What The Cast Of The Goldbergs Is Doing Today

In 2013, ABC decided to take its viewers back to the '80s with the debut of "The Goldbergs." Created by Adam F. Goldberg, the series was based on the creator's real life as a pop-culture-obsessed kid growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As such, his entire family is represented in the series in one way or another, with all of their various quirks.

"I'm really happy that ABC loves those characters, because I think on other networks they'd be more worried that they were coming across not as complete winners," Goldberg told Bullz-Eye in 2014. "But ABC just embraces these characters, and maybe it's because they're real people, too. They're just having trust in me that the characters will still be loveable and winners in their own way."

ABC was right: "The Goldbergs" was a smash hit that ran for 10 seasons, and despite concluding in 2023, the series continues to be a favorite on streaming services. Here's what the cast of "The Goldbergs" is up to now.

As Beverly Goldberg, the (s)mother of Adam, Erica, and Barry, Wendi McLendon-Covey consistently delivered one of the most memorable comedic performances on prime-time TV during the run of ABC's "The Goldbergs," and the Critics' Choice Television Awards noticed, nominating her twice for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

McLendon-Covey joined the Los Angeles improv group The Groundlings in 2002, where she worked alongside such fellow female comedians as Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, her future "Bridesmaids" co-stars. By 2003, she had secured the role that would start the process of cementing her as a TV fixture: playing Deputy Clementine Johnson on "Reno 911!" After five seasons and a movie ("Reno 911!: Miami"), McLendon-Covey left the show, but when the series was revived in 2020, she opted to return, remaining until its conclusion in 2022.

After 10 seasons, "The Goldbergs" ended, and McLendon-Covey promptly moved on to a new comedy on a new network: "St. Denis Medical" on NBC, playing medical center director Joyce Henderson. Indeed, she got the script for the series four hours after finding out that "The Goldbergs" was canceled. "I was, like, 'Yeah, I'll read it, but I don't know, I'm just not in the headspace of being able to really concentrate right now,'" she told Awards Radar. "But I read it, and I thought, 'God, this Joyce is kind of an oddball, and I think I love her. Let's get into it a little bit and find out more.' I just found her irresistible. I'm lucky that came my way when it did, because I would have gone insane."

At the time Sean Giambrone secured the role of Adam Goldberg, the character who serves as the heart and soul of the '80s-set sitcom, his filmography consisted only of a handful of commercials and a singular film role in the indie movie "I Heart Shakey." As the youngest of the Goldberg kids, however, Giambrone took center stage, getting a chance to spread his wings as an actor and comedian while also enduring the trials of going through puberty on prime-time TV.

"Adam [F. Goldberg, series creator] opened up to me and said, 'This is what we're going to do,'" Giambrone told The Virginian-Pilot. "He said that he'd been looking forward to doing some of these story lines, but that the age had been a tough time for him, so he's been very sympathetic. But I'm OK with it. As long as it plays well and people like it, then I'll love doing it."

During the 10-season run of "The Goldbergs," Giambrone found his way into a side gig: doing voice work for animated series such as "Clarence," "Solar Opposites," and "Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous." Although the latter series concluded in 2022, Giambrone reprised his role as Ben Pincus in the sequel series, "Jurassic World: Chaos Theory," which debuted in 2025. In addition, he can be seen in two 2026 live-action films: "Pizza Movie" and "Slay."

It's no easy task to play a character who's as egotistical as he is idiotic and yet still make him lovable in the long run, but Troy Gentile achieved that with his performance as Barry, the oldest of the sons on "The Goldbergs." "It's not even acting at a certain point," Gentile's co-star, Sam Lerner, told The Virginian-Pilot. "It's becoming. He is that role. He's mastered it. And it's amazing to play off of him, because you really never know what he's going to do, so it elicits real, genuine reactions out of you when you're acting opposite him."

Gentile made his on-camera debut in the 2005 remake of "The Bad News Bears," playing Matthew Hooper, which he followed by playing a young Jack Black in two consecutive films: "Nacho Libre" and "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny." From there, he appeared in small roles in several other comedies, including "Good Luck Chuck" and "Pineapple Express," as well as in one-off episodes of "Entourage" and "Hawthorne," before securing his role as Barry Goldberg.

When "The Goldbergs" ended, Gentile didn't rush right back into another series, but he has still continued his acting career, appearing in a supporting role in the 2025 film "A Breed Apart." Beyond that, he hasn't done anything else in front of the camera, but he regularly posts on Instagram from various locations around the world, so he's clearly not letting any moss grow under his feet.

