Cali and Noelle Sheldon
Before landing in Us, the duo earned parts in college films, local stage work and a 2007 pilot, maintaining a healthy perspective on the cutthroat world of acting. “I’m not very competitive because you usually don’t get the roles,” Cali told Bustle in 2015, “and if you do, it’s cool, but if you don’t it’s nothing to be sad about, because the person who got it is going to do great.” The two have also made it a point not to be too impressed with themselves. “Our friends think it’s really cool because they think we’re famous,” Noelle told ET in 2015. “I particularly don’t think we’re famous or anything because we were babies, so people aren’t going to say, ‘Oh, you’re baby Emma from Friends.'”
Cole Sprouse
Though he and twin Dylan Sprouse have been acting since they were eight-months-old, he struggled through some of his seven appearances as Ross’ tween son Ben. Sure, everyone was “tremendously nice,” as the 28-year-old put it to the New York Post, but it was hard working alongside Aniston, “because I was so in love with her. I was infatuated. I was speechless—I’d get all bubbly and forget my lines and completely blank.” Though he went on to star in many iterations of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody with Dylan and current hit Riverdale (with now-ex=girlfriend Lili Reinhart), he’s still fond of his earlier work: “People can call me ‘Ben’ on the street and I will turn around.”
Dakota Fanning
Since her 2004 cameo as the wise-beyond-her-years kid who helps Joey accept Monica and Chandler’s move, the 26-year-old SAG nominee has booked dozens of roles in movies (including Ocean’s Eight and the Twilight franchise) and TV (in 2018 she starred in TNT’s period drama The Alienist.) But younger sis Elle Fanning still hasn’t seen her turn on the sitcom. “I had an [audition] to be on Friends once….I think I was gonna be one of Phoebe’s triplets,” she recently recalled in PorterEdit. “I auditioned for it but I didn’t get it and I was like, ‘I’m boycotting the show, I’m never watching this again.'” So when her sister was cast, “I refused to watch the episode.”
Emily Osment
The small screen life suits the 28-year-old. A few years after appearing as trick-or-treater Lelani Mayolanofavich (who accepts a check from eager-to-please Rachel), Haley Osment‘s sister landed a career-making gig on Hannah Montana alongside Miley Cyrus. Then, following a string of smaller work, headed back to the tube with ABC Family’s Young and Hungry. “I thoroughly enjoy sitcoms; the schedule that comes with them and the camaraderie you feel with a certain group of people,” she told Backstage in 2015. “I did a show for five years and took a little bit of a break, went to college, did some music. And then my first pilot season back from all that, I read this script and loved it.”
Daryl Sabara
Already a star thanks to Spy Kids when he turned up on Friends (Sabara played Owen, a kid who learns he’s adopted through Chandler’s inadvertent blabbing), he stayed on track after his 2003 stint. Standout gigs include a recurring role on Weeds and a voice part on Ultimate Spider-Man, but perhaps his most treasured title came when he married singer Meghan Trainor in December 2018. “I’m just extra obsessed with him and he’s extra romantic about everything,” Trainor gushed of her new husband at the 2019 Grammys. Echoed the 28-year-old, “It’s way more relaxing now because it’s locked in.”