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This June marks 30 years since the original Jurassic Park film roared onto screens in 1993, enrapturing audiences the world over. That means the inquisitive kids that appeared opposite the dinosaurs and Hollywood heavyweights like Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Richard Attenborough have long been adults themselves.
While Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards are not nearly as prehistoric as their CGI and animatronic former co-stars, they’ve already got a lot of living under their belts. And the pair are far from the only kids to light up scenes in a Jurassic movie.
RELATED: Mattel announces retro toy line for ‘Jurassic Park’s 30th anniversary
With four films in the franchise now streaming exclusively on Peacock — Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World (2015) — SYFY WIRE is taking a look back at all the child stars in the films and where they are now.
We’ll skip the two most recent additions of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022) for now, because Isabella Sermon, who stars as Maisie Lockwood in those films, is still under 18 and hasn’t had much time to add to her resume yet.
As Mazzello, who played Tim Murphy in the first flick, put it, getting cast in a Jurassic movie can be life-changing.
“[Jurassic Park director] Steven [Spielberg] had me screen-test with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman for Hook,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. “I was just too young for the role. And because of that, Steven came up to me and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, Joey. I’m going to get you in a movie this summer.’ Not only a nice promise to get, but to have it be one of the biggest box-office smashes of all time? That’s a pretty good trade.”
