What The Step By Step Cast Looks Like Today

It might not make too many lists of the best '90s TV shows, but "Step by Step" — like the rest of its TGIF brethren — wasn't trying to push new boundaries in small-screen comedy. It was a light, fun, wholesome show for families to watch together on Friday nights over pizza while discussing which Blockbuster rental to watch afterward. Another entry in the blended family sitcom formula made famous by "The Brady Bunch," "Step by Step" followed a divorced dad named Frank Lambert (Patrick Duffy) and a widowed mom named Carol Foster (Suzanne Somers) who get married and bring their three existing children each into their newly combined family of eight.

"Step by Step" ran for seven seasons on ABC, with the core ensemble losing Carol's sister and mother after Season 1 but eventually adding various cousins, friends, and of course, a seventh child into the fold as the show went on. Duffy and Somers were already established television veterans at the time, with Frank and Carol's children played by a mix of unknown child actors and a couple who already had shows and movies under their belts. Similarly, the main and recurring cast members of "Step by Step" are made up of actors who stayed busy in the industry, those who only did a few more projects before stepping away, and some who were all but done acting after the show. 

With that in mind, seeing what they look like these days and checking into what they've been up to since "Step by Step" ended provides quite the mixed bag of results. 

Having first gained sitcom fame on "My Two Dads" — an '80s show with a dark side that was perhaps a bit much for a lighthearted family sitcom — Staci Keanan added another hit series to her repertoire when she was cast as Dana Foster on "Step by Step." Dana was not only Carol's oldest but the Foster/Lambert clan's eldest child overall. She is a bit narcissistic, and also has a lot of trouble initially bonding with the Lamberts, especially stepbrother J.T. and stepfather Frank. While she does soften a bit as the show goes on, especially in regard to accepting her new step family, Dana never really stops being the stereotypical stuck-up teenage girl that '90s sitcoms were so found of portraying.

During her time on "Step by Step," Keanan also popped up in episodes of "Boy Meets World" (as Dana Foster), "Cybil," "Diagnosis: Murder," and "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." She also did a few small indie movies throughout the '90s and 2000s, with her only major studio film being a cameo in the 2010 comedy "You Again." After leaving acting behind in 2010, Keanan attended law school and is now a district attorney and law professor under her birth name, Anastasia Sagorsky. In 2024, she started a "Step by Step" rewatch podcast called "Keanan and Lakin Give You Déjà Vu" with co-star Christine Lakin. 

Every family sitcom, especially during that era, had to have the cliche nerd character who is socially awkward, obsessed with science and computers, wears oversized glasses, and dresses a little too formally for his age. On "Step by Step," that role was fulfilled by Mark Foster (Christopher Castile), who hit every stereotype on that checklist and then some. Just to hammer home Mark being of that archetype, he even teamed up with Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) of "Family Matters" on a science project during one of the many TGIF crossover episodes that the programming block was so fond of doing.

"Step by Step" was Christopher Castile's biggest acting gig during his fairly short career in the business. Beyond a few single-episode appearances on other shows, Castile also voiced Eugene Horiwitz on "Hey Arnold!" and played Ted Newton in the first two "Beethoven" films. Other than a recurring role on the Christian radio drama "Adventures in Odyssey" between 1995 and 2002, Castile mostly retired from acting after "Step by Step" ended. He is now a high school teacher who lives a private life, though he did do an episode of Staci Keanan and Christine Lakin's podcast and has been part of a couple of "Step by Step" cast reunion events. 

1990s kids crossed paths with the work of Jason Marsden throughout their childhood, from his time voicing Binx the cat in "Hocus Pocus" to playing Max in "A Goofy Movie" and its sequel. And that's just his memorable voice roles, which dooesn't even get into the various shows from that era in which he actually appears on screen. In addition to stints as Jason on "Boy Meets World" and Nelson Burkland on "Full House," Marsden spent three seasons as a main cast member of "Step by Step" as J.T.'s best friend — and later, Dana's boyfriend — Rich Halke. 

Beyond the '90s, Marsden's on-screen appearances slowed down, but his voice worked amped up significantly. He has over 100 voice credits to his name across film, television, and video games, including such iconic characters as Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Nermal, Tak, and Peter Pan. In addition, Marsden had the priviledge of being in the English dub voice cast for "Spirited Away," considered to be one of the greatest animated films of all time. Marsden is also a wellness-based business entrepreneur, having opened both a yoga studio and a wellness retreat center in California. 

