Home Improvement Star: What Happened To ’90s Heartbreaker Jonathan Taylor Thomas?

While today’s tweens fight over BTS members, we 90’s teens are all in agreement – our collective crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

The floppy-haired girl made her debut after playing young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King, followed by eight years in the family comedy Home Improvement.

Well and truly earning its place on our bedroom walls, those Total Girl posters were something else, fans couldn’t believe what they heard (or eyes) when JTT got up and left the show that made him a household name.

And while it will always be that cheeky teenager Randy Taylor in our hearts, here’s a look at where JTT ended up.

After eight seasons on the show, Jonathan’s character Randy suddenly went off to a study abroad program, and that was the last time viewers saw him. Fans were crushed that the teenager didn’t even return for the series finale.

Amid speculation that he left the show on bad terms, JTT later confirmed that he left the show to focus on himself.

“I had been going non-stop since I was 8 years old,” she told People in 2013.

“I wanted to go to school, travel and get some rest.”

Despite finding fame overnight, the young star was never dazzled by the lights of Hollywood, embracing those moments when he could just be Jonathan.

You can’t be trapped in this bubble, “he reflected in an interview at the tender age of 14.

“The industry is neurotic and weird, so when I go home and play basketball with my friends, I’m not Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I’m just Jonathan.”

Avoiding rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, JTT swapped the show for college tours and an education at age 18. But that had been his focus for years.

“All work has an end. I believe [a lot of child actors] we weren’t ready for the end … That’s why I focus on school, play sports, learn the technical side of [filmmaking]”, said.” Because at some point it will change, and I will have my education to lean on. “

Not all of her co-stars admired her sensible decision to walk away from the show, especially given her character’s popularity.

Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, who played JTT’s on-screen parents, had no qualms about voicing their complaints to the media.

“It’s a pretty sore spot around here,” Richardson told TV Guide. “I think there were a lot of bad feelings all the time. I don’t think it’s a good idea not to show up, but I don’t always think I get the best advice.

“He was a little upset with me,” added Tim Allen. “I was a little confused as to why I didn’t want to do it all this year.

“You said it was about going to school, but then you made some movies. Did you want to make movies? Did you want to go to school?”

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Aside from a couple of guest appearances on Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing show between 2013 and 2015, where he even held the director’s chair multiple times, Thomas has been mostly absent from Hollywood.

During his college years, he took work occasionally, but never committed to something as intense as a television series.

And in 2000, he proudly graduated from Chaminade College Prep in West Hills, California.

But that is not all. He then enrolled at Harvard University, where he studied philosophy and history. During his junior year at Harvard, JTT took the opportunity to study abroad. He even spent some time at St Andrews in Scotland.

Finally, after an impressive academic journey, Jonathan Taylor Thomas finally graduated from the School of General Studies at Columbia University.

While some would say that he gave up fame for a fairly normal life, JTT insists he has no regrets.

“I never took fame too seriously,” he said in 2013. “It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me. When I think of time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good times I had, not on the covers of many magazines. “

For the most part, the 39-year-old keeps his personal life a secret. In 2007, he was rumored to have gotten engaged to his author girlfriend Natalie Wright, but the couple broke up later that year.