Back in 1993 'Jurassic Park' set box office history as the highest grossing film at the time. Sam Neill and a bunch of leading paleontologists and scientists were sent off to explore Richard Attenborough's land of dinosaurs — along with the park owner's two grandchildren.

[Related feature: What happened to the cast of 'Jurassic Park'?]

[Related feature: What happened to the cast of 'The Lost Boys'?]

A 14-year-old Ariana Richards starred as the granddaughter in one of the best child acting performances we can think of, but what happened to the actress once she was (spoiler alert) rescued from the Velociraptors?

Well, she spoke Yahoo! Movies to fill us in on what she's up to.

First off, tell us how you got the role in 'Jurassic Park'.

"That's actually an interesting story. I had been acting since I was six-years-old so Steven Spielberg had seen me in some other films. He liked my work and wanted me to come in. It was a very unusual audition. It was just a video tape of me screaming… They said just show us how completely freaked out you can be when a T-Rex is coming to kill you.

"Steven told me later (after I got the job) that he was on the couch looking at the tapes with Kate (Capshaw, his wife). Kate fell asleep. Steven looked through girl after girl and he came to me and I started screaming and Kate leapt off the couch apparently and ran into the hallway to see if the kids were OK. Apparently that was a big help."

How did they make the water ripple in the T-Rex scene?

"They vibrated guitar strings right next to the water to make it have that formation after trying tons of different ways."

[Related feature: What happened to the cast of 'Top Gun'?]

[Related feature: What happened to the cast of 'The Goonies'?]

That sounds annoyingly simple. Did you know how big the movie was going to become?

"No. Not at all! I was 12 but I still get recognised more than you would imagine."

You had a cameo in the sequel and in a couple of other films, but you sort of dropped off the map. Where did you go?

"I went to college! I had to put a hold on acting and auditioning and everything and went to college to get my degree in drama and fine art which was a really neat experience for me. Then right after I was graduating from college the whole art thing kicked off (she won the US National Professional Oil Painting Competition in 2005). It was amazing! Some people don't know that as well as acting I also love art and I am a painter.

"Now I'm kind of hopping back into the acting world. I just finished wrapping on 'Ward's Island'. We filmed in Buffalo, New York and it was a total blast."

Looks like we are set to see more from the little girl from 'Jurassic Park'.