Where the Spy Kids cast are now: You won't recognise lead actor who is married to A-List celebrity
Spy Kids is undeniably one of the most iconic kids films of the 2000s, but their stars have gone on to some pretty wild things: marriage to an A-List popstar, starring in a Cannibal Holocaust-like horror film from Eli Roth, and appearing in some of the biggest films of the last 20 years.
Spy Kids has a pretty star studded celebrity cast, with Alan Cumming, Danny Trejo, Robert Patrick, and Teri Hatcher all having supporting roles, with cameo appearances from iconic pair of writer-directors Mike Judge and Richard Linklater.
Linklater may have brought us School of Rock, the Before trilogy, and Boyhood, but was he ever in anything as iconic as Spy Kids? It’s hard to say.
Here is what the main cast of Spy Kids have been up to 25 years on from the film about the pair of kids who must become espionage agents after their parents are abducted.
Antonia Banderas and Carla Gugino – Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez
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You probably don’t exactly need to know what Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino have been up to in the years since because the pair have barely left your TV or cinema screens since.
Banderas was nominated for an Oscar in 2019 and is co-starring in Tony, which is releasing today. He also appeared in the similarly iconic Shrek 2 just three years after Spy Kids, the erotic film Babygirl, and starred in The Legend Of Zorro after appearing in Spy Kids 2 and the 3-D focused sequel.
Gugino similar returned for the whole Spy Kids trilogy but has found more of her success in TV, appearing in The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Add to that roles in Watchmen, Gerald’s Game, and Sucker Punch and she has had a very successful career post-Spy Kids.
Alexa Penavega – Carmen Cortez
One of the real aspects of Spy Kids that makes it stand out is the fact that the lead pair of child performers, Alexa Penavega and Daryl Sabara, give great performances as the lead (something that is quite rare in leading child actors from the 2000s).
Penavega left Hollywood to live on a farm in Tennessee with her husband, Big Time Rush member Carlos PenaVega.
She left Hollywood and now acts in ‘faith-based projects’, often alongside her husband whom she met in Bible study in late 2012.
In July, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the film, Penavega and Sabara teamed up with Salvation army to run a spy camp for children on a summer camp, saying she had the ‘best time’ and encouraging people to donate to the Salvation Army.
Speaking to PEOPLE about the anniversary she admitted that for a ‘really long time’ her children didn’t like Spy Kids, adding: “Spy Kids was special because it was always about family and community coming together to make the world a better place. And I feel like that's what my kids, that's what my husband gets out of it.”
Daryl Sabara – Juni Cortez
Sabara starred in the films as Juni, Carmen’s younger brother, and has gone on to make headlines for his marriage to Meghan Trainor whom he shares three children with.
Sabara has continued acting since Spy Kids though he has not quite reached those heights since, however he did appear in a cult horror film The Green Inferno, a spiritual remake of Cannibal Holocaust created by Eli Roth, the director behind the newly released Ice Cream Man.
Sabara also appeared in John Carter, Weeds, and animated shows like Ben 10, but has spoken about how he acts far more rarely nowadays as he is a stay-at-home dad to his and Trainor’s three children.
The actor spoke kindly about his adult co-stars in the film, saying that Alan Cumming, Antonio, and Carla ‘didn’t treat us like kids, like they treated us like peers’.
He told US Weekly: “Antonio was coming off Zorro, so he was a superhero… they were basically like pretend mom and dad.
“Everyone took such great care of us.
“We [are] beyond blessed to have had just so many great movies back to back with that group because it was very special.”
Topics: Nostalgia, TV and Film, Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin