It's been over 20 years since the iconic Christmas movie Elf graced our TV screens. Now decades on, one character from the famous film looks very different from his acting days
Elf is undoubtedly one of the most iconic Christmas movies.
Released in 2003, it follows an adorable storyline where an elf named Buddy wants to spread festive cheer as he embarks on an adventure to find his real dad.
While many are enchanted by Will Ferrell's character, it's hard to believe the film came out 21 years ago. During his quest to find his dad, viewers meet little Michael Hobbs, Buddy's younger half brother.
Played by Daniel Tay, 32, the former actor is now all grown up and things are very different since the film's release. In the movie, Michael watches his dad Walter (played by the late James Caan) navigate life as a cynical children's book publishing executive.
Early on, he also discovers he is the younger brother of Buddy, a man who claims to be an elf. It so happens Elf was Daniel's first major role, as he also appeared in American Splendor as Young Harvey Pekar during the same year.
Even though he only had few roles, it's Elf that makes the former star go viral every festive season.
Despite being widely remembered for his role in Elf, Tay's acting career was short lived. It wasn't long before he moved on from acting, and later graduated from Yale University, having studied economics.
Now you'd hardly recognise Tay from his acting days. More recently, he's reported to have worked as an instructor for the SAT.
According to the company’s website, Tay spent time as a Teaching Assistant and Peer Tutor in the Department of Computer Science while at Yale. He was also a recipient of the Richard U. Light Fellowship for his studies in Mandarin Chinese language.
"He believes that teaching and learning are expressions of the basic human need for mutual understanding," it read. "With this in mind, he works with students to cultivate relationships based in clarity, humour, structure and respect.
"Following his stint as an SAT tutor, the former actor became a research fellow at Columbia University and is now reported to be in his second year of studying medicine at Cornell University."
When it was first released in the US, Elf became quickly popular, grossing $220m (£164m) worldwide. But, prior to his sad passing in 2022, Caan claimed there were reasons a sequel never happened, explaining Will Ferrell and director Jon Favreau never really got along.
According to Metro.co.uk, he said: "We were gonna do [a sequel] and I thought, 'Oh my God, I finally got a franchise movie, I could make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do'.
"The director and Will didn’t get along very well… so, Will wanted to do it, he didn’t want the director, and he had it in his contract, it was one of those things."
English (US) ·