Hollywood Actress Has Played a 17-Year-Old for Over 17 Years
Hollywood has a thing for hiring adults to play teens despite the fact that those adults could barely pass for someone their own age, much less someone half that.
Remember Andrea Zuckerman on Beverly Hills, 90210? Gabrielle Carteris was almost 30 when she was cast as a 16-year-old.
And what's the deal with this balding "high schooler" on Sabrina the Teenage Witch?
But then there's Bianca Lawson.
The 34-year-old L.A. native's first big gig was portraying Bayside student Megan Jones on Saved by the Bell: The New Class, years '93 to '94 (not '95 as above).
She then appeared as teen slayer Kendra on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997, and, two years later, took on the role of Nikki Green on Dawson's Creek.
Things quieted down for Lawson after that, but she reemerged — quite literally — in 2009, as the ghost of Emily Bennett on Vampire Diaries.
There is some dispute over whether Lawson's character, a 19th century witch, was a teen at the time of her death, but there is no doubt about Lawson's age in another show she joined around the same time: Pretty Little Liars.
Maya St. Germain was a teenager when Lawson first played her in the show's pilot, and she remained a teen when Lawson left the show in 2012, half-way through the third season.
Lawson's latest TV series, Teen Wolf, has a name that fits in perfectly with the rest of Lawson's oeuvre (as does The Secret Life of the American Teenager, in which she cameoed).
But, shockingly, she doesn't play a 17-year-old in this one — though she certainly looks like she could.
What's next for Lawson? Only time will tell. But probably another teenager.