The middle Foster child and the second of Carol's biological daughters is Karen. Karen was the token airhead character on "Step by Step," frequently confused but often perfectly blissful in her ignorance. She was also the fashionista and shopaholic of the family. Additionally, an ongoing aspect of Karen was her aspiration to be a model, something that was certainly taken into account when casting Angela Watson to play her.

Before becoming an actress, Watson was not only a child beauty queen but a highly successful one at that — winning literally hundreds of awards during a span of just a few years. After winning a model of the year award in 1987, Watson decided she had sufficiently conquered that world and decided to give acting a shot. Other than "Step by Step," Watson did a few small roles but largely left the industry behind in the mid-2000s. However, she did return to acting in 2020 with her first work in live theater. 

As a result of her parents spending millions of dollars of the money she earned acting, and having to endure multiple court battles to make things right, Watson now runs an organization called Child Actors Supporting Themselves (CAST) that helps provides accountants, legal aid, and other such support to child actors. 

As mentioned in the introduction, Season 1 of "Step by Step" saw two extended family members as part of the main cast that were subsequently shed beginning with Season 2. One of those family members was Penny Baker (Patrika Darbo), Carol's sister and the kids' aunt. She was one of the employees of Carol's in-home beauty salon, and was depicted as being quite fond of men. It's not entirely known why Aunt Penny was written out after the first season, but it's easy to assume that there were already enough main cast members among the immediate Foster/Lambert family without also having multiple extended relatives in the mix week after week.

Not that Patrika Darbo was hurting for work. The prolific character actor had already appeared in numerous films, including "Troop Beverly Hills," The 'Burbs," "Gremlins 2: The New Batch," and "Dutch." By the end of the decade, she began her stint as Nancy Wesley on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives," a role she played for over 450 episodes between 1998 and 2022. Darbo also played the recurring role of Shirley Spectra on both "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young and the Restless" between 2019 and 2021. 

As Frank's only daughter, and growing up around all boys between the time that Frank's wife left and he moved in with Carol, it isn't a big surprise that Alicia Lambert (Christine Lakin) was kind of a tomboy. Or that she preferred to go by "Al" for short, almost never being referred to as Alicia. She was also the Lambert child that struggled the most with accepting her stepfamily, similar to the way Dana was the biggest opponent to harmony between the blended family from the Foster side. 

Speaking of Dana and Al's similarities, as mentioned, Lakin co-hosts a "Step by Step" rewatch podcast with Staci Keanan. But unlike Keanan, Lakin remained a steadily working actor after "Step by Step" ended. She appeared frequently on the big screen going into the new millennium, appearing in movies like "Who's Your Daddy?", "The Game Plan," "The Hottie and the Nottie," "Race to Witch Mountain," "Valentine's Day," and alongside Keanan in "You Again." On television, in addition to numerous one-off appearances, Lakin has had main or recurring roles on "Family Guy," "Hollywood Darlings," and "Melissa & Joey." When she's not acting, Lakin is a prolific television director and audiobook narrator.

While "Step by Step" shed a grandma and an aunt early on, the show didn't completely do away with all extended relatives. Cody Lambert (Sasha Mitchell), Frank's nephew, stuck around until Season 5 as a main cast member. Cody was one of the show's breakout characters, with his goofball surfer dude vibe making him the perfect vessel for punchline delivery and physical comedy. But Cody was gone for the last two seasons of "Step by Step" — save for a guest appearance in Season 7 — when legal issues stemming from domestic violence allegations caused producers to fire Mitchell.

Just as Mitchell was launching his television career, he was also beginning his three-movie run as David Sloane in the "Kickboxer" series of martial arts films. He has continued to act sporadically since then, with appearances on "ER," "JAG," and "NYPD Blue" as well as the movie "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star." Beginning around the mid-2010s, Mitchell had mostly shifted away from the entertainment industry in favor of a more private life. In September 2025, The Sun took the first public photos of Mitchell in seven years, leaving what was described as a "normal job." 

The latest addition to the "Step by Step" ensemble in terms of recurring cast members was Samantha Milano, who played Alexandra Adi during Seasons 6 and 7. She was J.T.'s girlfriend. It seems likely that she was added to sort of rescue J.T. as a character, as his initial slight aloofness had devolved a bit too much and he needed something to give him a fresh spin.

