Cole Sprouse

Cole Sprouse was the rarest of Hollywood rarities: a child actor who not only grew up unscathed, but flourished as he got older. Cole and his twin brother, Dylan Sprouse, were born, in a small hospital in the village of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy, where their parents were teaching English at a local school. The twins began acting when they were only eight months old, on the advice of their grandmother, Jonine Booth Wright, a drama teacher and actress. As identical twins, Cole and Dylan were often cast in one part, in order to comply with child labor laws, and so they made their onscreen debut playing a single character on a 1993 episode of "Grace Under Fire" (ABC, 1993-1998). Cole's big break came when he and Dylan were cast as Julian, a troubled orphan adopted by slacker Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) in the comedy "Big Daddy" (1999). Critics were unkind to the film, but it was a massive box office hit, and the twins soon found themselves in demand. They made appearances in such films as "The Master of Disguise" (2002) and "Eight Crazy Nights" (2002), along with TV shows including "That 70's Show" (FOX, 1998-2006) and "MADtv" (FOX, 1995-2009/The CW, 2015-2016). In 2001, Cole landed his first solo role as Ben, Ross Geller's son, on "Friends" (NBC, 1994-2004). The twins scored big when they landed the roles of Zach and Cody Martin, precocious twin brothers who live at a luxury hotel with their lounge singer mother, in the sitcom "The Suite Life of Zach & Cody" (Disney Channel, 2005-2008). The characters proved to be so beloved that Disney brought them back for another series, "The Suite Life on Deck" (Disney Channel, 2008-2011), as well as the TV movie "The Suite Life Movie" (Disney Channel, 2011), and a one off crossover appearance alongside the stars of "That's So Raven" (Disney Channel, 2003-2007), and "Hannah Montana" (Disney Channel, 2006-2011). After taking some time off from acting to focus on attending college at NYU, Cole returned to the small screen in a big way, playing Jughead on the surprise hit of the 2016 fall TV season, a dark and dramatic take on the Archie comics universe, "Riverdale" (The CW, 2016-).