30 going on 13: How old is too old to play a teenager on TV?

The Age

11-06-2025

I was 12 years old when I first laid eyes on bad boy Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), lighting up outside the Cohens' Newport Beach mansion on The OC. 'Who are you?' asked his new neighbour and eventual love interest Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) in the show's pilot. 'Whoever you want me to be,' he famously replied, his eyes locked as tight on her as his ratty leather choker was wrapped around his neck.
It was many years until I learnt that the actor who played this 16-year-old heartthrob was actually almost a decade older than the troubled teen he portrayed. And, aged 25 at the show's premiere, McKenzie was significantly older than Barton, who was just 17.
It puts a weird spin on the Ryan and Marissa clippings from Dolly magazine that patchworked my bedroom walls – and an even more uncomfortable lens on the show after Barton's subsequent claims the actors dated during filming.
But, in the history of film and television, there's nothing strange about an adult man whacking on a leather jacket and calling himself a highschool. James Dean was a similar age (24) when he portrayed 17-year-old Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause – a film that is popularly credited with defining the very concept of a 'teenager' and is a direct reference point for that opening episode of The OC. (Much like Barton, Dean's co-star Natalie Wood was also much younger – 16 – at the time of filming.)
It's actually exceedingly rare that a teenager is cast for these roles at all. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta were 29 and 23, respectively, when they starred as high-school sweethearts in Grease. Rachel McAdams was 25 when she portrayed queen bee Regina George in Mean Girls. Andrew Garfield was 27 when he played 17-year-old Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man. Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney were all in their early 20s at the start of high-school drama Euphoria (meaning the long-anticipated third season will feature an unavoidable time jump) – as were most of the cast of other recent teen shows such as Sex Education and Riverdale.
I've been thinking a lot about this, ever since watching Overcompensating. The debut sitcom from Benito Skinner, based on his college experiences from the early 2010s, has recently faced some pushback over its casting. Skinner, 31, plays a fictionalised version of himself as a college freshman (who are generally 18 or 19 years old). And he's joined by other actors predominantly aged from their late 20s to mid-30s (including season two The White Lotus alumnus Adam DiMarco, who is 35).
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'After several years of development, Overcompensating arrives at a time when Skinner … can no longer plausibly pass for the teenage version of himself,' one critic wrote in Slate. 'He looks more out of place than Ben Platt did playing a teen in 2021's Dear Evan Hansen.' (Another one for the list! Platt was 27 when he played the 17-year-old outcast.)
So why does this keep happening? There are some big logistical factors at play: the first is that it's simply much harder to film with underage actors. Local legislation will often dictate talent under a certain age must be accompanied by a parent, can only work reduced hours and will need on-set tutors.
Older actors also usually have more experience and, often, some name recognition that bolsters the project. Zendaya and Cole Sprouse, for instance, became stars through the Disney Channel well before appearing as teens on Euphoria and Riverdale. Having actors who are above the age of consent also helps make certain plot lines feel slightly less perverted to watch (see: basically everything that happens on Gossip Girl).
There, however, are some real downsides to this. The first is that actual teenagers grow up thinking they should look like Blake Lively. The 'teenage girls' we watch on film and TV generally have clear skin, full chests and roughly 500 times the self-confidence of the average 16-year-old. And, with broad chests and big arms, the boys aren't much better.
Plus, there's always going to be a 'how do you do, fellow kids' inauthenticity to seeing a 27-year-old try to capture what it means to be 17 today.
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This is what drove then-uni student Jamie Brittain to create Skins back in 2006. Explaining the origins of his famously unfiltered teen drama, he told DigitalSpy it was a direct response to 'deeply patronising' series such as Dawson's Creek and The OC.
'Everyone looked so perfect,' he said. 'It drove me crazy. They were aggressively promoting the notion of [Seth Cohen (played by Adam Brody)] as this virgin nerd … but he was one of the sexiest men on television! And he was a man, as well – he was not a teenager!'
Instead, Brittain and his team scouted for no-name teens to join his cast (except for 17-year-old Nicholas Hoult, who had been a child actor in About a Boy). That led to the discovery of Daniel Kaluuya, then 18 and also writing on the show, and Dev Patel, who was 16 when he landed the role of gangly and fun-loving Anwar.
When the cast aged out of the roles, they created a whole new generation of teens to focus on. This was revolutionary for me at the time, a 15-year-old watching people my age having the same heartbreaks, house parties and hugely emotional reactions to Crystal Castles.
But it turns out there are whole separate issues worth considering when you have actual 17-year-olds doing sex scenes, years before on-set intimacy co-ordinators are common practice. Speaking on her podcast, now in her 30s, original Skins cast member April Pearson (Michelle) admitted: 'I do feel like I was too young … There's a difference between being officially old enough and mentally old enough.'
Mischa Barton has said the same of her time on The OC. She has recently spoken about coming into the show as a virgin, 'a kid', and feeling pressured to grow up quickly and meet the expectations of her character. After being thrust into the spotlight and frequently sexualised at a young age, she was also hounded by paparazzi, leading to breakdowns and PTSD.
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So maybe Skinner is on to something by leaning in to the absurdity of older actors on Overcompensating. It worked for Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, who were 32 when they started playing 13-year-old versions of themselves in Pen15. Set in 2000, with the cargo pants and MSN Messenger plot lines to prove it, that show was also a satire of a very specific era in their lives.
Skinner's on-screen sister Mary Beth Barone (age 33) recently made the point on their podcast saying,'I wouldn't want younger actors to play these parts. They wouldn't be able to nail the millennial cringe of that time period.'
Skinner added: 'I get what [people] are saying. But at the same time … all of us having space from that time in our lives allows us to be more comfortable.'