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It's been 15 years since teen cult classic Mean Girls
Today, Tina Fey ’s script can pretty much be quoted verbatim by millennial audiences. The advent of social media in the early Noughties means that memes based on the film abound – Buzzfeed even posted an article in 2017 that lists 93 of them.
Some of the film’s key stars, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried and Rachel McAdams, have had huge successes in the film industry, sharing titles such as The Notebook (2004), Spotlight (2015), Les Misérables (2012) and Mamma Mia! (2008) between them. McAdams was even nominated for best supporting actress at the Oscars in 2016 for her role in Spotlight .
But what about those lesser known, yet highly quotable characters? From Lacey Chabert and the rest of “The Plastics”, to the film’s writer Tina Fey and the girl that got punched in the face by Regina George, The Independent looks at what the Mean Girls cast has been up to in the last 15 years – it’s so fetch!
*Click through the gallery below to find out what the Mean Girls cast have been up to*
Show all 13 1 /13Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Tina Fey (Ms Norbury) Tina Fey is one of Hollywood’s much-loved queens of comedy and the brains behind Mean Girls . She played the film’s calculus teacher, Ms Norbury – a self-proclaimed “pusher” (no, not of drugs). Fey has since starred in a number of comedies, reuniting with Mean Girls co-star Amy Poehler in Baby Mama (2008) and Sisters (2015). Until 2006, she was head writer for Saturday Night Live , a satirical news and sketch show, which later inspired her sitcom 30 Rock . In 2015, she started a new venture with Robert Carlock, writing Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt , which wrapped up its fourth and final season at the beginning of 2019. Fey brought Mean Girls to Broadway in 2018 and remains tight-lipped on whether she would consider writing a sequel.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Lindsay Lohan (Cady Heron) Lindsay Lohan was in her acting prime when she starred as Mean Girls’ nerdy-yet-beautiful protagonist, Cady Heron. A couple of teen hits followed, with Lohan playing an aspiring racing driver in Herbie Fully Loaded (2005) and spoilt New Yorker Ashley Albright in Just My Luck (2006). The child star’s criminal antics have overshadowed her film career since then, with a DUI and drug charge in 2007, followed by theft and assault allegations in 2011 and 2012. After a series of short TV appearances in 2015, all went quiet on the acting-front until her return to screen as Katerina West in British comedy Sick Note (2018). A short-lived engagement made headlines in 2016, along with a reality TV series and talk of her own private island in 2018. She plays a private detective with a werewolf bloodline in 2019 action thriller Among the Shadows – a long way from her Mean Girls days.
Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Rachel McAdams (Regina George) Rachel McAdams seemingly had it all as queen bee Regina George but it was her next film that made her the envy of all teenage girls. Starring opposite heartthrobs Ryan Gosling and James Marsden, she played American sweetheart Allie Hamilton in the ultimate romantic tearjerker, The Notebook (2004). She has become a romcom regular, appearing in The Time Traveller’s Wife (2009), The Vow (2012) and About Time (2013). Her repertoire is more varied than Nicholas Sparks-esque chick flicks, however. She starred as a woman kidnapped during a flight in the 2005 Wes Craven thriller Red Eye . More recently, she played a journalist investigating child molestation within the Catholic Church (Spotlight , 2015) and tackled homophobia as an Orthodox Jew exploring her sexuality (Disobedience , 2017). McAdams is rumoured to return as Irene Adler in the third instalment of the Sherlock Holmes franchise, due for release 2021.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Amanda Seyfried (Karen Smith) Amanda Seyfried may be all doe eyes and large breasts (that can supposedly predict the weather) as Karen in Mean Girls , but she’s taken on her fair share of challenging roles since then. She played a manipulative escort in the erotic thriller Chloe (2009), became a kidnapping victim in Gone (2012), and took on the titular role in Lovelace (2013), a drama documentary exploring the life of porn star Linda Lovelace. Seyfried is best cast as the sweet-natured romcom female lead. She followed McAdams’ example and landed herself a lead part in Dear John in 2010, a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Her first big role after Mean Girls was as Sophie in movie musical Mamma Mia! – a role she reprised in 2018 in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again . Seyfried also showed off her killer vocals as Cosette in Les Misérables (2012). She is filming Scoob , an animated film due for release in 2020.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Lacey Chabert (Gretchen Wieners) Since Mean Girls , Lacey Chabert’s career has been overshadowed by Lohan’s notoriety and the blockbuster hits of her fellow Plastics, Seyfried and McAdams. Much like Gretchen, she has been sidelined. But Chabert’s actually had a fair amount of success as a voice actor. She voiced Eliza Thornberry in TV series The Wild Thornberrys (until 2004), Gwen Stacy in The Spectacular Spiderman between 2008 and 2009 and Meg Griffin in Family Guy as recently as 2012. She fell into the trap of a slasher remake in 2006 with Black Christmas , which cast her as a sorority girl on the run from a killer. Now, she’s the poster girl for Hallmark movies, with nearly 20 titles to her name, including the schmaltzy Netflix success A Royal Christmas (2014). Her latest Hallmark project, The Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For , was released in March and a series of related films are in pre-production.