Jonathan Taylor Thomas, born Jonathan Taylor Weiss (Bethlehem, September 8, 1981), is an American actor and director who achieved international fame in the 1990s, becoming one of the most celebrated teen idols of the decade. His career is inextricably linked to the role of Randy Taylor in the highly successful sitcom *Home Improvement*, which he portrayed from 1991 to 1998. Concurrently, he gained enormous popularity by voicing the young Simba in the Disney animated classic *The Lion King* (1994), a globally acclaimed performance. On the big screen, he starred in family films such as *Tom and Huck* (1995) and *Man of the House* (1995). For his roles, he received numerous awards, including several Kids' Choice Awards. In the late 1990s, he chose to drastically reduce his acting commitments to focus on his education, attending Harvard and Columbia universities. Since then, his appearances have been sporadic, primarily in guest-starring roles on television series.