Hayley Orrantia made her film and TV debuts in the same year — 2011 — but while only a handful of people saw the indie film "Cooper and the Castle Hills Gang," several million viewers caught Orrantia when she appeared as a contestant on the first season of "The X Factor." Music would continue to be a key part of her life over the subsequent years, but it was being cast on "The Goldbergs" as daughter Erica Goldberg that transformed her career and brought her mainstream recognition as an actress.

Although the majority of the characters on "The Goldbergs" were based on real people from creator Adam F. Goldberg's life, Erica was actually a gender-swapped version of Goldberg's brother, Eric, in order to mix things up for the series. "Adam told me at the beginning, as season one was unfolding, my character didn't really have any specific storylines at the top," Orrantia told Josh at the Movies in 2021. "I think it's because he expressed that he didn't have an older sister. He didn't really know what to pull from. It took some time to really shape what Erica's story was going to look like. I loved this, because I was able to tell him about my love of music and that became a big part of the character."

Throughout the run of "The Goldbergs," Orrantia took on other roles, such as "Christmas is Canceled," and recorded and released music, including her 2019 debut EP, "The Way Out." Although she hasn't released anything full-length since then, she has continued to issue singles, the most recent being 2025's "Gut Punch."

George Segal, who played Albert "Pops" Solomon, came into "The Goldbergs" with the most impressive filmography of anyone in the series, which stands to reason when you consider that his first TV appearance was in 1960 in a televised play called "The Closing Door." Although he worked on the small screen here and there throughout the '60s, it was in film where he really found his fame, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the 1966 film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" During the '70s, he worked with a variety of high-profile actors, including Barbra Streisand ("The Owl and the Pussycat"), Robert Redford ("The Hot Rock"), Elliott Gould ("California Split"), and Jane Fonda ("Fun with Dick and Jane").

By the '80s, Segal began shifting toward television, starring in short-lived series like "Take Five" and "Murphy's Law" before eventually landing on a winner with "Just Shoot Me," which began in 1997 and kept him gainfully employed for seven seasons and 148 episodes. After its conclusion, he bounced around a bit, finding his way into another short-lived series ("Retired at 35"), but when he was handed the script for "The Goldbergs," he knew he'd found a winner. "It's great to be a part of something that I think is really funny," Segal told the A.V. Club. "Television is full of stuff that a lot of different people think is funny, or else it wouldn't be on, but this time they hit my chord, my bell."

The heartbreaking death of Segal occurred on March 23, 2021, during the eighth season of "The Goldbergs." The series honored him at the conclusion of his final episode with a series of clips spotlighting his most memorable moments as Pops.

As Murray Goldberg, the furniture-selling father of Adam, Barry, and Erica, Jeff Garlin came into "The Goldbergs" with almost as much comedy credibility as his TV wife, Wendi McLendon-Covey, thanks to his long-running role as Jeff Greene on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Garlin got his start in stand-up comedy in Chicago before joining the improv group known as The Second City, after which his acting career began to take off. However, it was the role of "Curb" combined with credits like "Mad About You," "Daddy Day Care," and "Arrested Development," not to mention voice work in "Wall-E," "ParaNorman," and the "Toy Story" franchise, that raised his profile to the point of being able to secure the series regular role on "The Goldbergs."

During the show's ninth season, it came to light that Garlin had allegedly engaged in a pattern of verbal and physical conduct on set that made people uncomfortable. Addressing the allegations with Vanity Fair, Garlin said, "As a comedian, if somebody is offended by what I say I, all I can say is, I'm sorry. Okay? I have never physically come at anyone, for any reason." Nonetheless, Garlin left the series before the end of season nine in the wake of an HR investigation. As a result, the series' tenth season began with the death of his character.

After leaving "The Goldbergs," Garlin returned to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" for its final season in 2024. In addition to continuing his stand-up career, he also reprised the role of Buttercup for "Toy Story 5."

Amanda Joy "AJ" Michalka got her start in acting at 12, making her debut in an episode of "Passions." Despite working steadily as an actress throughout the 2000s, it was music that really caused her career to take off. AJ and her sister, Alyson "Aly" Michalka, teamed up to form a duo called — what else? — Aly & AJ, releasing their debut album "Into the Rush" in 2005 and scoring a top-20 hit with 2007's "Potential Breakup Song." Upon returning to acting, high-profile films like "The Lovely Bones," "Secretariat," and "Super 8" paved the way for Michalka to score the role of Lainey Lewis, the love of Barry Goldberg's life, on "The Goldbergs."

