The former teen idol once graced the covers of every major magazine and was one of the most recognizable faces on television among young people.Before retreating from the spotlight, this actor and producer spent much of his childhood working on set. He starred in several popular series that made him a household name and a fixture in American living rooms. Today, he has built his life on a completely different career path and thrives in it.The teen idol practically grew up on camera, balancing schoolwork with long shooting days across five television series. Among them were “Our House” and “My Two Dads,” where he shared the screen with Paul Reiser.

“My recollections are this: I played pretend, and I was good at playing pretend and enjoyed it for a lot of reasons, and all of a sudden people were making a lot of money, and I didn’t want to do it anymore,” he narrated.His first acting job came when he was just eight years old, playing an autistic child on the medical drama “St. Elsewhere.” Before filming, his mother tried to help him understand the role, explaining that autistic children often live in their own world.And I understood that. I would sit there and have this whole world going on in my head. I’d be following the patterns on the wall, and in my head there was an imaginary war going on between the shapes. So I felt like I knew what I was doing,” he noted.