Some unlucky game show contestants started getting the humiliation of a lifetime 15 years ago, when Fox introduced the trivia-fest Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on February 27, 2007.
In the show, which aired on Fox and in syndication from 2007-15 before getting a Nickelodeon reboot in 2019, contestants had to answer some deceptively tough elementary school-level questions. And unless they won the million-dollar prize, host Jeff Foxworthy would have them face the camera and confess, “I am not smarter than a fifth-grader.”
Luckily, contestants had help from their “classmates,” who were actual fifth graders, as an old Fox casting call reminds. And some of those students are still gracing our TV sets. Here’s a look at the class of 5th Grade child stars who have graduated to these bigger roles.