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Amy Poehler (Mrs George) Warnings against boob jobs don’t come better than the shot of a chihuahua chewing on the anaesthetized nipple of Mrs George in Mean Girls . Amy Poehler has starred in two films with Will Ferrell, playing the brattish Fairchild Van Waldenberg in Blades of Glory (2007) and one half of a criminal couple in caper The House (2017). The comedy actor has voiced a number of feature films, from Snow White in Shrek the Third (2007) to Joy in Inside Out (2015). Poehler has starred in, written and directed countless episodes of the US political satire sitcom Parks and Recreation between 2009 and 2015 and has created quite a storm on Netflix as one of the writers of the Groundhog Day-style series Russian Doll (2019). She stars in and directs the much-anticipated Netflix film Wine Country , due for release this year.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Jonathan Bennett (Aaron Samuels) Jonathan Bennett broke hearts as Mean Girls’ smouldering high school jock and he’s had a hard time shaking the role since then. Maybe he doesn’t want to. In 2018, he appeared as Aaron Samuels in Ariana Grande’s music video ‘thank u, next’, he’s the author of a Mean Girls parody cookbook and he joined Lohan on her reality show in 2019. His pretty boy looks were perfect for roles in Lovewrecked (2005) and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005). He teamed up with his old co-star Chabert in Elevator Girl (2010), Slightly Single in LA (2013) and Anything is Possible (2013). There have also been a few dark turns with thrillers The Secret Village and Misogynist (both 2013) and Submerged in 2016. Tapping into the current Charles Manson fascination (Tarantino’s blockbuster is due for release this year), he has just starred in The Haunting of Sharon Tate with Hilary Duff.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Lizzy Caplan (Janis Ian) Lizzy Caplan’s #TransformationTuesday is pretty astonishing when you look back at Janis Ian – wisely, she’s chilled out on the eyeliner. Caplan has a few big-budget movies to her name, from Cloverfield (2008) and 127 Hours (2010) to Now You See Me 2 (2016). She joined a stellar female line-up – Kirsten Dunst, Rebel Wilson and Isla Fisher – for the raucous comedy Bachelorette in 2012. She’s also made a name for herself in television, with titles like True Blood (2008) and New Girl (2012) under her belt. When she was cast as proto-feminist Virginia Johnson in Masters of Sex in 2013, and later became producer in 2015, it represented a change to her usual comedy repertoire. She starred as the notoriously creepy Annie Wilkes (of Misery , 1990) in Stephen King’s psychological horror series for Hulu, Castle Rock (2018), and is rumoured to be working alongside Channing Tatum in the X-Men spin-off Gambit (2020).
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Daniel Franzese (Damian) Daniel Franzese stole a lot of laughs as comedy sidekick and “almost too gay to function” Damian in Mean Girls but some of his more recent projects make for uncomfortable viewing. He starred in slasher flick Kill Theory in 2009 and the brutal 2010 horror I Spit on Your Grave , which follows the revenge story of a writer who was tortured during a cabin retreat. He enjoyed a small role as national guardsman in the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller War of the Worlds in 2005. He’s been cast in a number of short films and TV series, making a small appearance in the successful Netflix comedy GLOW in 2018. He is currently on his first national stand up tour, Yass You’re Amazing!
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Tim Meadows (Mr Duvall) Tim Meadows is the only original cast member to have reprised his role in Mean Girls 2 (2011), a film that critics didn’t even bother rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Much of his success came before 2004, as one of the longest-running cast members of Saturday Night Live during the 1990s. Since then, he has starred in the Adam Sandler films Grown Ups (2010) and Grown Ups 2 (2013), and Jack and Jill (2011). He also appeared in co-star Tina Fey’s series 30 Rock as Martin Lutherking in 2013 and made a cameo at a baby shower in Amy Schumer’s 2015 comedy Trainwreck . He has been cast in several long-running US TV shows, playing Mr Glascott in The Goldbergs (2013-18), Caleb in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2017) and Edmond in Suburgatory (2012-14). He is due to appear in the animated film Saurus City alongside Emma Roberts, which is in pre-production.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Neil Flynn (Cady’s Dad) Neil Flynn is a primetime TV veteran: he starred as the Janitor in 170 episodes of medical comedy drama Scrubs between 2001 and 2009, and as Mick Heck in 214 episodes of The Middle (until 2018), a sitcom following the lives of a dysfunctional family. He had a big movie moment when he was cast alongside Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and John Hurt, among others, in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). He is currently in the NBC comedy Abby’s – a sitcom shot almost entirely outdoors in front of a live audience.
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Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Ana Gasteyer (Cady’s Mom) Ana Gasteyer, like Poehler, Fey and Meadows, is Saturday Night Live alum, and appeared on the show up until 2012. She has been cast in a number of popular TV series, from Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2011, to Suburgatory and The Good Wife (both until 2014), and has made one-off appearances in Family Guy (2014), The Mindy Project and Girls (both 2015). She starred in the popular Netflix series and surrealist comedy Lady Dynamite (2016-17) and has been cast in Wine Country , alongside Poehler. Gasteyer is also a jazz singer and released an album titled “I’m Hip” in 2014.
Mean Girls 15 years on: what is the cast up to now? Dwayne Hill (Coach Carr) Coach Carr and his questionable teaching methods – “Don’t have sex because you will get pregnant and die!” – are hard to forget. Dwayne Hill's distinctive voice has landed him a number of voiceover roles since Mean Girls , largely in animated series such as Atomic Betty (2004), Bolts & Blip (2010), and Peg+Cat (2013-17), for which he won an Emmy. He is co-creator of the 2019 drama series Northern Rescue , starring William Baldwin.
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