John Francis Daley

Often, child actors fade into nonexistence after their first big break. After becoming familiar faces and maybe even a household name, young actors generally wind up becoming more of a factoid or an answer to a trivia question than a serious actor. For John Francis Daley, who cut his teeth in "Freaks & Geeks" (NBC 1999-2000) and the 1994 touring production of "The Who's Tommy," that wasn't the case. Despite finding success as a teenager, Daley bucked the trend, carving out a path that led to a career with many notable roles in television and film. Eventually he moved onto screenwriting, penning everything from R-rated comedies such as "Horrible Bosses" (2011) to family films such as "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2" (2013) before moving into the director chair with their franchise reboot "Vacation" (2015) and scoring a blockbuster hit with their screenplay for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (2017).