What Happened To The Cast Of Growing Pains?

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Of the many feel-good family sitcoms that hit the airwaves in the 1980s, "Growing Pains" is maybe one of the most underrated — at least today, since it had a devoted following while it was on TV from 1985 to 1992, and then for years on syndication after that. It revolves around an upper middle class family from Long Island, with a psychiatrist father (Alan Thicke), a journalist mother (Joanna Kerns), and three children: Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold), and Ben (Jeremy Miller). (A fourth child, Chrissy, was introduced late in the series run, as is wont to happen on shows like this.)

"Growing Pains" lasted on ABC for seven seasons, earning two Emmy nominations and one win along the way. Over the course of the show, it stuck with a remarkably consistent main cast of characters (and a few future celebrities, including Matthew Perry). Although some of the show's stars are still well known in Hollywood today, others have gone down a different path. 

Here's a look at what happened to the cast of "Growing Pains" after the show ended.

Although the character of Chrissy, the youngest member of the Seaver clan, was only featured from the fourth season of "Growing Pains" onward, she was played by many different actors. Unlike Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on "Full House," who grew up with the role of Michelle after playing her from just nine months old, baby Chrissy was originally played by two sets of twins who went uncredited. When they made the decision to age her up into a bubbly, charming 5-year-old, she was played by Ashley Johnson. In the intervening years, the toddler version of Chrissy was played by Kirsten and Kelsey Dohring.

 "Growing Pains" was the first role for the young twins, and they didn't continue acting for long afterwards, appearing in just two other projects, "China Beach" and "A Child Lost Forever: The Jerry Sherwood Story." In fact, they seem to have abandoned Hollywood altogether, and gone on to have quiet, normal lives. But if their last name sounds familiar, there's a reason for it: Their older brother is Jason Dohring of "Veronica Mars" fame.

Alongside Boner, Eddie was one of Mike Seaver's closest friends in "Growing Pains." He was played by K.C. Martel, who appeared at least once or twice in every single season of the show. Before he was cast on the sitcom, Martel had had a thriving career in both film and television, with appearances on "One Day at a Time," "Silver Spoons," and "St. Elsewhere." But his most famous role by far was in Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," where he played Greg, one of Elliot's older brother's best friends who unwittingly gets caught up in their alien drama.

Like several other actors on "Growing Pains," the sitcom marked Martel's final on-screen performance. After leaving acting behind, Martel went to college, earning a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's in Marriage, Family, and Children's Therapy. Nowadays, he works in wealth management, as the president of Companion Wealth Management.

Just as Boner was the best friend of Mike Seaver as a teenager, so too was Stinky Sullivan to Ben Seaver on "Growing Pains." Stinky was played by Jamie Abbott, who appeared in 19 episodes between the second and sixth seasons of the show. Whenever Ben hatched a harebrained scheme or a get-rich-quick plan, Stinky was right there alongside him. 

Jamie Abbott had been working as a child actor in the years leading up to "Growing Pains," with appearances in shows like "Cagney & Lacey" and "Webster," as well as a bit role in "Back to the Future." But as fate would have it, "Growing Pains" was his last acting job. As to what he's doing now? Honestly, it's anyone's guess. Abbott seems to have slipped back into the life of an ordinary person a sparse internet presence, so it's hard to tell exactly what he's been up to in the intervening years.

Mike Seaver, the charming teenage son of the family, was never short on girlfriends and love interests over the series run. But Kate, played by Chelsea Noble, was by far the longest running. Chelsea Noble (now Chelsea Cameron — she ended up marrying Kirk Cameron, and the two have six children together) joined the show in its fifth season and stuck with it through the finale. 

