Step Up, the 2006 dance drama that made stars of Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, turns 20 this year, and the fortunes of its cast have taken wildly different paths since. The film grossed $114.2 million (£84.73 million), spawned four sequels and a television series, and remains a fan favourite thanks to the real-life chemistry between its two leads.
Tatum played Tyler Gage, a self-taught hip-hop dancer who meets privileged ballerina Nora Clark, played by Dewan, while doing community service at her performing arts school. Their on-screen romance became a real one, and the pair married in 2009.
Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan's romance and split
Tatum, now 46, went on to become a leading man and producer, moving from Step Up into Magic Mike, 21 Jump Street, She's the Man and the G.I. Joe franchise. He and Dewan welcomed daughter Everly in 2013 before shocking fans by announcing their separation in 2018, citing irreconcilable differences.
Since the divorce, Tatum dated English singer Jessie J from 2018 to 2020, then began a relationship with actress Zoë Kravitz in 2021. The couple got engaged in 2023 and he starred in her directorial debut, Blink Twice, but they ended their engagement and split that same year. He is now with 26-year-old girlfriend Inka Williams.
Jenna Dewan's career and new family
Dewan, 45, worked as a backing dancer for Janet Jackson, P!nk and Christina Aguilera before Step Up launched her acting career. She has since hosted and judged NBC's World of Dance, Fox's Flirty Dancing and CBS's Come Dine With Me, and appeared in ABC's The Rookie and Superman & Lois.
She moved on with actor Steve Kazee amid a long and contentious divorce from Tatum, and the couple now have two children, four-year-old son Callum and two-year-old daughter Rhiannon.
The Tatum-Dewan divorce settlement was delayed for years by a dispute over royalties from the Magic Mike franchise, which Tatum co-financed with director Steven Soderbergh after a $7 million investment turned into a $167 million global hit. The franchise, inspired by Tatum's own experience as a stripper, expanded into two sequels, an HBO reality show and a Las Vegas live show. The pair have since reached a binding settlement resolving the dispute over intellectual property and earnings.
Mario's music comeback
Mario Dewar Barrett, who played Miles Darby, is now 39. The R&B singer landed his first record deal at 14 despite a difficult childhood, and his self-titled debut album was a commercial success. He earned a Grammy nomination for his signature song "Let Me Love You," written by Ne-Yo, and toured with Destiny's Child.
He went on to act opposite Hilary Swank, Taraji P Henson and Tatum, and competed on season six of Dancing With the Stars in 2008. Speaking to Nylon about landing the Step Up role, he recalled meeting casting director Ann Fletcher: "She was like this fireball of energy and we just clicked. We were talking about music and performing arts, and because the school that the movie was based off of was a performing arts school in Baltimore there's a lot of discussion there, and I think that part was just literally made for me and it just worked out." He added that his character was based on Quincy Jones.
Mario's career faded from public view amid cancelled albums, management disagreements and record label issues, but he made a comeback last year with acclaimed performances on The Masked Singer and his first new album in six years.
Drew Sidora's divorce battle
Drew Sidora, 41, played Nora's best friend Lucy in Step Up and went on to a recurring role on Disney's That's So Raven and more than 20 other films, later joining the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
She is currently in a bitter divorce battle with husband Ralph Pittman, 43. Sidora filed for divorce in February 2023 and the case has yet to be finalised more than three years later. The couple share two children, ten-year-old son Machai and eight-year-old daughter Aniya, and Sidora has a 13-year-old son, Josiah, from a previous relationship.
A judge has ordered Sidora to vacate the home she shared with Pittman, but she has said she lacks the financial resources for a new property and that she and her oldest child will be homeless if the decision is not reconsidered. The split came after nine years of marriage, with both parties calling the union "irretrievably broken." Sidora lists the date of separation as 23 February, while Pittman says it was 19 February, just days after the two appeared smitten at his birthday party in a 13 February social media post.
Rachel Griffiths and Damaine Radcliff
Rachel Griffiths, 57, who played Director Gordon, went on to earn Emmy nominations for Brothers & Sisters and previously an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress after her breakout in Six Feet Under.
She has three children, Banjo, 21, Adelaide, 19, and Clem, 15, with husband Andrew Taylor, and has since directed episodes of Nowhere Boys as well as the feature film Ride Like a Girl, a biopic of jockey Michelle Payne that was nominated for Best Film, Best Actress and Best Score at the 2019 AACTA Awards.
Damaine Radcliff, 47, who played Marcus "Mac" Carter, later starred in the sports drama Glory Road and moved behind the camera, serving as executive producer on Rambo: Last Blood in 2019 and Tesla the following year.
Josh Henderson and Alyson Stoner
Josh Henderson, who played Brett Dolan, went on to Desperate Housewives as Austin McCann and 90210, but his personal life often overshadowed his acting. He has dated Ashlee Simpson, Kendal Sheppard, Brittany Snow and Audrina Patridge; Sheppard claimed in 2008 that he had fathered her first child, which he denied. In 2018 he was arrested on suspicion of breaking into a neighbour's Los Angeles home, though the charges were later dropped for insufficient evidence.
Alyson Stoner, who played Camille and came out as queer in 2018, uses they/them pronouns and is now 33. Known for Cheaper by the Dozen, Camp Rock and Disney cameos, Stoner details a horrific kidnap plot in their new memoir, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything. According to The Guardian, Stoner's team once sent them to meet what they believed was a terminally ill fan, which turned out to be a foiled plan to abduct the actor.
Stoner also recounted the sexualisation they faced from casting executives as a young teenager: "For a young female body in particular, what I noticed was this sudden expectation that you will know how to sexualise your portrayals. That was just such a bizarre and horrific experience, to be in room after room with adult casting directors, knowing that I, at 13 or 14, am expected to seduce them." Stoner said they were also told as a child to stay out of the sun to avoid their pale skin darkening.
Hollywood's pressure over body image eventually pushed Stoner into a punishing exercise and calorie-restriction regime that caused their menstrual cycle to stop at 17. When they sought professional help, they said those around them advised against rehab, citing their fading status as a child star. In the memoir, Stoner also describes being raped by a man described as "well-adored in the community" after a wellness event, writing, per Us Weekly: "The world blurred as my mind completely disconnected from my body. The last image I saw was a poster on the wall of a ravenous feline leaping for its prey. Then I blacked out and he raped me." Stoner continues to act and recently returned to Disney's rebooted Phineas and Ferb.
Heavy D and Deirdre Lovejoy
Jamaican-born rapper Heavy D, who played Omar, was a founding member of Heavy D & the Boyz in the late 1980s before going solo, and later appeared in Tower Heist and Law & Order. He died in November 2011 at age 44 after collapsing outside his California home; his cause of death was later revealed as a pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis in his leg.
Deirdre Lovejoy, who played Katherine Clark and is best known for The Wire, is now 64 and has since appeared in Orange Is the New Black, American Horror Story: Asylum, Bones and Girls, as well as films including The Post and Bad Teacher. In 2009 she suffered a series of unexplained seizures that affected her memory and her ability to walk and talk for almost a year, along with hallucinations. After recovering, she turned the experience into an autobiographical solo stage show, Bird Elephant China.
