Younger Than They Look / Live-Action TV

• 2 Broke Girls: In "And the Hold-Up", a second season episode, three different characters give a Big "WHAT?!" when they find out that Han, who they had thought to be in his 50s, is only 29.
• 10 Things I Hate About You: In the TV adaptation, the character of Patrick Verona looked like he was around 19- to 21-years-old, but was actually a high school junior. The actor who played him was only slightly older than he looked, being 22-23 when the series was shot. Walter even points this out to Kat, calling him her 'friend with the disturbingly deep voice who looks much older than 17.'
• The 4400: Isabelle Tyler, the toddler daughter of two adult characters, ages herself to an adult, killing her mother in the process. As a 3-year-old in the body of a twenty-something, she seduces a male character, has a sexual relationship with him and then blackmails him into staying when he threatens to leave her, because she's psychotic and murderous in addition to being really 3-years-old. Squicky much?
• Are You Being Served?: Nicholas Smith (Mr. Rumbold) played the part of a middle manager, but he was in reality only five months older than Trevor Bannister (Mr. Lucas), who portrayed a junior.
• Barry: While being held captive by suicidally depressed Chechen hitman Stovka (played by 78 year-old actor Larry Hankin ), Fuches asks how old he is and Stovka answers "45".
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): The Brother Cavil/Number One model of Cylon looks like an old man but is 30-40. His creator designed him to resemble her own father. No doubt being permanently old is one of the reasons he's so cranky, along with removing his own need for sleep. The other humanoid Cylons avert this, all of them possessing bodies that roughly reflect their chronological age during the Second Cylon War.
• The Brady Bunch: Jan and Peter Brady went from looking their ages (14 and 15) in the fourth season to looking 18, just a year later.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dawn, who is created fully formed at age 14. On the other hand, she is also the Key, which is nearly as old as the universe.
• Castle: In "Famous Last Words," Sky Blue is younger than her 25-year-old sister Hayley but could pass for being in her thirties (at least in her first few scenes) due to her drug abuse.
• CHiPs: A B-story in one episode contains Ponch becoming fixated over a model on a billboard. By the end of the episode his fellow officers finally give him a chance to meet the young woman, who turns out to be very young — 14 to be exact.
• Diff'rent Strokes: The 1981 episode "The Older Man" –- a crossover episode with The Facts of Life due to appearances by Lisa Whelchel and Mindy Cohn (as Blair and Natalie, respectively) –- sees 15-year-old Kimberly pout over having to be a young teen-ager and unable to land a desirable date. Blair agrees to give Kimberly a wig and puts on makeup that makes her look like she's in her early 20s. This has unintended consequences when she lands a date with a 25-year-old man named Mike. Arnold and Willis know what this means and try to disrupt the date at the movie theater. Fortunately, Mr. Drummond finds out and intervenes before Mike even thinks about his next move –- and Mike seems genuinely surprised (and aghast) when he learns he was dating someone who was in her mid-teens. (Fortunately for Mike, Drummond lets him off the hook because of Kimberly's deception, particularly because he could have had him arrested for any number of sex-related charges and caused him a lifetime of negative consequences.)
• Doctor Who:
  • When he started playing the Doctor, William Hartnell was only fifty-five, but looked at least twenty years older. Apparently, this was due to his drinking habit, which led to his death at the age of 67.
  • "The Doctor's Daughter" has a planet where everyone is born as an adult and with all the knowledge they need downloaded into them. The titular daughter, Jenny, is an example.
  • The Sontarans, a mass-produced clone race engaged in an unending war, are similar:
    "I've had a good life. I'm nearly 12."
• Earth: Final Conflict: Liam Kincaid, one of the revolving door protagonists, is born at the beginning of Season 2 and almost immediately grows to adulthood, both physically and mentally. With the memories of all 3 parents, including the show's Magnificent Bastard.
