As a child, Thomas played Randy Taylor on the popular television show ''[[Home Improvement]]''. He went on to voice Young Simba in [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]]'s ''[[The Lion King]]'' and [[Pinocchio]] in ''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996 film)|The Adventures of Pinocchio]]''. He remained with ''Home Improvement'' well into his teenage years, being written out of the show in [[1998 in television|1998]]. He served as guest timekeeper at [[WrestleMania XI]] in [[1995]].
As Thomas got older, he earned a reputation as ahard drinking teen heartthrob and was a leading cover boy on teen magazines. In [[1998]], he starred in the [[Christmas]] comedy ''[[I'll Be Home for Christmas (film)|I'll Be Home for Christmas]]'', which, although heavily hyped as his break into movies, was actually a commercial flop. He also appeared in the movies ''[[Man of the House (1995 film)|Man of the House]]'', ''[[Tom and Huck]]'', ''[[Wild America (film)|Wild America]]'', ''[[Common Ground (film)|Common Ground]]'' and ''[[Speedway Junky]]''. He had a guest role on the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] [[sitcom]] ''[[8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter]]'' in early [[2004 in television|2004]], and appeared in the [[The WB Television Network|WB]]'s ''[[Smallville (TV series)|Smallville]]'' in [[2002 in television|2002]] and [[2004 in television|2004]]. In [[2005 in television|2005]], he had a guest role in [[UPN]]'s high school detective drama ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', and was also featured on ''[[The E! True Hollywood Story]]'''s show on ''Home Improvement''.
In [[2006 in video gaming|2006]], he provided voice audio as the young [[Simba]] (via stock audio from ''[[The Lion King]]'') in the [[PlayStation 2]] video game ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', developed by [[Square Enix]]. He also played a guest cameo role as Missing Kid #2 in the slasher flick ''[[Rest Stop (film)|Rest Stop]]'', reprising his role as Randy Taylor from prior "[[Home Improvement]]" fame.