Alexandra Adi was never a household name, and "Step by Step" was her most high-profile role. Two episodes of "CSI: Miami" and three voicing a character on "Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles" are the only other significant television roles she had. As far as movies go, Adi has a few big films under her belt like "American Pie" and "Jawbreaker" — but she played minor roles like "Central Girl" and "Cheerleader #1," respectively, in those movies. 2012 marked both Adi's most recent screen credit and her last major public appearances, with almost nothing known about what she's been up to since. 

The oldest Lambert son, as well as the second-oldest child in the Lambert/Foster family, was John Thomas "J.T." Lambert (Brandon Call). As mentioned, J.T. was always a bit on the aloof side, as well as usually having some sort of scheme in the works to make money, get popular, etc. — schemes that almost always blew up in his face. As also mentioned, he started dating Samantha in Season 6, and their relationship became central to his character for the final two seasons of "Step by Step."

By the time Call joined "Step by Step," he had already been in the main cast of two previous shows. First was the 1987 fantasy sitcom "The Charmings," and then he played Hobie Buchannon for Season 1 of "Baywatch." Jeremy Jackson played Hobie from Season 2 on as Call moved over to "Step by Step." After being quite the busy child actor, Call finished up his time on "Step by Step" and decided to call it a day on that career, as well as public life in general. 

Call's "Step by Step" co-star, Christine Lakin, later theorized that Call left the industry in part because of a road rage-inspired shooting he was the victim of in 1996. As she told People, "that will change you as a person, a traumatic event like that. I feel like he just really had no interest in being in the spotlight anymore." 

When you think of Bronson Pinchot and TV shows, "Perfect Strangers" is what comes to mind first. On that show, he played Balki Bartokomous for eight seasons. And from that point on, Pinchot became something of a mainstay of the beloved TGIF programming block, from "Perfect Strangers" to the TV adaptation of "Clueless" to his recurring stint on "Step by Step." In Pinchot played Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux, who was a partner in Carol's beauty salon business in Season 6. 

When you think of Bronson Pinchot and movies, his scene-stealing appearance as Serge in "Beverly Hills Cop" is what comes to mind first. He reprised the role in "Beverly Hills Cop III" and "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F." Most recently, Pinchot was a main cast member of the 2025 Netflix mystery comedy series "The Resident." Pinchot is also a multi-award-winning audiobook narrator, and has done voice work for numerous animated films and televisions shows. 

The patriarch of the Lambert/Foster clan was Frank Lambert (Patrick Duffy), who was very much the typical family sitcom dad of the era. That means a lot of denim shirts, a lot of jokes about how much he hates taking his wife to the ballet, and a lot of wrapping up the conflict of an episode with a wise, paternal monologue.

Before "Step by Step," Duffy's claim to fame was playing Bobby Ewing on the prime time soap opera "Dallas." More specifically, he was part of one of television's all time most ridiculous ways a character ever got killed off and brought back — by having Bobby's death and season-long absence explained away as having all just been in another character's dream. Duffy apparently enjoys the world of soap operas, as he would later become a series regular on "The Bold and the Beautiful," as well as reprising the role of Bobby Ewing on the 2012 revival of "Dallas." Earlier in 2025, he was seen in the neo-noir "Hollywood Grit."

Perhaps the most unrealistic aspect of "Step by Step" was that Carol Foster (Suzanne Somers) was always pretty chill, despite having six children who all had main character energy and a husband who was often a big kid himself — not to mention later having a new baby that got added into the mix.

Though Patrick Duffy was equally famous at the time, Somers was perhaps more well known to the type of audience that would've been watching "Step by Step" to begin with. She played Chrissy Snow for the first five seasons of "Three's Company," becoming one of the biggest stars in television for a time. She later became the queen of informercials when she was hired as the spokesperson for the hugely popular ThighMaster exercise device. 

In 2023, the TV icon died at age 76 after complications from breast cancer. When most of the main cast of "Step by Step" reunited in 2024 for a '90s nostalgia convention, Somers's absence loomed large. Christine Lakin summed up the casts' feeling about her loss (via People), saying, "She was so sweet and loving. Her heart was so big, and we really miss her."