• Famous In Love uses this as a major plot point. For years, producer Nina has been having an affair with her son Rainer's best friend, Jordan. They met when Jordan was on a teenage TV show and Nina assumed that he was simply playing younger (Rainer claims to be 20 when he's really 23). When Jordan's girlfriend, Tangey, finds out, she tries to blackmail Nina to get her career going. At first, Nina refuses but then Tangey reveals that Jordan lied about his age to get that role. He was only sixteen when he and Nina began their affair, meaning Nina will go to jail if it's exposed.
• Friends:
  • In the episode "The One With The Ick Factor", Monica, who is in her mid to late twenties, dates and has sex with a young man named Ethan (played by Stan Kirsch) who told her that he was a senior in college, while she tells him she's 22 (rather than 26). When she comes clean about her age, she is shocked to find out he lied as well, and is really a senior in high school. It was his first time, too, but she is not too happy doing what would "make one of us a felon in 48 states."
  • In one episode Phoebe looks at an old picture from when Monica and Rachel were teenagers. She guesses they're sixteen in the photo but Rachel says she was actually twelve — and just "developed early".
    Phoebe: Man alive!
• Game of Thrones:
  • Emilia Clarke would have been 24-years-old at the time of the series debut in 2011, but Daenerys Targaryen is approximately 17 in the pilot episode. The same goes for Robb and Jon, who are only supposed to be a few months older than her.
  • Stannis Baratheon in Season 3, as a consequence of Melisandre taking his life force to make her shadow-child.
  • Aeron Greyjoy is meant to be several years younger than Balon, but the fully white hair and much more weathered appearance of Aeron, particularly in Season 6, don't make this readily apparent. Although this may be Reality Is Unrealistic as actor-wise the ages more or less sync up (Michael Feast is nearly two years younger than Patrick Malahide).
  • Sansa Stark begins to look much older than her canon age of fourteen by Season 4, since actress Sophie Turner understandably aged while playing her. Season 5 onwards kept Sansa's age vague for this reason.
  • Even with the universal three-year age up Tyrion is only supposed to be in his late 20s but is played by a mid-40s Peter Dinklage, explained by his dwarfism making him look much older than he actually is instead of his book counterpart being extremely ugly. This is just a side-effect of one of George R.R. Martin's requirements for the show being that Dinklage play Tyrion, a requirement that he established when the two were somewhat closer in age.
• Gotham: "Poison" Ivy Pepper has been aged up twice by Applied Phlebotinum. While she looks more kiddish than Bruce and Selina in the first two seasons, by the middle of Season 4 she's a plant person with the appearance of a woman in her thirties. She's still sulky and immature in a lot of ways.
• Greek:
  • Similar, but slightly Squickier, in , Casey brings a date to show up Rebecca (who's with Cappie at the time) at a double date sorority party. Cut to her in bed with him...and his mother waking him up to go to school. To high school. He's 16.
  • Also, Heath's sister...does not look 15, much to Beaver's dismay when he hit on her during Parents' Week. Although you do have to Take Our Word for It....
• Hannah Montana: In one early episode, a boy had a crush on Miley. The boy looked like he was around 13 or 14, which at the time was the same age as Miley. Eventually, he invites her to his birthday party, which to her shock had balloons and other party accessories like confetti. The boy was 11.
• House of the Dragon: King Viserys ages rapidly in the 20-something years he's on the throne, as a consequence of grief and disease eating away at him. By the time he dies he looks like a decrepit old man yet he's only 52, to say nothing of the body parts he loses. By contrast his brother Daemon is Older Than They Look despite only being a few years younger than him
• The Inbetweeners: One episode had a mechanic who was really fifteen but looked to be in his mid-thirties.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In one episode, Charlie starts a relationship with an Asian girl while his friends conspire to get her to participate in a wet T-shirt contest. To their horror, they discover that she's only 12-years-old. Luckily, Frank is able to jump in front of the water blast aimed for her, and Charlie never so much as kissed her.
• Kamen Rider Amazons: In Series 1, the Amazons were created 2-5 years ago, but vary in age from 16 (Mamoru) to middle aged (various guest characters); protagonist Haruka is 20, but he too was created only two years previously. Series 2 protagonist Chihiro was born around 2-3 years into the five-year Time Skip; due to accelerated aging from his Amazon genes, he is already into his late teens.
