If you were a girl growing up in the '90s, chances are you had a poster of Jonathan Taylor
Thomas hanging in your locker at school.
The teen idol starred in ABC's wildly popular Home Improvement as the middle son of Tim
"The Toolman" Taylor, voiced kid-Simba in Disney's smash hit The Lion King, and was
the marquee name in a string of live-action Disney flicks, including I'll Be Home for
Christmas.
Then, all of a sudden, Thomas disappeared.
What's he up to now?
JTT's OMG IQ
Thomas left Home Improvement at the peak of his fame in 1998 to focus on school, and it
paid off in a major way: he enrolled at Harvard University in 2000, studied abroad at St.
Andrew's University in Scotland, and graduated from Columbia University in 2010.
"This is huge!"
Thomas told People magazine in 2013,
"I'd been going nonstop since I was eight years old.
I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break.
To sit in a big library amongst books and students, that was pretty cool.
It was a novel experience for me."
Guest roles
Thomas guest-starred on Smallville in 2002 and again in 2004.
He also appeared in Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter and showed up in
a few episodes of Veronica Mars in 2004.
Years later, Thomas reunited with his Home Improvement parents for several episodes of
Last Man Standing.
In addition to guest-starring, Thomas also directed several episodes of the series.
Bros for life
In 2012, Thomas' former TV older brother, Zachery Ty Bryan, revealed that he and Thomas
have remained close since Home Improvement went off the air.
Bryan told Hollywood.com,
"We'll go out, hang out for an evening, catch up.
All good stuff."
In 2013, Us Weekly reported that the two reunited for a screening of the thriller Dark Tourist,
which Bryan produced, in Los Angeles.
No regrets
Despite leaving Hollywood at the peak of his career, Thomas is adamant that his decision
was 100 percent for the best.
He told People in 2013,
"I never took the fame too seriously.
It was a great period in my life, but it doesn't define me.
When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink.
I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers."
Actor's advocate
In July 2017, Variety reported that Thomas was running for a seat on the Screen Actors
Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists national board.
Thomas decried exploitative producers and unsteady wages in the industry in a statement,
saying,
"Since I started as a child actor, a group still being taken advantage of by producers,
times have become more uncertain for performers.
Many members are facing chronic insecurity, shrinking paychecks, and unlivable residuals
in basic cable and new media.
Periodic work at scale is simply not sustainable."
The following month, Thomas was successfully elected to the board, alongside a number of
A-listers, included Martin Sheen, Regina King, and Matthew Modine.
"That's fantastic!"
JTT 4 Ever
In June 2016, Complex published a heartfelt piece about the lasting star power of Thomas,
particularly among girls that grew up in the '90s:
"JTT was our friend and unrequited crush.
He was an anodyne symbol of purity and love, and he epitomized our peaceful pre-9/11 world.
He was intangible yet concurrently relatable."
The piece closed with a thirsty plea for JTT to return to the spotlight:
"While we continue to endlessly cycle through '90s nostalgia, Taylor Thomas' MIA status
makes us yearn for him even more, much like we did as hormone-fueled teens … JTT, I
know you hate being called that, but if you're reading this, it's not too late to come back."
"That's a great idea!"
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