JTT rose to fame playing brainy and adorable middle child Randy Taylor on Home Improvement starting in 1991. His big-screen roles that decade included voicing young Simba in The Lion King (though that’s not him singing) and starring with Brad Renfro in 1995’s Tom and Huck and Devon Sawa in 1997’s Wild America.
He left Home Improvement in 1998 (Randy went to Costa Rica) to focus on school, but kept acting on his list of extracurriculars. He had a recurring role on 8 Simple Rules in 2004 and in 2013 reunited with TV dad Tim Allen to direct (and appear in ) several episodes of Last Man Standing.
But though JTT backed away from the spotlight to live his life, which included graduating from Columbia in 2010, Thomas doesn’t need to be onscreen to cause a splash: On the rare occasions the paparazzi snap him, the sightings go viral.
