10 Actors Who Were Too Old To Play High School Students

As much as we all love to relive our teenage years through teen lives depicted on film and TV, the actors who play these teenagers are often many years past their senior. Here are teens who were way past their expiration date but still got the role, thanks to the fountain of youth, or bad casting.

 

 

1. Ashleigh Murray, Riverdale
Many of the teens on CW’s hit “Riverdale” are actually teens. One of the youngest looking ones, however, isn’t. Josie McCoy from Josie and the pussycats in “Riverdale” was 29 years old when she first appeared on the show, but we’d never be able to guess it!

 

 

2. Trevor Donovon, 90120
The CW rebooted 90210 to give it a more contemporary update. However, many of the cast members were far past the teenager mark. For instant, jock hunk Teddy Montgomery was nearly 30 for his first appearance on the show.

3. Alan Ruck, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Alan, aka Cameron, looked the same age as his co-starts Matthew Broderick and Mia Sarah. But he was only several weeks shy of 30 years old when the 1986 film premiered. Maybe that explains why he was the sensible one in the plot!

 

 

4. Rachel McAdams, Mean Girls
Regina George was the quintessential mean girl – the character basically had a whole movie named after her. No one questioned that the 16-year-old queen of evil would actually be 25. To be fair, even a decade after “Mean Girls”, Rachel McAdams still looks young enough to play Regina.

5. Bianca Lawson, Pretty Little Liars
Did amazing in popular teen shows but when she played 17 year old Maya St Germain in Pretty Little Liars, she was actually almost double that age, at 31 years old. Maybe she recalled her teenage memories from a decade previous, but they must have been a little foggy.

 

 

6. Keiko Arena, Gilmore Girls
Lane Kim on Gilmore girls felt and looked like the youngest character on Gilmore Girls, thanks to her pigtails, sweaters, and steady fear of her mother. In Season 1, Lane was meant to be 16 years old. She was actually 27, which made her more likely to be friends with Lorelei than Rory.

7. Michael J Fox, Back To The Future
Marty McFly was the ultimate time traveling teen from “Back To The Future”. Except, he wasn’t a teen – he was 24 years old. Now, we know that’s not as big of a deal as the 30 year olds playing teens, but we’re mostly impressed because he actually looked 17, (the age he played), down to the voice crack and all.

8. Stacey Dash, Clueless
In 1995, “Clueless” became a box office hit and a Beverly Hills costume that would be worn for the ages. While Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy were teens during filming, Stacey Dash was 28. What secret anti-aging potion does she consume?

 

 

9. Moaning Myrtle, Harry Potter
Possibly the biggest age jump on this list – the beloved but annoying Moaning Myrtle of Harry Potter was meant to play a 16 year old, but the Hogwarts student played by Shirley Henderson was actually 37 for her first on-screen appearance. In the second movie, she was 40! The voice really helped convince us.

10. Peter Parker, Spider Man
He was supposed to be playing a 17 year old, but was actually 27 when the franchise began. He played a nerd pretty convincingly, but a teenager? Not so much. Luckily, he still managed to pull the role off, besides being 10 year his role’s senior.