In the years since, she's had a few mainstream roles, including an appearance in the episode of "Seinfeld" revolving around "The English Patient," most of her work has been tied to her husband's career and their shared evangelical Christian ministry. She starred alongside Kirk in the short-lived 1995 series "Kirk," in addition to the three Rapture-based dramas, "Left Behind: The Movie," "Left Behind II: Tribulation Force," and "Left Behind III: World at War." Her last acting credit came in 2014, when she played Maddie Miller (again opposite Kirk, seen above) in "Mercy Rule"

You may be wondering, "What on Earth was Oscar-winning megastar Leonardo DiCaprio doing on a humble little family sitcom like 'Growing Pains?'" But we swear, it's true. When the show had been on the air long enough, Kirk Cameron was a little long in the tooth to be playing the rogueish teenage heartthrob (and his newfound religious convictions put him at odds with the writers' visions for Mike's development into his 20s). But they still needed someone to fill that role. The answer? A young Leo DiCaprio, who played Luke, a homeless teenager who is taken in by the Seavers. He was on the show for only its seventh and final season, but it was enough for the now-famous actor to make his mark.

In the years since then, he's starred in top-notch films such as "Titanic," "Catch Me If You Can," "The Departed," "Inception," and "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" (above), to name just a few. Over the course of his career, DiCaprio has earned seven Academy Award nominations, beginning with a Best Supporting Actor nod in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," a film he made just a year after "Growing Pains" went off the air. For a long time, he was on the list of incredible actors who never actually won an Oscar, but in 2016, he finally took home Academy gold for his work in "The Revenant."

For the first four seasons of "Growing Pains," Andrew Koenig (son of "Star Trek" franchise star Walter Koenig) played Boner Stabone, Mike Seaver's goofy best friend with a supremely unfortunate nickname. As Mike got up to his chaotic teenage antics, Boner was right there beside him, until the show shipped him off to the military mid-way through the fourth season. "Growing Pains" was Koenig's first acting job, although he quickly followed it up with appearances on "21 Jump Street" and "My Two Dads" while he was still on the show. 

After his tenure on "Growing Pains" came to an end in 1989, he worked on a few more projects, contributing his voice to the 1990 animated "G.I. Joe" series and guesting in an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (above), finally following in his father's footsteps, as seen above. But after that, work as an actor seemed to dry up, and he turned his attention to both behind-the-scenes jobs and his growing interest in activism, participating in human rights protests and acts of civil disobedience throughout the 2000s. Tragically, Koenig went missing in February 2010 while on vacation in Vancouver. He was found 11 days later, having apparently died by suicide at the age of 41.

Ashley Johnson's time on "Growing Pains" is the result of one of the most enduring tropes of 1980s sitcoms. When the original kids on the show start to grow up, what can the producers do but bring in a new baby? Inevitably, there are a limited number of stories you can tell with an infant or a toddler, so they use sitcom magic to age up their new baby into a much more manageable elementary school-aged child. And that's how you get the spunky, curly-haired Chrissy Seaver, who Johnson played for the final two seasons of "Growing Pains."

Ordinarily, the youngest kid stars on these kinds of sitcoms have a tendency to fade into obscurity after their show ends. But Johnson has had a remarkably stable career over the year, particularly as a voice actor. In addition to her live-action performances in films like "The Avengers," "What Women Want," and "The Brothers Solomon," as well as a 100-episode turn on the TV series "Blindspot," she played Gretchen on "Recess" and provided the voice for Ellie in the video game "The Last of Us." Although she had aged out of the role by the time they turned it into a series, she was featured in the first season finale as Anna Williams, Ellie's mother (seen above).

In a typical '80s family sitcom with three children, there's the charming troublemaker, the bookish overachiever, and then the kid who's just ... well, a kid. Where the character ends up going as he reaches his teen years is anyone's guess. On "Growing Pains," the third and youngest child (at least until they decided to add a baby towards the end of the show's run) was Ben Seaver, played by Jeremy Miller. When the show began in 1985, he was just nine years old, and had only a few bit TV roles to his name. Although he worked while "Growing Pains," including voicing the role of Linus Van Pelt in several different "Charlie Brown" specials, after it went off the air he struggled to find a place for himself in Hollywood.

In 2000, he returned to the fold to reprise his role in "The Growing Pains Movie" and its sequel four years later, "Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers." He has continued to work sporadically since then, with his most recent work appearing on a three-episode arc on the BET+ drama "Angel" as Detective Holt (pictured above).