In 2019, Michalka stepped away from her status as a series regular on "The Goldbergs" to star in the spinoff "Schooled," which fast-forwarded to the '90s and focused on Lainey as she returned home after failing to make it as a rock star and became a music teacher at her alma mater, William Penn Academy. Although "Schooled" only lasted for two seasons, Michalka never returned to "The Goldbergs" as a regular cast member, although she did continue to appear as a guest star for the remainder of the show's run.

Since the end of "The Goldbergs," Michalka has focused predominantly on music, reuniting with her sister to release two new Aly & AJ albums (see what the duo is up to now): 2023's "With Love From" and 2025's "Silver Deliverer." In late 2025, however, it was announced that Michalka would return to acting as a cast member of the fourth season of HBO's "The White Lotus."

If you're an animation fan, then you might well have known Sam Lerner's voice long before he was cast as Geoff Schwartz, one of Barry's best friends and Erica's eventual husband. In addition to playing Chowder in the 2006 animated film "Monster House," he also voiced Zak Saturday in the Cartoon Network series "The Secret Saturdays." Lerner actually started his acting career in live action, making his TV debut in a 2003 episode of "Malcolm in the Middle," but he wouldn't score his first recurring role until 2011, when he appeared in 13 episodes over the three-season run of "Suburgatory."

Lerner's decision to become an actor didn't require Nostradamus to foretell: His father, Ken Lerner, famously played Principal Flutie on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," while his uncle, Michael Lerner, was an Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actor for his work in "Barton Fink." From 2017 until the end of the run of "The Goldbergs," Ken actually played Lou Schwartz, Geoff's father.

Since wrapping up his role as Geoff Schwartz, Lerner has only appeared in one film: Netflix's "11817," a sci-fi horror flick directed by Louis Leterrier. That said, he executive-produced the 2025 Blumhouse/Platinum Dunes thriller "Drop," with another film, "How to Rob a Bank," on the horizon.

Kenny Ridwan's role on "The Goldbergs" stood out for one very specific reason: He was always referred to by his full name. No, seriously, even Dave Kim's own mother called him "Dave Kim." As one of Adam's classmates, Ridwan regularly appeared on the series throughout its first nine seasons, then downshifted to only a handful of episodes in the show's 10th and final season.

Ridwan decided that he wanted to become an actor when he was still in single digits. "I actually heard this ad when I was six/seven for this acting school, and I was, like, 'Mom, I want to be Asian Tom Cruise,'" he told Hidden Remote in 2018. "The rest is history." He made both his film and TV debuts in 2012, appearing in "Anita Ho" and "Animal Practice," respectively, but by 2014, he'd actually secured recurring roles on two series: "The Goldbergs" and the Nickelodeon superhero sitcom "The Thundermans."

By the time "The Goldbergs" wrapped up its run, Ridwan had appeared on a total of 98 episodes of the series. Since then, he has reprised his "Thundermans" role for a reunion movie ("The Thundermans Return") and for an episode of the sequel series, "The Thundermans: Undercover," and he also popped up in the 2024 feature film "Prom Dates."

Although he can be heard in most of the episodes of "The Goldbergs," Patton Oswalt never appeared on the series himself, instead merely serving as the narrator of the show, i.e., the adult version of Adam Goldberg, played in the series by Sean Giambrone. In an interview with Indiewire, Oswalt described it as the "best job ever," an assessment which came on the heels of the interviewer musing that he doesn't even have to wear pants while doing it.

Oswalt got his start as a stand-up comedian, hitting the road on weekends while attending the University of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in the late 1980s, but by the early 1990s, he had begun the process of easing his way into an acting career, starting with an appearance as a video store clerk on an episode of "Seinfeld." By 1998, Oswalt had found his way into a recurring role on the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens," playing Spence Olchin for more than 120 episodes.

Given the limited amount of heavy lifting required for his role on "The Goldbergs," Oswalt continued to tour his stand-up comedy throughout the show's run while also maintaining supporting roles on such series as "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," "Veep," "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and "Veronica Mars," not to mention series-regular roles on "A.P. Bio," "Happy!," and "M.O.D.O.K." Since the end of "The Goldbergs," Oswalt has been part of the cast of the limited series "Manhunt" and the animated series "Adventures in Wonder Park," hosted the Prime Video game show "The 1% Club," and appeared in "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire."