| A handful of actors found their niche proved to be the ones to watch
If anything, the past year in prime time has proven a few things to be true: Kid stars can come back as successful adult
actors; teen stars deliver box-office bang; and TV continues to nurture future big-name stars.
Here's a dozen such performers who have dazzled us over the past year and are showing no signs of letting up:
RICK SCHRODER
NYPD Blue executive producers Steven Bochco and David Milch took a flier in casting Schroder as the newcomer
replacing Jimmy Smits on their hit cop series. And Schroder, hitherto best-known for his kid role in Silver Spoons,
has delivered. Skeptics need only ask female fans of the show what they think.
DREW CAREY
The one-time standup has become a ratings magnet. His self-named ABC sitcom chugs along earning steady Nielsen numbers,
and, as host, he's brought ratings luster as well to the same network's Whose Line Is It Anyway? - an
improvisational series.
CAMRYN MANHEIM
The stage and screen veteran became a household name after her heartfelt Emmy Award acceptance speech, in which she talked
about being a big girl in a business that worships rail-thin bodies. As the flawed Ellenor Frutt on ABC's The
Practice, Manheim stands out in a cast that includes enough diamonds to fill a tiara.
KERI RUSSELL
As the star of the WB's much-hyped fall series Felicity, Russell won many a heart as an angst-ridden, serious-minded
do-gooder Gotham college student. With Felicity labeled a hit before its first telecast, Russell - a former member
of the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club remake - was an instant media darling. She hasn't disappointed.
CAST OF CHARMED
Driven by three lovelies - Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs - the new WB drama about a trio of witches
has moved out of Felicity's shadow and delivered its own ratings muscle.
CAST OF DAWSON'S CREEK
The Dawson's teens - Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson - are responsible for
the wave of teen-beat series that rolled through the 1998-99 season. Indeed, the show's sexually charged climate proved to
advertisers and networks that kids are good for business.
CAST OF BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Not since Dark Shadows went off the air have vampires been this popular. Former soap star Sarah Michelle Gellar has
proven she can drive a stake into the hearts of the best of them, while hunky co-star David Boreanaz has shown he can carry
a show, which he'll do next season when his Angel character gets his own series.
JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT
For years, she toiled as part of the ensemble cast of the cult hit Party of Five. But parts in the big-screen film
I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, a song on the
soundtrack and an off-camera romance with MTV VJ Carson Daly have helped make Hewitt a teen-mag pinup and a bankable film
star. Next fall, her Party of Five character will be the focus of a new series.
BRANDY NORWOOD
Her Moesha is one of the rare staples on the barely seen UPN network. But Brandy's fan base doesn't stop there. She
has co-starred alongside Whitney Houston in the ABC movie Cinderella, was paired with Hewitt in I Still Know What
You Did Last Summer, and is a chart-topping pop singer.
JANE KRAKOWSKI
As Ally McBeal's lovable busybody secretary, Krakowski has gotten to wear and present strange inventions, sing at
the annual Christmas parties, and beat out Ally in a battle for love.
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