Young Sheldon: Sheldon Quits Science

Young Sheldon: Sheldon Quits Science

see more: Two and a Half Men’s Angus T. Jones Spotted in Rare Public Outing in Los Angeles

Jones was known for playing Jake Harper on the show between 2003 and 2013

Angus T. Jones is stepping out in Los Angeles.

In a rare public sighting after largely leaving Hollywood behind, the former child star — known for his role as Jake, the son of Jon Cryer’s character, single dad Alan Harper, in Two and a Half Men — was photographed taking a stroll in the Los Angeles sunshine on Thursday, April 18.

Jones, now 30, wore a baseball cap, sunglasses, a T-shirt and gray sweatpants for the outing. And though the former actor was previously famous, in part, for his boyish look on the hit show, he was seen on April 18 sporting a full beard.

The Cast of Two and a Half Men: Where Are They Now?

Putting the “half” in Two and a Half Men, Jones landed the role of Jake at just 10 years old. However, less than a decade later, he revealed wanted to be done with the business altogether. 

In a video shared to YouTube in November 2012, he begged fans of the series to stop watching. 

“If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men,” Jones says in a roughly 14-minute clip posted on YouTube by TheForerunner777, in which the actor discusses his Christian faith. “I’m on Two and a Half Men and I don’t want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.”

“People say it’s just entertainment,” he continued at the time. “Do some research on the effects of television in your brain and I promise you, you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to … what you watch on television. It’s bad news.”

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The series, which also starred​​ Charlie Sheen, and later Ashton Kutcher, ran from 2003 until 2015. Jones was reportedly paid roughly $1.2 million per season starting in 2008. 

In Jones’ YouTube clip, he claimed that Christianity and the sitcom did not mix.

“You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can’t,” he said at the time. 

Jones did end up apologizing for his comments and continued filming the show. Fans even saw his character grow up and graduate from high school. He remained a series regular on Two and a Half Men until the season 10 finale in May 2013.

He revisited the topic in an October 2016 interview with PEOPLE.

“If you’d asked me a few years ago if I wanted to get back involved in the industry, I would have said, ‘No. Not at all,’” Jones said.  He had since enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder and, at the time, was preparing to serve as president of entertainment at Tonite, an events company cofounded by Sean “Diddy” Combs’ son Justin.

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“Going to college was something I was really, really excited about,” Jones told PEOPLE. “I wasn’t the center of everyone’s attention, and that was nice.”

Addressing his previous comments, he added, “I got pretty doomsday with my thinking for a long time, but now I’m having fun and enjoying where I’m at. I no longer feel like every step I take is on a landmine.”

Although he has largely stayed away from Hollywood since the end of the hit show, in late 2023, he reunited with Sheen for a cameo appearance in MAX show Bookies, per E! News.