Nostalgia Trip: He debuted at number one on the Aussie charts, then Lee Harding faded away
Who doesn't love a walk down memory lane?
Let's take a look back at the faces we grew up with – from fashion icons to the child stars of our favourite movies – to see what they've been up to in the years since.
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What happened to... Lee Harding?
There was a time when you couldn't turn on the radio in Australia without hearing Lee Harding belting out a tune about a condiment, of all things.
Specifically, wasabi – which also happened to be the title of his debut single after making it big on a TV singing contest.
The track peaked at number one on the Australian charts and in the ultimate era of emo boy bands (AKA 2005), it looked like Harding was going to be the next big thing in Australian pop-punk.
But almost 20 years on, most Aussies haven't heard his voice in decades. So where is Harding now?
Victorian-based Harding got his start on Australian Idol in 2005, auditioning for the show's third season after performing with a cover band called Bedrock for several years.
He was actually a fan of the band before joining, having been quoted on his own website as saying, "I'd been going to see them since I was 16. I saw them every single week so I knew every song when I joined Bedrock."
By the time he got to the Idol audition room he was pretty confident and he managed to impress the judges enough to make it onto the show proper.
Harding ended up placing third behind Kate DeAraugo and Emily Williams.
After Idol, he signed with Sony BMG and put out his debut single Wasabi, which actually debuted at number one on the ARIA Charts. It was the eighth highest charting single in 2006 and Harding's future looked bright.
Harding's debut album, What's Wrong with This Picture?, dropped in February 2006 and peaked at number 3 on the Aussie charts, but the following year he and Sony BMG parted ways.
The record label told Take 40 Australia that it had a "line up of priority artists for the year, and he was not one of them", so Harding's contract ended.
The singer subsequently stepped back from public life, though he continued to make music with Bedrock and work on other projects with bands Rock City 2 and the Patience Project, which released albums in 2007 and 2011 respectively.
When he wasn't recording of performing, Harding was playing the role of family man. He welcomed daughter Blaize Aria Harding in 2012, then Son Ryker Kingsley Harding (pictured) arrived in 2019.
Eventually, Harding returned to the spotlight in 2019 with a stint on the eighth season of The Voice Australia, which was an all-stars season.
He performed at the blind auditions and landed a spot on Boy George's team and made it all the way to the top nine before he was eliminated.
"SO PROUD RIGHT NOW!!!" he wrote on Facebook after he was eliminated.
"This experience has been nothing short of amazing!!! Now I get to go home with the fam, and celebrate!! Thankyou to EVERYONE that believed in me and supported me!! You guys are the STARS!!"
He gave a sweet shout out to his family before promising fans: "STAY TUNED!! THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!! X"
Harding continued to perform with Bedrock after The Voice (and after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live music in Australia for months on end), but in May 2024 he shocked fans by announcing he and the band had parted ways.
"Unfortunately, I have decide to split ways with the one big constant in my life..." he penned in a long announcement post.
"I have had the best times, and some of my fondest memories (and for people that know me personally; having a memory of anything I've done, for me is miraculous... haha)."
Harding also revealed that during his first weekend performing as the band's lead singer he got fired two times over because he didn't "have it" and never would.
He went on to share memories from the last 20 years of his life, starting with Australian Idol, all the way to today.
What happened to... Chris Klein?
For a certain generation, his face is immediately recogniseable.
Chris Klein was part of the cast of 1999 gross-out comedy American Pie, starring some of the hottest young things in Hollywood at the time.
He played Oz, a lacrosse star who unexpectedly falls for Heather (Mena Suvari), a member of the school choir.
Klein was also responsible for delivering the line "like warm apple pie", which sparks one of the movie's more... memorable scenes.
Though he returned for other instalments in the American Pie series, the actor wasn't invited to star in 2003's American Wedding, a move that baffled him.
"I sure wish that they had invited me to play Oz at the wedding," he admitted in a 2012 interview.
"Unfortunately, that was a creative decision made way above my pay grade.
"A lot of people assume [I decided not to do it]. Unfortunately, that's not the case."
Klein did, however, return for the following movie American Reunion in 2012.
His roles in American Pie, Election, Here On Earth and Say It Isn't So propelled Klein to heartthrob status.
So, you can imagine the frenzy when he began dating another icon of the Y2K era, Katie Holmes.
It's believed the two actors got together in early 2000, and they announced their engagement in 2003.
"We were like the prom king and queen. We had a similar upbringing and we were going through the same experience [in Hollywood]," Klein told People magazine of their time together.
In another interview, he recalled, "We were kids, man … It was late '90s, young Hollywood, and we were having a good time."
Cute a couple as they were, Holmes and Klein announced their split in 2005.
When the Dawson's Creek actress' relationship with Tom Cruise was revealed weeks later, there was speculation she had left Klein for the Mission: Impossible star.
However, Klein dismissed the claims: "Her being with Tom has nothing to do with her and I discontinuing our relationship."
Here's a silly, goofy photo of Klein from his Instagram page, offering a glimpse into his life as a dad of young kids.
"Isla- 'Daddy will you hold my Birthday Princess Crown?' Me- 'You Betcha!!!'" he captioned the photo, shared on his daughter's third birthday in 2021.
Klein is still gracing our screens; his most recent credits have been the TV shows The Flash and Sweet Magnolias.
The latter began in 2020 and has been renewed for a fourth season.
What happened to... Osgood Perkins?
David Kidney was a lovable side character in Legally Blonde.
He was essentially there to add some (extra) comic relief and highlight Elle's kindness.
And while you might think you don't know much about the actor that played him, Osgood 'Oz' Perkins, you probably do.
Perkins made a name for himself in the early 2000s as a character actor before later cementing his role in showbusiness as a director.
But he's not the first of the Perkins family to hit the big time. His dad did it first - and you've probably seen one of his movies.
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