Growing Pains followed the Seaver family, with a psychiatrist dad who moves his practice into the house and a mom who goes back to work as a reporter. It ran on ABC from September 1985 to April 1992, for seven seasons and 166 episodes. The cast came back for two reunion movies, The Growing Pains Movie (2000) and Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers (2004). One young actor who joined in the final season went on to win an Oscar.
Here's where the Growing Pains cast is now, from Alan Thicke's legacy to Kirk Cameron's ministry and Ashley Johnson's award-winning video game work.
Alan Thicke (Dr. Jason Seaver)
Alan Thicke played Jason Seaver, the psychiatrist dad, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role in 1988. Before Growing Pains, the Canadian-born Thicke was a talk show host and a prolific TV composer. With his then-wife Gloria Loring, he co-wrote the theme songs for Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, and he wrote the original theme for Wheel of Fortune.
What happened to Alan Thicke?
Thicke kept working for decades, with guest spots on How I Met Your Mother and an appearance as himself in the 2016 pilot of NBC's This Is Us. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2013. On December 13, 2016, he collapsed while playing ice hockey with his son Carter in Burbank, California, and died later that day of an aortic dissection, at 69. The Growing Pains cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, reunited at his funeral. He was also the father of singer Robin Thicke.
Joanna Kerns (Maggie Seaver)
Joanna Kerns played Maggie, the mom who returns to her career as a reporter. Kerns started out as a dancer and won the part after an audition with Thicke, and the two became close friends off screen.
Joanna Kerns now: a busy TV director
Kerns directed an episode of Growing Pains while she was on the show and got hooked. Since then, directing has been the focus of her career. Her credits include episodes of Dawson's Creek, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, Psych, This Is Us, Titans, The Goldbergs and Fuller House.
Kirk Cameron (Mike Seaver)
Kirk Cameron played son Mike Seaver. The role made him a late-'80s teen heartthrob and earned him two Golden Globe nominations. At 18, during the show's run, he became a born-again Christian, and he later pushed for storylines he found objectionable to be cut. On set he met Chelsea Noble, who played Mike's girlfriend, Kate. They married, and around 1990 they founded the Firefly Foundation, which runs Camp Firefly, a free week's vacation for seriously ill children and their families.
Kirk Cameron now
Cameron mostly left mainstream Hollywood for faith-based work. He starred in the Left Behind films and Fireproof (2008). His 2014 film Saving Christmas swept several Golden Raspberry Awards. Since 2021 he has hosted Takeaways with Kirk Cameron on TBN, he starred in the 2022 film Lifemark, and he wrote the children's book As You Grow, which he read on a nationwide library tour in 2023. He co-hosts The Way of the Master with evangelist Ray Comfort and made a guest appearance on Fuller House in 2019. His sister, Candace Cameron, played D.J. Tanner on Full House.
Tracey Gold (Carol Seaver)
Tracey Gold played daughter Carol. She wasn't in the pilot: Elizabeth Ward played Carol first, but test audiences didn't warm to her and Gold took over. During the show's run, Gold struggled with anorexia, which she has since spoken and written about publicly. Her character's weight loss came up briefly on the show.
Tracey Gold now
Gold starred in TV movies through the 1990s, including For the Love of Nancy (1994), and hosted TLC's The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom in 2008. In 2022 she won Worst Cooks in America: That's So 90s, the show's seventh celebrity edition. She has been married to Roby Marshall since 1994, and they have four sons.
Jeremy Miller (Ben Seaver)
Jeremy Miller played Ben, the youngest Seaver kid until Chrissy came along. During the show he also voiced Linus van Pelt in the specials Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! and Snoopy!!! The Musical.
Jeremy Miller now
Miller has been open about his struggles with alcohol, which he says got worse after the show ended. In 2011 he became a spokesperson for the treatment company that helped him. When his catering business failed after the 2008 financial crisis, Alan Thicke helped him get a job at a restaurant. He has appeared in films such as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003). He is married to Joanie Miller and has three stepsons.
Ashley Johnson (Chrissy Seaver)
Ashley Johnson joined at age six as Chrissy, the Seavers' youngest, from 1990 to 1992. The show aged the character up from a toddler between seasons. Before that, twins Kelsey Dohring and Kirsten Dohring played the younger Chrissy.
Ashley Johnson now: The Last of Us and Critical Role
Johnson has had the most varied career of the Seaver kids. She played Ellie in the video games The Last of Us (2013), Left Behind (2014) and The Last of Us Part II (2020). She won two BAFTA Games Awards for that work and is the only person to win that performer award more than once. On TV she played Patterson on Blindspot (2015–2020). She is a cast member of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role and president of the Critical Role Foundation, and she voices Pike in The Legend of Vox Machina. Animation fans also know her as Gretchen on Recess and Gwen in the Ben 10 franchise.
Leonardo DiCaprio (Luke Brower)
Yes, that Leonardo DiCaprio. He joined in 1991, during the final season, as Luke Brower, a homeless boy the Seavers take in, and he left before the series ended. Joanna Kerns has remembered him as "especially intelligent and disarming for his age", and also as a prankster who teased his co-stars. Soon after, he earned his first Oscar nomination for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). He went on to Titanic, The Departed and Inception, and won Best Actor for The Revenant (2015).
Rewatch Growing Pains
Every season of Growing Pains has its own page on our Growing Pains show page: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5, Season 6 and Season 7. DiCaprio fans should skip straight to Season 7. For another big-'80s family sitcom, try Family Ties or Who's the Boss?.