Ethan Embry

Born June 13, 1978, Ethan Embry grew up to be one of the few child stars to make a reasonably successful transition to adult (or at least young adult) roles. Beginning with his starring role in the ill-fated John Hughes vehicle Dutch (1991), in which he co-starred with Ed O'Neill, Embry went on to find steady work throughout the 1990s, maturing from child actor to drool material for teenage girls everywhere. Following Dutch (in which he was credited as Ethan Randall), Embry had a minor role in the Albert Brooks comedy Defending Your Life (1991), and then in the same year starred in All I Want For Christmas with Leslie Neilsen. His next substantial role was in the 1993 teen adventure film A Far-Off Place, in which he starred with Reese Witherspoon. The film met with lukewarm response, which was best summed up by Empire Magazine with the statement "Potential date-movie for environmentally aware thirteen year-olds." Embry's subsequent film, Empire Records (1995), met with a similarly negative reception, although it did attain a certain cult status among hormonally-aware teenage girls. After Empire, Embry was involved in two high profile projects, Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do and Ridley Scott's White Squall (both 1996). Neither film did particularly well, although the latter allowed Embry to appear with a virtual Who's Who line-up of up-and-coming male actors including Ryan Phillippe and Scott Wolf. Next up was Vegas Vacation (1997), the latest in the National Lampoon odessey, followed by Montana (1998) and two teen invasion showcases, Can't Hardly Wait, with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Disturbing Behavior (both 1998). ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

• Also Credited As:
  Ethan Philian Randall, Ethan Randall, Pete Chacon
• Born:
  Ethan Philian Randall on June 13, 1978 in Huntington Beach, California, USA
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Family

• Brother: Aaron Embry. born in 1975; with brother, plays in the band Southern Comfort Colonic
• Father: Chuck Randall.
• Mother: Karen Randall.
• Sister: Kessia Randall. born in 1982
• Son: Cogeian Sky Embry. born December 10, 1999; mother, Amelinda Smith

Significant Others

• Companion: Katharine Towne. engaged
• Wife: Amelinda Smith. married November 14, 1998; they had one child together; divorced in 2002

Milestones

• 1991 Feature debut in the Albert Brooks comedy “Defending Your Life”
• 1991 First starring role in the ill-fated John Hughes film, “Dutch,” playing preteen Doyle Standish, opposite Ed O Neill
• 1993 Cast opposite a young Reese Witherspoon in the teen adventure “A Far Off Place”
• 1995 Took the offbeat role of Mark in “Empire Records,” alongside Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger
• 1996 Cast as the bass player in Tom Hanks “That Thing You Do” again co-starring with Liv Tyler
• 1996 Co-starred in Ridley Scott s “White Squall,” opposite up-and-coming actors Ryan Phillippe and Scott Wolf
• 1997 Played Chevy Chase and Beverly D Angelo’s son in “Vegas Vacation”
• 1998 Cast in “Disturbing Behavior,” with Katie Holmes and James Marsden
• 1998 Had feature role in “Montana,” starring Kyra Sedgwick and Stanley Tucci
• 1998 Played the lead in the teen film, “Can t Hardly Wait,” costarring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Lauren Ambrose
• 1999 Co-starred as Sebastian in the short-lived CBS sitcom “Work with Me”
• 2000 Starred as Derek Barnes in “FreakyLinks” (Fox); series canceled soon after its debut
• 2002 Had a supporting role in the comedy-romance “Sweet Home Alabama,” reuniting him with Reese Witherspoon
• 2003 Cast as detective Frank Smith on Dick Wolf s remake of the classic series “Dragnet”; aired on USA after series was cancelled by ABC
• 2004 Appeared in the adventure comedy, “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”
• 2005 Cast as a pizza deliveryman who develops a bond with a girl nearly half his age in Mark Christopher’s indie comedy, “Pizza”
• 2005 Cast in Incident On and Off a Mountain Road the first episode in “Masters of Horror,” Showtime’s 13-part original horror anthology series
• 2006 Played Providence police officer Declan Giggs in the Showtime drama, “Brotherhood”
• Began acting in television and radio commercials