Acting Career
Berfield's first screen appearance was in a Folgers coffee commercial at age five. He went on to appear in 20 other nationally-broadcast American commercials as a young child. His TV debut came in the short-lived series The Good Life (1994) in which he co-starred with Drew Carey. The following year, at age nine, Berfield was among some 3000 juvenile actors who were tested for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to play the young Anakin Skywalker, the role that ultimately went to Jake Lloyd. More TV appearances followed in Hardball, The Boys Are Back, The Mommies (1994–1995).
His first long-running TV role was as Ross Malloy in Unhappily Ever After (1995–1999), in which he notched up 100 episode appearances. Beginning in 2000 he gained international prominence with his role as Malcolm's trouble-making older brother Reese in Malcolm in the Middle. He appeared in all 151 episodes of that series, and with the recording of the 100th episode became the youngest actor in screen history to have appeared in 100 episodes of two different TV series. Since the conclusion of Malcolm in the Middle in 2006, Berfield has concentrated on production work, although he made a one-off appearance in the series Sons of Tucson in 2010.
Read more about this topic: Justin Berfield
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