Whatever Happened To Jeremy Sumpter?
Once upon a time (around 2004 to be precise), Jeremy Sumpter's picture adorned pretty much every tween girl's bedroom wall. After starring in the 2003 live action "Peter Pan" alongside Jason Isaacs and Rachel Hurd-Wood, the young actor catapulted to stardom. Although "Peter Pan" was his first big claim to fame, Sumpter had already been busy as a child actor for years. In fact, in his first year in LA, he landed parts in three different films and also starred in "Frailty." "And then I did some guest-starring roles and then I got 'Peter Pan,' which is the most exciting thing for me so far," he explained to IGN at the time.
For Sumpter, "Peter Pan" promised to be a career-launching role. And for a while, it seemed that Sumpter was on track for Hollywood superstardom. "'Peter Pan' got me future roles and brought me a lot of stuff," he said in a 2014 interview with Van Gogh's Ear. However, although Sumpter has continued acting, chances are you might not have realized it. Here's what Jeremy Sumpter has been up to since "Peter Pan."
Jeremy Sumpter dated his Peter Pan co-star Rachel Hurd-Wood
After filming wrapped on "Peter Pan," Jeremy Sumpter and Rachel Hurd-Wood, who played Wendy in the film, dated for two years. "Rachel and I fell in love on set," he told Mega in 2019. "She was my first love; I was her first love," he added. "And it is great to know that we will always have that." The pair ended up breaking up when thei lives and careers took them in different directions. But, said Sumpter, "I will always have that young love that I have for Rachel."
In 2015, Sumpter posted a throwback image on Instagram of him and Hurd-Wood at an event. "Just saw this... Ahh the good ole days with my first love Rachel.. she has her own special place in my heart ever since I met her and she always will," he wrote in the caption. In 2017, he posted a picture of them reuniting as friends at Disneyland, writing, "My little Rach."
He followed Peter Pan with Clubhouse on CBS, but it flopped
Shortly after the success of "Peter Pan," Jeremy Sumpter signed onto his next project, playing Pete, a 16-year-old pro baseball bat boy on the CBS baseball show "Clubhouse." Although the prime time show was meant to be Sumpter's next big role, it ended up getting canceled before the first season even ended due to low viewing numbers. "We just couldn't find our audience," said the show's executive producer Daniel Cerone to Entertainment Weekly at the time.
Although the show didn't end up taking off, Sumpter had no regrets about starring in "Clubhouse." "Pete from 'Clubhouse' was unlike any character out there at the time, so I loved the role," he told myFanbase in 2010. "I've always played baseball or softball, so I thought a show about baseball would be a lot of fun to work on it, and it was."
Jeremy Sumpter landed a role on Friday Night Lights
Although "Clubhouse" was not meant to be, Jeremy Sumpter soon found a sports show that was more of a hit. In 2008, five years after his success in "Peter Pan," he was added to the cast of the NBC football show "Friday Night Lights," joining it for the third season. Sumpter played J.D., a new freshman quarterback. "J.D.'s a straight and narrow kid who's been bred to be a football player by his father, and lives in the shadow of his father, who's a big personality," said executive producer Jason Katims to Entertainment Weekly at the time.
For Sumpter, who had loved sports growing up and had already starred in a baseball show, "Friday Night Lights" proved the perfect fit. "[W]hen 'Friday Night Lights' came along, it was not too difficult to step into the J.D. role," he said to myFanbase. Although J.D. began his arc as a good guy, he later became something of a villain as he grew more arrogant. "I was disappointed in the direction they took the character, but I have to admit that it is always more fun to play the bad guy and have everyone hate you than it is to play the good guy," said Sumpter.
Sumpter starred on the show for two seasons, appearing in a total of 20 episodes.
He got into golfing
Not only did Jeremy Sumpter star in shows about baseball and football, but he also got seriously into golf in his real life. "I love golf, I've been doing it since I was 13," the actor told Canadians Abroad. It wasn't until he was 17 that he really began to take golf seriously. "My dad and I play all the time and I got to the point where I spent, like, four or five times a week — hitting the range all the time and I got my handicap down to a four. You know, I should be better than I am for all the golf that I played."
