Jonathan Taylor Thomas

Jonathan Taylor Thomas
(Born Jonathan Weiss)

Date of Birth: September 8, 1981

"You can't be trapped in this bubble called the acting industry," says this chipmunk-cheeked star from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. "The industry is neurotic and weird, and so when I go home and play basketball with my friends, I'm not Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I'm just Jonathan. I don't like hanging out with other actors and actresses."

Thomas began his rise to fame on TV's Home Improvement with modeling gigs after his family moved to Sacramento, California, when he was four. His first acting job was The Bradys (an update of The Brady Bunch), in which he played the son of the oldest Brady boy, Greg. Right after that TV show tanked, Thomas signed on the dotted line to play another sitcom son, middle child Randy Taylor, on Home Improvement, which debuted to immediate success in 1991.

Thomas' TV success led to him being cast as the voice of Simba, the title character in Disney's animated The Lion King as well as his first feature film shot in Vancouver, Man of the House with Chevy Chase.

Thomas has his eyes set firmly on the future and doesn't want to end up as the answer to a Hollywood trivia question that begins with "whatever happened to?"

"You know, how serious do you take this stuff?" He says. "I mean, you should be focused on doing a good job, but -- it's a job. And every job has an end....You can't base your life around one thing. So that's why I focus on school, I play sports, I learn the technical side of filmmaking. Because sometime it'll change, and I'll have my education to fall back on. And I'd like to direct, I really would. And I think I'll have the chance, you know? Being able to see this firsthand is the best experience you can have, unless you're the son of Steven Spielberg."

Filmography

Wild America (1997)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)
Tom and Huck (1995)
Man of the House (1995)
The Lion King (1994) (voice)