Devon Odessa

I’ve said for some time now that there needs to be a class for former child stars, so they know how to grow up without flaming out. Devon Odessa, it seems, is one of the ones who could talk about walking away. Not quite as dramatically as A.J. Langer, but her work over the last quarter-century or show is sporadic, and her Instagram is mostly full of pictures of her family. With the occasional meet-up with her former costars, of course. Is she happy? Lord, I don’t know. That’s none of my business anyway. But she’s walked away for the most part, and she hasn’t blown up the headlines in any kind of messy way.

Devon Odessa Young was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. At some point, she moved to LA; her TV debut was on the TBS show Rocky Road, which I have absolutely no memory of despite its having lasted three seasons. A little bit more noteworthy are episodes of Highway to Heaven and The Facts of Life, with appearances in the movies Pumpkinhead and Uncle Buck (as additional voices, somehow). She was in a Marky Mark video. She did three episodes of Small Wonder, all as the same character.

She said she was used to being typecast as the bad girl, and she read for Rayanne. Then they had her read for Sharon Cherski instead. Sharon was the expected friend. Her mother was friends with Patty, so obviously she and Angela should be friends. And they were, until Angela decided she needed to learn who she was herself and became someone Sharon wasn’t. She had the right extracurriculars and the right boyfriend and she dressed and acted the right way. Even if their mothers hadn’t been friends, Sharon was probably who Patty wanted Angela to be.

Who did Sharon want to be? I’m not sure she knew yet. That’s okay; Sharon’s the kind of girl who probably had to go away to figure out who she was, which makes her planned season two pregnancy plot all the more intriguing. As played by Odessa, Sharon was a bright girl who was used to doing what was expected of her. And therefore it’s not unreasonable that she’s curious about Rayanne. She doesn’t want to be Rayanne, but she wants to know what it would be like. Sharon has sex with her boyfriend, but Rayanne has sex with who she wants to when she wants to, including being allowed to say no.

I do wonder why Claire Danes is the only one of the three main girls to have gone on to any kind of major career. Odessa did do a few other things, and I’m not saying she should be acting if she doesn’t want to. But characters like Sharon and Rayanne took a deft touch as well. They were characters more intriguing than a lot of leads on a lot of other shows about teenagers. Yes, that was to do with how young Claire Danes was when she was cast. But it was also the quality of acting from the other actresses. It would be easy not to care about Sharon, but Devon Odessa wouldn’t let us.