By Nazmi 
Angus T Jones shot to fame playing Jake Harper in Two and a Half Men from the age of 10. In 2012, while still working on the sitcom, he branded it “filth”, saying it clashed with his religious beliefs
With his bushy beard and baggy hoody, Angus T Jones could be mistaken for a hard-up student.
But it couldn’t be further from the truth. Just a few years ago, he was the highest paid child actor on the planet, pocketing an eye-watering $300,000 per episode of the insanely popular sitcom, Two and a Half Men, which ran from 2003 to 2015. Now, on his 30th birthday, he’s truly unrecognisable.
Angus was just 10 years old when he started playing Jake Harper in the CBS sitcom, which also starred Jon Cryer as his uptight dad Alan and Charlie Sheen as his super-rich, unruly, womanising uncle Charlie. He charmed viewers with his baby face and effortlessly on-point comedic timing.
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These days, he leads a reclusive life away from the spotlight. Last week, he was snapped in a rare sighting as he hopped out of a car and headed to a friend’s house in Los Angeles, California. Puffing on a vape, he had his hood pulled up covering his bald head, with shades and a big beard hiding much of his face.
He sported a casual University of American Samoa Law School hoody, loose fitting stonewash jeans and plain black trainers, while clutching a large drinks bottle and plastic bag on September 26.
Growing up on screen, Angus, who turns 30 today (October 8), won two Young Artist Awards and a TV Land Award as the show became America’s most popular sitcom, pulling in an average audience of around 15 million people. However, his relationship with the show soured in his late teens.
In the show’s ninth season, which ran from 2011 to 2012, his character went from mischievous kid to weed-smoking stoner and Lothario almost overnight. In March 2012, speaking at the annual PaleyFest, he admitted it felt “very awkward” to do the “adult thing” at a young age.
Later that year, in an interview with a Seventh-day Adventist-sponsored radio show, he revealed he had found religious faith. He then went further, saying he no longer wanted to appear on Two and a Half Men, branding it “filth” and urging people to “stop watching” the sitcom.
He said: “A lot of people don’t like to think about how deceptive the enemy is. There’s no playing around when it comes to eternity … People will see us and be like, ‘I can be a Christian and be on a show like Two and a Half Men.’ You can’t. You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can’t.”
He later issued an apology, insisting he was grateful for the opportunity to star in the show and that he had the “highest regard and respect” for those he had worked with. He said: “I apologise if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed. I never intended that.”
Angus’s comments came a year after his co-star Sheen’s public meltdown, which resulted in the actor, then the highest paid on TV, being fired from the show. In an interview with radio host Alex Jones, Sheen, in a period of heavy drug use, called the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, a “turd” and claimed to have “tiger blood”.
Angus announced his permanent departure from the show in 2014, describing himself as a “paid hypocrite”. He later attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where he did an environmental studies course.
In 2016, he announced he had left faith based organisations, switching to Jewish studies and citing an intention to return to acting. He hasn’t appeared in anything since TV show Horace and Pete that year.
