Thanks to his role on Home Improvement, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was one of the most popular child stars of the ’90s, but what happened to the actor afterward has mostly been a mystery. Thomas got his start as part of the legacy of another iconic sitcom, playing Greg’s son Kevin on a short-lived revival of The Brady Bunch titled The Bradys. One year later, he made his debut as middle son Randy Taylor on Home Improvement, quickly becoming a teen idol known best by his adoring fans as “JTT.” Before the show was through, though, Thomas left for college and notoriously didn’t even return for the series finale in 1999.
During his decade in the spotlight, Thomas also branched out into movie roles. Most famously, he voiced young Simba in the classic Disney animated feature The Lion King. He also starred as the voice of the title character in 1996’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, portrayed Tom Sawyer in Disney’s Tom and Huck, and memorably led the holiday movie I’ll Be Home for Christmas. At the end of the ’90s, he left acting for college but then still made occasional TV appearances in the early 2000s. Thomas was absent again from screens from 2005 to 2013 and hasn’t acted since 2015, leaving fans to wonder what happened to him.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Returned To Acting in 2013 By Appearing In Last Man Standing
When Jonathan Taylor Thomas left Home Improvement in 1998, the plan was to focus on his education. He finished high school while still doing some acting on the side, and then in 2000, he headed to Harvard University to study philosophy and history. In 2002, he spent his third year abroad at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, at the same time as Prince William and the future princess Kate Middleton, but he also still continued to make guest appearances on such TV shows as Ally McBeal and Smallville. In 2005, he had his last TV role for a while, on Veronica Mars.
Sometime afterward, he went back to school to finish his undergraduate degree, this time at Columbia University. Thomas graduated in 2010 and then eventually returned to acting in 2013 for a season 2 episode of Last Man Standing where he reunited with his Home Improvement dad, Tim Allen. He played his recurring character, restaurant owner John Baker, again in two more episodes in season 3. However, in Last Man Standing season 4, episode 12, “Helen Potts,” he winkingly made a cameo as a character named Randy, like his Home Improvement role, as the son of a woman played by his former sitcom mom Patricia Richardson.
What Jonathan Taylor Thomas Has Done Since 2015 (Did He Retire From Acting?)
His season 4 appearance on Last Man Standing remains Jonathan Taylor Thomas’s last known acting credit. That was in 2015. While it’s unclear if he has retired from performing in movies and television completely, Thomas remains a member of the actor’s union SAG-AFTRA. In fact, he has continually served on the organization’s National Board and its Los Angeles Local Board since being elected to the position in 2017. As of 2023, though ahead of the year’s elections, Thomas is still on both of these boards (via SAG-AFTRA).
Meanwhile, he could have plans to transition fully to directing. In addition to appearing on Last Man Standing, Thomas helmed two episodes in season 3, neither of which were the ones he acted in. He then directed one more episode in 2016, for the fifth season of Last Man Standing. This fulfilled a desire shared with Premiere magazine in 1996 where then-13-year-old Thomas said he hoped to join the DGA and be a director one day (via JTTArchive.net). Interestingly, while Thomas got to direct Tim Allen on the show, Allen never directed Thomas despite having helmed episodes of Home Improvement and Last Man Standing.