• Law & Order: One episode had two fashion models, one the Victim of the Week and her "workmate" who both had a few racy photoshoots. The victim was 14 and her acquaintance is in the eighth grade.
• Little House on the Prairie: The 1981 episode "Sylvia" was about Albert's friend (and very quickly, girlfriend), a 14-year-old girl who matures early and as a result, faces ridicule from the school. She will quickly become the target of a child rapist (a man wearing a metal clown mask) and — after the rapist impregnates her — the subject of both scandal (thanks to Mrs. Olesen spreading an outright lie that Albert had done the deed) and being callously cast out by her cold, uncaring father. In the end, Sylvia has another run-in with the rapist, and is killed after falling from a rickety ladder trying to escape.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Malcolm and his Dad got in trouble because of this trope. Malcolm beat up a kid who was bullying him but was really 7-years-old, despite being bigger than Malcolm. The kid's brother picked a fight with Hal (said brother is at least one head taller than Hal). We cut to Hal mentioning that there was no way to know he was 15.
• Despite playing Mama in Mama's Family, Vicki Lawrence was only in her thirties at that time.
• The Mighty Boosh: In the episode The Fountain of Youth, Howard reveals that he and Vince are the same age despite his much older appearance. Vince claims Howard has always looked more mature than him, even in school (the accompanying flashback showing that while they were both children, Howard still had the appearance of a man in his late thirties).
• Mimpi Metropolitan: Since his actor was 28, Bambang doesn't really looks like he is 19-turning-20 (Melani's friend thinks he is in his 30s). His younger cousin Dian somehow looks even older.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: The biddies have the appearance and remaining life expectancy of elderly women, as they've willingly transferred their youth to general Alder.
• Mork & Mindy: Orkans are born looking old and grow younger looking as they age, so when they're old they look like babies. Jonathan Winters plays M&M's son in later seasons.
• New Girl: The episode "Kids" contains Jess taking care of her boyfriend's 14-year-old daughter, who is also one of her pupils, and begins to fall hard for Nick. Meanwhile Nick himself brings home a woman he meets in an art museum, and we later find, she isn't that much older than the little girl Jess is taking care of. (Nick knew she was in college, he just didn't know she was a college freshman.)
• The Office (US): Phyllis is frequently treated like an older woman in her 50s. In Season 2, Phyllis points out that she's actually the same age as Michael, having gone to the same High School. Michael at this point in the show, is 42. In Real Life, Phyllis's actress, Phyllis Smith, is actually 11 years older than Michael's actor, Steve Carell.
• Once Upon a Time: 28-year-old Emma Swan is stated to be 18 when she got pregnant with Henry. However, the flashback episode "Tallahassee" showed that her teenage self looked no different that herself in the present day, save for a pair of glasses and different hairstyle and clothes. She also looks no different than her present-day self in her jail flashbacks. Making this especially odd is that her 16-year-old self looks much younger.
  • Dwarfs hatch from eggs fully grown looking like middle aged men.
• The Onion News Network ran a piece about the downfall of "America's Wealthiest Meth Dealer" where the joke is depicting him as still almost or barely out of being "homeless", and apparently the tipping point was when the law turned his top lieutenant against him by offering him a cup of coffee — having been notable in the context of the homeless drug scene for "only" looking 63 at 35.
• Our Flag Means Death:
  • Jackie (played by Leslies Jones) asks Jim to guess her age, and they say 50. She then reveals that she's 25.
  • Episode four briefly shows Stede's birthdate, making him 29 at the time the show's set, the same as the real Stede Bonnet was. However, he's played by Rhys Darby, who's in his late 40s. The fact that Stede is often referred to as middle-aged in interviews doesn't make it any less confusing.
  • It's become a running joke that the real Israel "Izzy" Hands was 16 at the time the show is set, but is portrrayed by Con Oneill, who's over 50.
