bill english played rudy's friend peter on the cosby show.
bill english played rudy's friend peter on the cosby show.
who played rudy's friend peter on the cosby show?
bill english
peter costa (actor)









































peter costa is a former american child actor. costa is best known for his many appearances on "the cosby show", playing rudy huxtable's chubby friend peter chiara, whose signature trait was running out the door when a scary or disastrous situation occurs in the huxtable house.









































in 1987, costa was nominated for a young artist award, "exceptional performance by a young actor in a long running series comedy or drama", for the role.









































he made his first feature film appearance in the 1984 film "the flamingo kid".
peter costa (actor)
comedian bill cosby began developing "the cosby show" partially because he was not impressed with popular family sitcoms that were airing at the time, several of which he felt were too reliant on children disrespecting and disobeying their parents without suffering serious consequences. cosby was originally opposed to the idea of his show featuring children altogether, preferring to create and star in a series that revolved around a married, childless couple instead. when executive producers marcy carsey and tom werner convinced cosby to develop a sitcom about a nuclear family, the comedian decided that his show would feature a family of children who were obviously intelligent, "but their parents were always smarter and—most importantly—in charge." originally written as a male character, rudy was initially conceived as the youngest of only four children, two girls and two boys. cosby originally envisioned the youngest huxtable child as a young boy who idolized his older brother theo, giving him the typically masculine name "rudy" and intending to base the character on his own sons. when casting his television children, cosby originally insisted that none of the candidates be younger than 10 years-old due to challenges he had experienced working alongside child actors prior. he warned the producers "we'll be shooting for the rest of our lives if we have a little kid!" however, carsey and werner believed that cosby had proven too gifted at working with children to avoid featuring them on the show altogether, and eventually convinced the comedian to audition a few six-year-old actors for the then-male role of rudy. after first auditioning in 1984, actor jaleel white was at one point considered to be the top contender for the role, so much so that his agent advised his family to start preparing to relocate to new york, where "the cosby show" was scheduled to begin filming; white's family had already begun packing and researching apartments within the area. however, the producers still wanted to audition a few more children for the role at the last minute, one of whom was four-year-old actress keshia knight pulliam, who werner had originally discovered in a then-recent television commercial for del monte canned corn. knight pulliam's professional acting experience at the time had included advertising baby products for johnson & johnson and appearing in several television commercials. she had already made her television debut as a series regular on the children's television show "sesame street", on which she had appeared for two seasons.
rudy huxtable