| Jonathan Taylor Thomas | |
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| Birth name | Jonathan Taylor Weiss |
| Born | September 8 1981 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.   |
| Years active | 1987 - present |
Jonathan Taylor Thomas (born September 8, 1981) is an American actor and former child actor and teen idol, perhaps best remembered for his roles of middle child Randy Taylor on the sitcom Home Improvement and the voice of the young Simba in Disney's The Lion King.
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Biography
Early life
Thomas was born Jonathan Taylor Weiss in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the son of Claudine Thomas (née Gonsalves), a personal manager and social worker, and Stephen Weiss, an industrial sales manager; the two divorced in 1989.[1][2] Thomas has part Portuguese ancestry.[3] He has a brother, Joel Thomas Weiss, whose middle name he adopted as his pseudonym, in order to avoid confusion with an existing actor named Jonathan Weiss. In 1986, Thomas moved with his family to Roseville, California, and was later cast in a Burger King commercial at the age of eight.
Career
In 1990, Thomas garnered the role of Greg Brady's son Kevin on the short-lived TV show The Bradys, a spin-off of the popular 70s TV show The Brady Bunch. In 1991, at the age of 10, he won the role of Randy Taylor on the popular television show Home Improvement. He went on to voice Young Simba in Disney's The Lion King and Pinocchio in The Adventures of Pinocchio. He remained with Home Improvement well into his teenage years, but left the show in 1998 in order to concentrate more on his academics. He served as guest timekeeper for then WWF's WrestleMania XI in 1995. As Thomas got older, he earned a reputation as a teen heartthrob and was a leading cover boy on teen magazines. He starred in the Christmas comedy I'll Be Home for Christmas and is the voice of Tangie in The Tangerine Bear (2000). He also appeared in the movies Man of the House, Tom and Huck, Wild America, Common Ground, Walking Across Egypt and Speedway Junky. He had a guest role on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter in early 2004, and appeared in the WB's Smallville in 2002 and 2004. In 2005, he had a guest role in UPN's high school detective drama Veronica Mars, and was also featured on The E! True Hollywood Story's show on Home Improvement. In 2006, he provided voice audio as the young Simba in the PlayStation 2 video game Kingdom Hearts II, developed by Square Enix.
Personal life
Thomas attended Harvard University [4] (through 2002) and spent spring semester of his third year at the University of St. Andrews.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Thru the Moebius Strip | Prince Ragis | |
| Tilt-A-Whirl | Customer#3 | ||
| 2004 | Pom Poko | Shokichi/Additional Voices | English Dub of Takahata's 1994 film Pom Poko |
| 2000 | The Tangerine Bear | Tangie | |
| 1999 | Walking Across Egypt | Wesley Benfield | |
| Speedway Junky | Steve | ||
| 1998 | I'll Be Home for Christmas | Jake Wilkinson | |
| I Woke Up Early the Day I Died | Boy at Beach | ||
| 1997 | Wild America | Marshall Stouffer | |
| 1996 | The Adventures of Pinocchio | Pinocchio | Saturn Award (nominated) Young Artist Award (won) |
| 1995 | Tom and Huck | Tom Sawyer | Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (nominated) Young Artist Award (nominated) YoungStar Awards (nominated) |
| Man of the House | Ben Archer (Little Wing) | ||
| 1994 | The Lion King | Young Simba | Saturn Award (nominated) Young Artist Award (nominated) |