In 2014, Sumpter even confessed that if he wasn't a professional actor, he might try to make it as a golfer. "I would try and go on the PGA Tour," he said in his Van Gogh's ear interview. "When I'm not acting, I play golf every day. I'm a scratch golfer. So if I had the time to really dig into that and spend all my time like I spend on acting and do it toward golf, I think I might be able to get my tour card and maybe win a couple of tournaments." Who knows? Maybe one day, Sumpter might get the chance to go pro!
Jeremy Sumpter won an award for his charity work
In 2009, at the age of 20, Jeremy Sumpter won the Change the World Award in the youth for humanity category for his charity work with the Ready or Not Foundation. "The organization promotes pediatric brain cancer awareness and raises funds for research," Sumpter told myFanbase the following year. As he explained, he not only promoted the cause, but he also visited a children's hospital in Texas to see the impact of his fundraising efforts. "It really made a big impact on me," he said. "Although they were suffering, they still had smiles on their faces." Sumpter attended the awards ceremony with Aimee Teegarden, his "Friday Night Lights" co-star at the time.
Sumpter continued supporting the Ready or Not Foundation throughout his career. In 2010, he appeared at a Ready or Not event, and in 2013, he even launched a contest to help raise money for the foundation.
Jeremy Sumpter began appearing in horror films
Following his run on "Friday Night Lights," Jeremy Sumpter soon found his niche: horror movies. In 2010, he appeared in "Death and Cremation," about a murderous suburban cremator. In 2012 came "Excision," in which he starred alongside AnnaLynne McCord and Ariel Winter as a boy who (spoiler) gets killed by a murderous high schooler. That year, he also starred in "Hiding," a film about a teen who is a witness to her parents' murder at the hands of a crime boss. In 2014, he appeared in "Animal," about a group of friends who are hunted by a huge animal, and in 2015, he starred in "The Culling," a film about a group of college friends who stumble upon a creepy farmhouse during a road trip. In other words, name any horror movie trope and Sumpter has probably done it!
Speaking to HeyUGuys about "Death and Cremation" in 2010, Sumpter explained that while he enjoyed the "darker" and "grittier" elements of horror, he hoped to branch out into other genres soon, too — "I like a lot of different films too," he said.
Jeremy Sumpter landed a big role he loved in the hit film Into the Storm
In 2014, Jeremy Sumpter landed a role that he absolutely loved playing. In "Into the Storm," a disaster film about tornado chasers, Sumpter played Jacob, a young recruit to the group of storm hunters. For Sumpter, the role couldn't have been more exciting. "I've been a big fan of the weather my whole life. Growing up as a kid, 'Twister' was my favorite movie," he told Collider.
As he explained, he initially auditioned for a different role in the film. Sumpter thought he had lost out on the chance to be in the film because of his age, but in the end, the team loved his work so much, they wrote in a new character just for him — Jacob the tornado chaser. "When he said tornado chaser, I was pumped," he said. "I just completely forgot about the other role because I wanted to play a tornado chaser anyway. So, in my head, I kind of got what I wanted and I was very happy about it."
He got into producing with The Squeeze
In 2015, Jeremy Sumpter expanded his resume to work behind the camera, producing the film "The Squeeze," in which he also played Augie, a young golfer in a small town in Texas. As Sumpter told StarNews Online, he actually didn't even audition for the role — he simply played golf with the director. "I knew that was all I had to do," he said. "At a certain point, I made a deal with him. I wagered that if I could make this trick shot with my putter, then you're gonna give me the role." Though he didn't quite make the shot, he came really close. "That's good enough for me, Augie," the director said, and they included the shot in the movie.
"For Sumpter, producing offered an opportunity to get more involved in the film creation process. "For me, I want to widen my range of what I do in the entertainment industry," he explained in his 2014 Van Gogh's Ear interview. "I want to be a producer which I just did. ... It was great to be able to produce my first film and also star in it."
Jeremy Sumpter created a vlog for his fans called Dreams Do Come True
Although Jeremy Sumpter's career has taken him from sports TV shows to horror movies to producing, he remains best known for "Peter Pan" — and eventually, he started a vlog to pay homage to all of his fans who still love the film. The vlog, called "Dreams Do Come True," was made in collaboration with Fanward. "I'm here to tell you stories and goof off!" wrote Sumpter in the series' description.
