For us 90’s kids, our childhood crushes weren’t the typical slutty, curvy or super ripped crushes of today. They were girl or guy next door kind of hot with great hair and an actual personality. For the most part, none of them were filled with silicone or bulging with muscles or covered in tattoos. They were real people that we could relate with and that made them all the more attractive. And for some inexplicable reason, we don’t know if it’s a whole chicken-egg thing, but many of the hottest of the 90s stars went by three names. True 90’s kids will understand. Did all of your top picks make the list? Scroll through and find out.
Table of Contents
Girls
10. Amy Jo Johnson
Best known for her role as the pink Ranger on the first season of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Amy Jo Johnson played a gymnastics loving, butt kicking, heartthrob/super ninja named Kimberly Ann Hart. She even had a cameo on another of our favorites, Saved By The Bell. More recently, you may recognize her as a regular on the show Covert Affairs. A woman of many talents, apparently she has gone on to become a singer, songwriter, producer, and even scriptwriter. It’s hard to believe that she’s 43 now but we still wouldn’t turn down a date with her.
9. Danielle Fishel
Oh Topanga. Danielle Fishel may have had roles in movies like Dorm Daze and Dorm Daze 2 but she will forever be known as Topanga from Boy Meets World. We watched her grow from that odd girl who said weird things into the beautiful swan that we swooned over. Almost overnight, we all became jealous of Corey Matthews and the beautiful girl that was inexplicably attracted to him. For those nostalgic folks like us, there’s great news! Topanga is back! Starting this year, a new series, Girl Meets World, will follow the life of Corey and Topanga’s daughter as she navigates the stormy waters of adolescence. Which is great and all, as long as her mom gets plenty of screentime.
8. Christina Applegate
While Ed O’Neil and Katey Sagal have gone on to other projects like Modern Family and Futurama, respectively, Christina Applegate was the actor every young male remembers from Married With Children. Watch any episode and as soon as she enters the scene, the whole audience erupts in applause and cat calls. And it was all fully warranted. Tight skimpy dresses and cropped, midriff baring shirts were basically all that Kelly Bundy’s wardrobe consisted of. And we were all more than fine with that. Add in a ditzy and gullible personality and you’ve just described every 90’s boy’s dream.
7. Sarah Michelle Gellar
90’s kids best know Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure she’s gone on to other TV shows and movies but none of those are nearly as memorable as a hot, vampire killing babe. Although Cruel Intentions does come in at a close second due to one of the most watched and rewatched scenes of 1999. Many a VHS tape was ruined by repeated rewindings of that movie. Honestly, I can’t even remember what the movie was about. And I don’t really care. But I’d watch it right now if it was on. Fun fact: She has voiced characters on The Simpsons, American Dad, and Robot Chicken multiple times.
6. Jennifer Love Hewitt
Probably best known for her roles in Can’t Hardly Wait, I Know What You Did Last Summer (and the sequel), and Party of Five, Jennifer Love Hewitt made a big impression on boys around the country with her sweet, girl next door vibe and her ridiculously hot body that has only gotten better over time. More recently, she snagged the lead role as a sensual masseuse in a TV series called The Client List. Don’t get too excited though. The series was aired on Lifetime and is definitely not what you expected/hoped it would be.
5. Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Hart didn’t start out as a love interest. Like Danielle Fishel, she began as that one girl in the group and as everyone got older, you started to realize that she was pretty hot. In a girl next door kind of way. Which is probably why she had guys climbing ladders into her window every day. After Clarissa Explains It All, she went on to do seven seasons of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and, most recently, has a current show with another star on our list, Joey Lawrence, the aptly named Melissa and Joey. Which is a terrible show but is almost worth it just to see if these childhood hotties will ever get together.
3. Alicia Silverstone
You may have thought that Alicia Silverstone’s breakout role was as Cher in Clueless (which she looks great in, by the way) but she was featured in the Aerosmith video for Big Ones You Can Look At (that’s not even innuendo at this point) a year before that. She then went on to play Batgirl aka Barbara Wilson in Batman and Robin. Was her name really Barbara? That doesn’t sound right… Anyways, since then she hasn’t been in much that you’ve probably heard of outside of Butter and a minor role in the series Suburgatory.
2. Lucy Lawless
Xena freaking Warrior Princess. Lucy Lawless was cracking heads and breaking hearts from 1995 to 2001. She even crossed over into the Hercules series for a bit. Since then, she’s been in everything from Spartacus (the HBO version and the SciFy one) to Burn Notice to Curb Your Enthusiasm to Battlestar Galactica to Parks and Recreation. That’s a hell of a career. And somehow, she appears to have not aged more than, at most, a couple of years in the past two decades. If we had to die in ancient Greece, we hope it would be by Xena, her companion/maybe more sidekick, and that weird killer Frisbee.
