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“There were like 12 kids in the business,” says Brian Austin Green, “and we all knew each other.”
When Soleil Moon Frye was 7 years old, she was cast as Penelope “Punky” Brewster on NBC’s sitcom Punky Brewster. The 1984 series ran for four years, and from the very first episode, Frye says, her life changed forever.
A short time later, as a teenager in 1990s Hollywood, Frye carried a video camera everywhere she went. She filmed her friends, who were mostly other young actors in the industry, and captured their fun, their fame, and sometimes their troubles. She documented hundreds of hours of footage and then locked it all away for more than 20 years. Now she’s opened up the vault for the new film Kid 90, out now on Hulu. The film is a time capsule of a group of friends growing up in Hollywood and New York City in the ’90s, balancing childhood and fame in a pre-internet and social media era.
“I think it’s fascinating to go back and have a true chronological blueprint of what it was to grow up as a teenager in the ’90s,” Frye says in the early moments of the film. “And part of me believes that somewhere inside that teenage girl knew that she was going to have a story to tell, knew that she was going to go on an adventure.”
So who joins her on this adventure? There are a ton of recognizable faces in Kid 90, some who appear in the film through interviews and some who only appear in the background of Frye’s home videos. Here’s who’s who in the cast of Kid 90.
Soleil Moon Frye
Soleil Moon Frye was just 7 years old when she became one of the most famous faces on television. Punky Brewster had attitude and was outgoing, and little girls everywhere wanted to be her. Over the course of her career, Frye also appeared on The Wonder Years, Saved by the Bell, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Friends.
Frye will be reprising the role of Punky Brewster in an updated sitcom for Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. These days, Punky is a single mom of three kids.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Mark-Paul Gosselaar is embedded in every ’90s kid’s heart as Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell. As an adult, Gosselaar has remained a TV staple, joining the cast of NYPD Blue back in the day and moving on to Franklin & Bash, Raising the Bar, Commander in Chief, The Passage, and Pitch. Most recently, Gosselaar joined the cast of Mixed-ish.
Brian Austin Green
Brian Austin Green played underclassman David Silver on Beverly Hills, 90210. During the long-running series, Green attempted to pivot to a hip-hop career as well, a journey he addresses in the film. Early in his career, Green also appeared on Growing Pains, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Melrose Place, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. Later series include Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Desperate Housewives, and Anger Management. Green is also a music producer and podcaster and has appeared recently on The Masked Singer.
Stephen Dorff
As a kid actor, Stephen Dorff appeared on Blossom, Roseanne, Married With Children, Diff’rent Strokes, and in films and has had a steady career ever since. His most famous role is no doubt the evil vampire Deacon Frost from Blade or playing himself hilariously in Zoolander. Dorff recently starred in a season of HBO’s True Detective and now stars on the Fox series Deputy.
David Arquette
A part of the famous Arquette clan, David broke out by being a member of the cast of The Outsiders, a show about teenage renegades that ran for only one season in 1990. His ’90s films include Never Been Kissed, the Scream movies, and Airheads. These days, in addition to more obscure acting roles, he also does a lot of voice-over acting for animation and is working on the next Scream film.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis started her career in the 1989 movies Troop Beverly Hills and The Wizard, both much beloved by ’90s kids. She appeared in tons of TV commercials for toys, cereal, and most famously Jell-O, and had spots on shows like Murder She Wrote, Baywatch, The Golden Girls, Growing Pains, Just the Ten of Us, Roseanne, and Mr. Belvedere. She had a regular gig on the series Brooklyn Bridge and appeared in films, but by 1998 left acting behind to start the band Rilo Kiley. Since then, it’s been all about her music career, with solo albums and forays with other bands.
Balthazar Getty
Balthazar Getty started out his career in the 1990 film adaptation of Lord of the Flies. Other 1990s highlight films include Natural Born Killers, Judge Dredd, White Squall, and his most famous role in Lost Highway. In the aughts, he transitioned to TV with recurring roles on Charmed, Alias, and Brothers & Sisters.
Jonathan Brandis
Though Jonathan Brandis (whom ’90s kids might know and love from movies like The Neverending Story 2, Ladybugs, Sidekicks, and the TV show SeaQuest) doesn’t appear in Kid 90 as a talking head, his presence and absence are very much a part of the film. In Frye’s home videos, Brandis appears to be a loving staple in Frye’s life. But like some of the other famous faces in the film, Brandis’ story ends in tragedy. In 2003, the actor died by suicide.
And Tons More
Frye’s home videos are filled with intimate, relaxed, and even slightly scandalous appearances from a multitude of famous faces. Aside from the previously mentioned few who also participate in the film via contemporary interviews, look out for these well-known ’90s kid stars. You’ll see Terminator 2 star Eddie Furlong, Leonardo DiCaprio (who is also a producer on Kid 90), Roseanne’s Sara Gilbert, Mario Lopez, Corey Feldman, Michael Rapaport, Rodney Harvey, Harold Hunter and Justin Pierce from the movie Kids, skateboarder Peter Bici, House of Pain’s Danny Boy O’Connor, Full House’s Candace Cameron Bure, Mark Wahlberg, Charlie Sheen, and Will Smith.
Kids today might have a camera everywhere they go in the form of their phones, but through her own home videos in Kid 90, Soleil Moon Frye not only offers us an inside look into being a teen, and a famous teen at that, in the 1990s but also tackles her own demons in the process. As an older millennial and slightly younger ’90s kid, the film made me wonder what I’d find if I opened up a box of my old home movies myself. What would you find?
