Most kids spend their days playing with friends and learning to write in cursive.
But by the time Soleil Moon Frye was eight years old, she was a show-biz veteran starring in her own TV show, NBC's Punky Brewster . At 15, she underwent a well-publicized breast reduction to ease some back problems. After graduating high school, she moved to New York to attend the New School for Social Research, studying social psychology, literature and drama. It was during this time that she made her directorial debut with the feature Lunch Time Special , which she wrote and codirected with her brother, Meeno Peluce. She also won raves for her performance on the L.A. stage in The Housekeeper and Orestes .