• The Outer Limits (1995): At the end of "In the Zone", Tanner and Jessica Brooks discover that Dr. Michael Chen, who appears to be in his mid-60s, is only 30-years-old. He had previously used his experimental treatment to tap into the power of the nervous system on himself and entered an accelerated time zone just as Tanner did.
• Party of Five Season 1 has a plot point where Julia - who is fifteen — can pass for over twenty-one to work in a bar with a fake ID. And she even has a fling with the bar's owner — who is not happy to discover that he's been seeing a teenager all this time. Her actress Neve Campbell was nineteen at the time.
• Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: Mackenzie Hartford looks like a 17- or 18-year-old when he first appears. Later in the series, he is revealed to be a 2-year-old android, which makes him the youngest ranger, even younger than Justin Stewart from Turbo. This was the subject of a lot of jokes among the fandom, leading fans to label Andrew Hartford as weird for creating a son who was already physically mature.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Cameron can easily pass herself off as a teenager or twenty-something, but she is nowhere near as old, having been modeled to assassinate John Connor in the future by assuming the form of a woman he knows.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures: Luke Smith, who is grown in an alien laboratory, is born in the first episode ("Invasion of the Bane") as 13/14-ish-year-old boy who is as capable as your average teen... in fact more. But he acts naive and innocent as he has no life experience.
• Scrubs: Parodied in one episode, when the Janitor takes offence at Carla thinking he's forty-five, explaining he looks older because "I drink and smoke heavily, and work with chemicals, and sleep on my face". He's forty-three.
• Shameless (US): Frank Gallagher is said to have been born in 1964, but is played by William H. Macy, who was born in 1950. Justified in that Frank is a notorious substance abuser.
• Sister, Sister: One episode featured Tamera falling for a cute boy on her bus, who invited her to his birthday party. To her horror, it was his 12th birthday.
  Boy's mom: Who wants to watch Aladdin?
• Space: Above and Beyond: The In Vitroes are decanted from their tanks with the apparent physical age of 18. Cooper Hawkes is just 6-years-old at the beginning of the series, with T.C. McQueen being considerably older, but still younger than his middle-aged appearance would indicate.
• Mi-nyeo Han from Squid Game claims to be 19 but looks to be about 50, presumably as a result of her tobacco addiction. She's referred to as "old lady" or "grandma" by more than one person she meets, much to her chagrin.
• Stargate SG-1: Another case of magical (or close enough) rapid aging is Adria, born from a regular character and aged into her apparent 20s in a matter of days.
• Stargate Atlantis: One episode features an elderly man who, when he dies, is revealed to be the son of another elderly man, despite the two appearing to be the same age. As it turns out, the guy is actually only 30-something; he's just unnaturally aged by letting his adopted Wraith daughter feed on him.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first to establish that Klingon children grow at a faster rate than humans, with a one year old Klingon child being the equivalent of a four year old human child. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine took it a step further and showed that an eight year old Klingon was the equivalent of a 16 year old human teenager and able to join the Klingon military.
• Star Trek: Voyager:
  • Kes looks like a 20-something... but she's not human; she's actually about 2-years-old when she joins up. Her species has an average lifespan of about 9 years, with the idea of making it to twelve being shocking.
  • Also, 20-25ish-year-old Seven of Nine has the emotional age of six when she joins the series, thanks to living as a Borg drone since that age. Her initial mannerisms and speech don't suggest it, but especially once you get to "The Raven", it's clear just how badly assimilation hurt her and how she hasn't been able to move on.
  • The Jem'Hadar of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are able to fight within hours of being born from their test tubes. No Jem'Hadar was lived past 30 - they're considered "honored elders" by the age of twenty because they were created with almost no survival instinct to be soldiers and/or cannon fodder for the Dominion.
    • Many Vorta, being clones, are also younger than they look. Consider Weyoun, who has a pretention for getting killed (often). Many of the Weyoun clones are merely months or even weeks old when we meet them, and *some* have lifespans shorter than a year.
• Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard has two examples:
  • The first one features a newly constructed Soong-type android that was deliberately made to look like an old man (thus allowing Brent Spiner to realistically portray it despite now being in his seventies) to give it a "wizened" appearance. Arguably a Zig-Zagged Trope as ultimately, Data's personality is resurrected in the android body which means that while the body is young its mind is not.
  • Also another Zig-Zagged case for Tuvok, who is 137 years old during his appearance in this show and has aged drastically since "Endgame" (due to Tim Russ being 66 at the time of this season's filming). In his appearances in Voyager he barely aged physically at all between 2293 to 2378, since Vulcans slowly age.
• Step by Step: In a 1994 episode centering on prom night for 17-year-old J.T. and 18-year-old Dana, J.T.'s friends set him up with a girl that could pass for 15 ... but to J.T.'s horror is actually 13! (A joke that in real life, could have gotten his buddies expelled from school for a very cruel, very sick joke.)
• Supernatural:
  • Jack looks like he's in his late teens. However, he was born into that body and by the midpoint of Season 12 only a few months have passed since his birth.
  • When Mary is resurrected in Season 12, she's chronologically in her early 60s. However, she died in her late 20s so it makes since that she doesn't look like a 60-year-old. However, the show used the same actor from Season 1 and the actress is now in her mid-40s and does not look like a 20-something-year-old. This makes Mary both older and younger than she looks.
• Super Sentai:
  • Has Yuusaku Hayakawa (a.k.a. MegaSilver), a 25-year-old who could pass for 30.
  • Ressha Sentai ToQger: The core members of the team turned out to really be kids all along but they were given more adult bodies in order to fight the Shadow Line.
• The Thundermans: Thanks to superhero growth spurts, the children of two supers grow much faster than normal children, being born a day after their mother gets pregnant. All of the Thunderman kids are younger than their initial physical ages of sixteen (Phoebe and Max), ten (Billy), and eight (Nora), though by how much is unknown. There is a definitive number for Chloe, who aged herself up to four years old in three months, much faster than any of her siblings did.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In "In His Image", Walter Ryder, Jr. reveals to Alan Talbot that he is an eight-day-old android.
• The Twilight Zone (1985): In "Our Selena is Dying", Debra Brockman and her cousin Diane are both in their late 20s or early 30s but have the appearance of women in their 70s as they have had their Life Energy stolen by Selena and Martha respectively.
• In Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, when Kimmy goes to a college party, she flirts with a student there, only for him to hand her a waiver. When she doesn't sign it, he calls his mother and gives the phone to Kimmy, who then learns that he's 17.
• V (1983): Elizabeth, the half-human half-alien "starchild" from this Sci-Fi series. Like scores of other "magical" children in TV-land, she grew rapidly after conception (the typical TV Express Delivery) and after birth, becoming first a pre-teen girl and then undergoing a metamorphosis blatantly scripted so that they could swap the girl actress for a 20-year-old actress in a white dress. She, being a starchild, had mystical healing powers! Even though neither of her parent races had such powers. Gah.
• Ciri is confirmed to be 12 in the first season of The Witcher (2019), but is played by the 17-year-old Freya Allan, who, while youthful, certainly doesn't look like a preteen. Jaskier also doesn't visibly age in the almost 20 years that the season passes through, but that's true to the books. And naturally all magic users, the Witchers included, stop visibly ageing somewhere from their 20s to 40s, depending on their personal preference.
• The X-Files:
  • Gillian Anderson was 25 when she started playing Agent Dana Scully, who looks (though this is mainly due to the way she dresses) and acts several years older.
  • In the revival episode "This", Mulder and Scully view the Lone Gunmen's graves at Arlington. Mulder sees Frohike's birth and death dates and asks Scully if he looked 57 when he died. Scully responds, "Frohike looked 57 the day he was born."
• The TV Land series Younger centers around this trope. A 40-year-old woman re-enters the job market after a divorce, only to find that nobody wants to hire someone her age. So she gets a makeover and passes for 26.

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