Jonathan Taylor Thomas

'Jonathan Taylor Thomas' (qv) was born Jonathan Taylor Weiss on September 8, 1981 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Claudine (Gonsalves) and Stephen Weiss. He has an older brother, Joel, and has Pennsylvania Dutch (German) and Portuguese ancestry. Growing up, he liked the music group Boyz II Men, and his favorite TV shows were _Roseanne (1988)_ (qv) and _Grace Under Fire (1993)_ (qv), but he also liked watching CNN news, to keep up to date with current events. One thing that Jonathan does not like is meat. He has been a vegetarian since he was four years old, and he doesn't use products that are tested on animals because he believes that it is wrong to hurt them.When Jonathan was four years old, his family moved from Bethlehem to Sacramento, California. At the age of seven, Jonathan was working as a model for print advertisements in Sacramento, and over the next few years, he appeared in TV commercials for Kelloggs cereal, Mattel toys and for many other products. By this time, Jonathan was ready for bigger roles, and in 1989, he landed the part of Greg Brady's son Kevin in the TV special _The Bradys (1990)_ (qv). In 1990, he landed his biggest role yet, as Randy Taylor on _Home Improvement (1991)_ (qv). Jonathan's audition went well, but what really gave him an edge over the other boys was that the casting directors thought that he looked a lot like his TV dad-to-be, 'Tim Allen' (qv).In 1991, Jonathan's parents divorced. He lived with his mother and his brother. He began work in feature length movies, as the voice of young Simba in Disney's _The Lion King (1994)_ (qv), and as Ben Archer in _Man of the House (1995)_ (qv) opposite 'Chevy Chase' (qv). Among his other movies are _Tom and Huck (1995)_ (qv), _The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)_ (qv), _Wild America (1997)_ (qv), and _I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)_ (qv).::Lisa Buckley <[email protected]> and M.S.