Hey look, another MCU actor! Of course we all know Michael now from his roles in Black Panther and as the face of the Creed franchise, but his credits go back even further than his breakout Fruitvale Station performance. He got his start all the way back in 1999 in an episode of Cosby when he was just 12 years old!
Keira Knightley
Keira was famously quite young when she broke out: She was 17 when Bend It Like Beckham hit theaters, and was 18 in Love Actually. But she had been acting for nearly a decade before that: Her first role was in Screen One in 1993. Here she is in her second credited role in The Bill (1995), at 10 years old:
Kurt Russell
Kurt's had a loooong career, including roles in movies like Escape from New York, The Hateful Eight, and — you guessed it — a Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Since he was such a big star in the '80s and '90s especially, many people don't realize that he was a child actor back in the '60s first. His first credited role was in the Dennis the Menace TV series when he was 11 years old, but here he is in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in 1964, at 13:
Felicity Jones
Felicity has a heck of a resume, including Star Wars: Rogue One, the indie darling Like Crazy, and The Theory of Everything, for which she earned an Oscar nom. She's been acting since 1996, though! Here she is in her second credited role, in The Worst Witch when she was 14–15 years old:
Katherine Heigl
Katherine's big break was, of course, her Emmy-winning role as Izzie in Grey's Anatomy. But her Hollywood career started more than a decade before that with her first role, as Kathryn (natch) in That Night. The movie came out in 1992, when Katherine was just 11 years old.
Eliza Dushku
Did you recognize the girl in the middle, next to Katherine Heigl? Yep, that's Eliza Dushku, star of Dollhouse and Bring It On, who landed a starring role in That Night when she was 12 years old...her first major credit!
Tom Holland
Tom may have been playing a teenage Peter Parker when he was cast in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, but he was already 20 years old. His career started six years before that, though, with his first on-screen role in The Impossible (2012). The movie hit theaters when Tom was 16, but he was just 14 years old during filming.
Jurnee Smollett
Jurnee had a string of big roles in her twenties — on Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, and True Blood, to name a few — and more recently she earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in Lovecraft Country. But she's been working steadily since she was just 6 years old! Here she is in one of her earliest roles, as Denise in Full House back in 1992:
Elizabeth Taylor
Since Elizabeth Taylor was so successful and iconic in her later career — in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butterfield 8, to name a couple — it's easy to forget that she was a teen star. Her first role was in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), when she was only 10 years old.
Emma Stone
Although Emma was 19 when she starred in Superbad, she had been working in Hollywood for a few years before that. Her first credited role is from 2004 in The New Partridge Family, when she was 16 years old (and going by Emily Stone!).
Robert Downey Jr.
Just onnnne more MCU actor: Robert Downey Jr. has had an incredible career, but you might not know just how early he got started. His first credited role was in Pound (1970), at just five years old! Also, he was credited as "Bob Downey." I don't know if I've ever met a 5-year-old who goes by Bob.
Sophie Marceau - 14 years old in "la boum"
and
Natalie Portman - 12 years old in Léon