In the late ’90s and early ’00s, Hallie Kate Eisenberg was ubiquitous thanks to her series of Pepsi commercials. With her curly mane and prominent dimples, she made a picture-perfect child star, and outside of her commercials, she had a successful movie career, with starring roles in family films like Paulie and How to Eat Fried Worms.
Now 32, Eisenberg hasn’t acted for over a decade, and her older brother, Jesse Eisenberg, is the bigger star—from The Social Network (2010) to A Real Pain, a movie he wrote, directed and stars in against Kieran Culkin, which is in theaters now. Here’s a look back at his sister Hallie Kate Eisenberg’s days of child stardom and what she’s been doing since then.
How Hallie Kate Eisenberg became the ‘Pepsi Girl’
Eisenberg grew up in a creative household, with a mom who acted in community theater and started a local public school drama program. Her brother got his start acting onstage and had his first screen credit as one of the stars of the 1999 teen show Get Real.
During his early days as an actor, Jesse brought his mom and sister along to a meeting with his talent agent. The agent instantly recognized Hallie’s charm and asked to sign her. Shortly after that, she began booking commercials, including her series of Pepsi spots.
Hallie’s commercials, in which she played a sweet little girl unexpectedly lip-syncing to dialogue from icons like Aretha Franklin, Marlon Brando, Isaac Hayes and Joe Pesci, made her a popular TV star—even if most viewers didn’t know her name, she became known as the “Pepsi Girl” and regularly got recognized in the street.
Hallie Kate Eisenberg’s other roles
Eisenberg’s Pepsi success led her to branch out into movies, and she made her debut in Paulie in 1998. She then appeared in a variety of TV movies and acted in three films in a row—A Little Inside, The Insider and Bicentennial Man—in 1999.
In 2000, Eisenberg acted opposite her brother in an episode of Get Real and appeared in the film Beautiful, which flopped at the box office. That year, she earned acclaim for playing Helen Keller in the TV movie remake of The Miracle Worker, which she called one of her most challenging and emotional roles.
After that, she appeared in a 2001 Dave Matthews Band music video. Eisenberg continued acting as a teen, with roles in the 2004 TV movie remake of The Goodbye Girl and the 2005 movie Jesus, Mary and Joey. Her last starring role was in the 2006 comedy How to Eat Fried Worms.
Where is Hallie Kate Eisenberg today?
Following How to Eat Fried Worms, Eisenberg had smaller parts in the 2008 movies Heaven’s Messenger and Wild Child, and in 2010 she made her final film appearance in the crime film Holy Rollers, which starred her brother.
Eisenberg has since left the film industry and she keeps a low profile today. In 2014, she graduated from American University with a degree in International Studies, and in recent years she’s continued to support her brother, as she served as an assistant to the producers on his 2019 film The Art of Self-Defense, and her private Instagram profile features a link to information about the 2023 movie When You Finish Saving the World, which he wrote and directed.
In a 2006 interview, Eisenberg said, “I’ve been acting since I was 4 or 5, so it’s really the only lifestyle that I know. So I’d love to be able to continue with that as I get older. But if I do have the opportunity to be a doctor, that’s really what I want to do.” While we don’t know if she actually became a doctor, it seems like the former child star is happy to be out of the spotlight.