1. Tiffani Amber Theissen
Topping the list by an arguably large margin is our number one crush for the past 20 years, Tiffany Amber Theissen. We don’t care that you spell Tiffany wrong or that you’re trying to drop that whole middle name thing now that you’re an adult, we still love you Tiffani. Best known for her role as Kelly Kapowski on Saved By The Bell, Tiffani stole our hearts back in the early 90’s and still hasn’t returned it. In those glory days, it wasn’t uncommon for stars to cameo across multiple other hit shows like Married With Children, Step by Step, and Blossom. Especially when they are as undeniably hot as T.A.T. Currently, she is gracing us with her presence on White Collar. Unfortunately, we can’t really pay attention to the show while she’s on screen but we hear it’s very good.
Guys
10. Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Probably the most famous of the three named hotties, Jonathon Taylor Thomas became a household name from his role on Home Improvement. His acting career is pretty impressive starting with a part on In Living Color playing Macaulay Culkin, going on to be the voice of young Simba in The Lion King, and holding starring roles in Man of the House and Tom and Huck before getting his spot on Home Improvement. Since then he’s had a number of cameos on popular shows like the Simpsons and Veronica Mars and has most recently teamed back up with his “dad”, Tim Allen, on the show Last Man Standing. But back in the mid 90’s, JTT was plastered on girls’ walls and featured often in magazines like Teen Beat.
9. James Van Deer Beek
James Van Deer Beek’s acting career consists of some pretty iconic projects like Varsity Blues, Angus, Clarissa Explains It All, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, One Tree Hill, How I met Your Mother, Franklin & Bash, and Saturday Night Live. But the role he’s known for, the one that made all the girls swoon, was as Dawson Leery in the show Dawson’s Creek. I have no idea what the show was about but all the girls seemed to love it and ergo loved JVDB. It must have been difficult writing his last name after theirs all over their Trapper Keepers.
8. Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Who didn’t want to be Zach Morris as a kid? Hell, I want to be him right now. Confidence, great hair, a sweet mobile phone, and the attention of the lovely Kelly Kapowski. Zach Morris had it all. Which meant that Mark-Paul Gosselaar who played Zach on the show Saved By The Bell had it all and more. He’s had cameos on numerous popular shows like Punky Brewster, Rizzoli and Isles, The Wonder Years, The Twilight Zone, Happy Endings (a really underrated show), and Men At Work (also underrated). Now he’s slinging law and picking up ladies on his latest show, Franklin & Bash.
7. Rider Strong
As Corey Matthews’ best friend on Boy Meets World, Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) was the coolest kid in the 90’s. Like if Zach Morris had a younger, more street wise brother. And like the Saved By The Bell star, he also had great hair. Rider made appearances on Home Improvement, Party of Five, Hercules, and Veronica Mars. No one knows what has happened to him since but there are rumors that he is now a member of the cast of Girl Meets World. We haven’t watched the show yet so we can neither confirm nor deny these allegations.
6. Zachery Ty Bryan
Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ older brother on Home Improvement, we watched “Brad” grow from an annoying older brother quickly into a studly high school jock seemingly overnight. JTT and ZTB were basically the Bash Brothers of young girls’ hearts. Zach has also appeared on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Soul Man, Touched By an Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, and Burn Notice.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio
Leo has come a long way since the late 90’s but one thing hasn’t changed: He’s still the Hollywood crush of a lot of ladies. Fresh faced and full of boyish charm, Leo has been on Roseanne, Growing Pains, and Parenthood and has been in a number of box office hits like Romeo + Juliet, The Man in the Iron Mask, Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, and of course, Titanic. Like a fine wine, he only gets better with age.
4. Luke Perry
Beverly Hills, 90210 definitely put Luke Perry on the map and into the hearts of teen girls everywhere. His filmography list is nothing short of impressive with big names like Buffy, The Simpsons, Spin City, Jeremiah (great show), The Fifth Element, and a laundry list more. 90210 lasted ten years and the girls never got tired of him. Think of Luke as an older Chad Michael Murray. But more talented.
3. Joey Lawrence
Between Blossom and Brotherly Love, Joey Lawrence was on our TV sets from 1990 to 1997. Like all great TV stars of that decade, he had great hair and appeared on many other popular shows. You could see him on Empty Nest, Touched By An Angel, and Run Of The House. Currently, he’s sharing the screen with Melissa Joan Hart in Melissa and Joey. The plot is thin and predictable but it’s nice to see these two actors together.
2. Justin Timberlake
We’re not talking about the man who’s Bringing Sexy Back, we’re talking about the Ramen-haired lead singer of ‘Nsync who started his career as a Mouseketeer with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Despite that time he wore a suit and hat made entirely out of denim, girls were obsessed with him and went about building metaphorical to literal shrines to him in their bedrooms.
1. David Lascher
You probably don’t recognize the name but if you watched any TV in the mid 90s, you’d know his face. He started making waves as one of the stars of the Nickelodeon original, Hey Dude. After that, he got type cast in the best way possible as the teenage boyfriend on every show from Full House to Step By Step to Blossom to Clueless to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. And guess where he’s been lately. Hanging out with some other childhood heartthrobs on Melissa and Joey.