Anna Chlumsky premiere
Now, Anna Chlumsky is 31, married and soon to be enjoying a career resurgence thanks to her role in upcoming comedy series Veep.
The blonde actress last night hit the red carpet at the premiere of Oscar-tipped movie The Iron Lady in New York, looking chic in a pretty red dress and black heels.
While Anna has been out of the spotlight for the past few years, she has managed to avoid the child star curse which has tainted the lives of fellow former young actresses including Lindsay Lohan and Haley Joel Osment.
And in a recent interview, Anna credited a break from Hollywood during her teenage years as helping her stay on the straight and narrow.
She said: 'I didn't want to go down any scarier path of low self-esteem than I was already on the track for.
'So during my second year of college I was like, "I'm over it! I have to go see what this other thing called life is about!" '
But now she has returned to acting, Anna told America's People magazine: 'It's like breathing again. Even on the worst days I am without a doubt still happier doing this than I am doing anything else.'
And Anna, who also starred in the sequel to her most famous film, My Girl 2, in 1994, said she believes she knows the reason why many child stars do hit the headlines later in life.
She explained: 'Kids are brought into show business because they are cute and see truth and they're very bright.
'But there's a sense of doing it because you want the adults to be approving of you. You want to make them happy.'
Now Anna is hoping to achieve success with her new comedy Veep, in which she stars alongside Julia Louise-Dreyfus.
The series, set to air next year, is loosely based on BBC series The Thick Of It, and tells the story of Senator Selina Meyer's run as Vice President of the United States.
Read more: dailymail