Look up the phrase "eldest daughter" in the dictionary, and you'll find a picture of Carol Seaver from "Growing Pains," played by Tracey Gold. She was the one who was always on the straight and narrow, focused on her schoolwork and the bright future ahead of her, which made her a constant target for her two brothers. Before Gold joined the cast of "Growing Pains," she was a booked and busy child actor, making her on-screen debut in "Captains and the Kings" when she was just seven years old. 

Although her time on "Growing Pains" defined her career in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was not without its trials and tribulations. Gold struggled with an eating disorder while playing Carol and had to step away from the show during the seventh season to receive treatment for anorexia. In the years since, she has openly discussed her challenges with anorexia, writing a 2003 book called "Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life."

Gold continued to work steadily throughout the 1990s, carving out a niche for herself in the television movie market. Her most recent on-screen credit was in 2016, when she played Didi Hallow in "All Hallow's Eve," a film (seen above) about a teenage witch who accidentally summons an evil ancestor who wants to take over her sleepy suburban community.

Out of all the actors who made up the Seaver family, Kirk Cameron — who played the charming, rogueish teenage son Mike — was the one who most quickly shot to stardom as a result of his time on "Growing Pains." A teen celebrity, Cameron graced the cover of Tiger Beat magazines everywhere. But as the series went on, Cameron became a born-again Christian and grew dissatisfied with some of the more immoral storylines that featured his character. Controversy abounded when he allegedly used his influence on the set to encourage the production team to fire Julie McCullough, who played his girlfriend Julie, out of disapproval for her past as a Playboy model. (Cameron denies that this took place, while McCullough disagrees.)

In recent years, Cameron has leaned hard into Christian entertainment. In addition to the "Left Behind" film series (but not the Nicolas Cage version), which focuses on the aftermath of the Rapture, and the often unintentionally funny "Fireproof," he starred in a Christian children's show called "Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk" in 2025 (seen above). Since 2022, he has hosted "Takeaways with Kirk Cameron" on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, with episodes on "Defending Religious Freedoms," "The Homeschool Awakening," and "Cancel Culture."

Maggie Seaver, played by Joanna Kerns, represented the modern 1980s career woman, who goes back to work as a writer once her kids need less of her attention at home. Although Maggie is driven and intelligent, she struggles at first to reintegrate herself into the workforce and cope with the guilt of feeling as though she's neglecting her children, both of which were (and still are) relatable challenges for working mothers.

Well before her time on "Growing Pains," Kerns was a TV sitcom all star, appearing on shows such as "Starsky and Hutch," "Charlie's Angels," "Three's Company," "The A-Team," "Laverne & Shirley," and "Hill Street Blues." Although her role as Maggie Seaver remains one of her career highlights, she has continued to work in Hollywood with roles in "Knocked Up," "Less Than Perfect," and "Girl, Interrupted." She's also developed an impressive career as a TV director, helming episodes of series such as "Dawson's Creek," "One Tree Hill," "Grey's Anatomy," "A Million Little Things," and the One Chicago's universe's "Chicago Med" (seen above).

As Jason Seaver, Alan Thicke represented a new generation of TV dads — one who was sensitive, thoughtful, and, as a psychiatrist, enlightened about emotional and mental health. At the beginning of "Growing Pains," Jason is undergoing a big life transition, as he moves his practice into the home so that his wife can return to her career as a journalist after years of raising their children. But being the on-site parent while working full-time is a bigger challenge than he might have thought.

Before his career as an actor took off, Thicke earned acclaim as a composer — he's responsible for the theme songs for 1980s classic sitcoms "The Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes." After "Growing Pains," his longest-running TV role was as Dennis Dupree on "Hope & Gloria," which ran for two seasons from 1995 to 1996. Since then, he's made sporadic appearances, largely on television, in everything from "Fuller House" to the beloved "How I Met Your Mother." In 2016, Thicke sadly passed away at the age of 69 after experiencing an aortic dissection.