam started his television career with a guest appearance on the BBC daytime soap opera Doctors. It was another four years before Adam rose to fame in his breakthrough role as Donte Charles in the BBC drama series Waterloo Road of which he was an original cast member upon its inception in 2006.

The role of Donte led Adam to enjoy guest appearances in popular hospital drama Casualty in 2008 in which he played a boxer, as well as a second appearance in Doctors in 2007. He also appeared as himself on ITV gameshow All Star Family Fortunes alongside his older brother and fellow actor Ryan, who plays Jason Grimshaw in the soap Coronation St..

In early 2009 it was confirmed that Adam was to leave Waterloo Road at the end of the fourth series due to his character having finished his education at the fictional school. Adam's final episode was broadcast 20 May 2009.

Following his departure from his most famous role, Adam signed on for his third appearance on daytime soap Doctors, this time playing a character called Ben Hamilton. The episode aired on 26 May 2009.^[2]

It was announced on 21 May 2009 that Adam had landed the role of Adam Barton on the long-running ITV soap opera Emmerdale and would appear on screens from July 2009.^[3]

In 2010, Thomas was involved in an incident in which he made homophobic comments to an Emmerdale fan. When student Ricky Platts introduced himself, Thomas preceded to brand Platts as a "gay boy" and a "queer", which Platts also gained video footage of. Thomas later made a public apology for his comments and an LGBT activist called for the serial's producers to take "decisive action" against Thomas.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Adam is the younger brother of Ryan Thomas who gained fame as Jason Grimshaw in Coronation Street. He has a twin brother, Scott, although they are not identical.

He attended Kingsway High school in Cheadle,(Stockport) England. Between 2000 and 2004

References[link]

This article about an English actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e