Over the years, Sumpter has created numerous videos. He has answered fan questions, recalled stories from his career, chatted with his family, friends, and manager, dug into zodiac signs, and even rewatched some of his famous projects with live commentary. As Sumpter explained in an Instagram caption from 2022, "You fans are my family." Well, it's clear he wants to give back to that family with these videos.
He married Elizabeth Treadway in 2022
In 2022, Jeremy Sumpter tied the knot with Elizabeth Treadway in a quiet wedding in Tennessee. According to LinkedIn, Treadway works as a corporate flight attendant. Treadway told People it was "the best day of my life" and Sumpter added it was the "best day ever." He went on, "I got to marry the love of my life with all of my closest friends and family there to watch. It was absolutely perfect!"
Sumpter also took to Instagram to gush about his big day. Next to an adorable photo that showed Sumpter seeing Treadway in her dress for the first time, he wrote, "The first time I got to see #thebride and as you can tell in my face... I was looking at the most beautiful thing I've ever laid my eyes on!" Although we all used to think of Sumpter as the boy who would never grow up, it's clear that he did!
Jeremy Sumpter starred in a Christmas rom-com
After a long run of appearing in horror and sports movies, Jeremy Sumpter explored new territory with the 2022 rom-com "Holiday Harmony," which followed a singer on her way to a concert who finds herself stuck in a small town where she and a local man (Sumpter) create a makeshift Christmas concert of their own.
According to Sumpter, this film gave him the chance to play a character who was very similar to himself. "I kind of sold myself because it was Jeremy playing Jeremy in the film," he told True Hollywood Talk. Plus, the film was also a reminder of his "Peter Pan" days because he got to work with child actors. "They were kind of like my 'lost boys' and 'lost girls' while I was filming that movie," he said, adding, "It literally brought me back to my 'Peter Pan' years. It was a wonderful experience."
He became a father in 2023
Jeremy Sumpter and Elizabeth Treadway welcomed their first child, Lucy Snow, in 2023. "Today is the day I get to meet my little Lucy!" he wrote on Instagram when she was born. After she was born, he wrote, "Realized that before today I have never truly loved anything in my life." The following year, he posted an adorable series of photos of his daughter, writing, "I love you so much little baby girl." He later even shared that he had tattooed Lucy's name and birthdate on his arm.
Sumpter later posted a vlog about fatherhood, writing in the description, "It's a completely new experience since it's a lot of work in the beginning, but when she smiled for the first time ... it was worth all." In the video, Sumpter explained "how crazy" it was watching his wife have their daughter. "It was, like, beautiful and chaotic and intense all in one, and I just didn't know what to do!" He added that being a new father, while magical, was also "a lot of work." Though he did acknowledge that his wife was doing more of the work, he added that he was very busy being there for his wife.
In 2024, Jeremy Sumpter starred in The Fall
Jeremy Sumpter landed yet another exciting role in 2024 when he played Travis in "The Fall," a romantic drama about a photographer who finds love after her mother's death. The film premiered at the Mammoth Film Festival in 2024, where Sumpter and the rest of the team spoke about the project during a live video on Instagram. "We're having fun on the carpet," said Sumpter, after dancing with his castmates. "We all came together to make a really great movie," Sumpter then told an interviewer.
In another interview from the festival, Sumpter's co-star, Thomas Cocquerel, revealed that he and Sumpter play two love interests in the film. "You represent very toxic things," said Cocquerel of Sumpter's character. Sumpter later revealed that while the film dealt with some serious subject matter, he kept things light on set, and even threw parties for the cast and crew.
The indie film was picked up by distributor Buffalo 8 in 2023.
He has no plans to quit acting anytime soon
Even though Jeremy Sumpter may not be quite as famous as he was in his "Peter Pan" days, it's clear that he still loves performing just as much as he always has. And by the looks of things, he has no plans to slow down anytime soon. In fact, in 2022, he filmed five different projects! Even though most of them went straight to streaming rather than having a cinematic release, he couldn't have been happier with how his career was going.
"I love acting because you get to be imaginative and become other people," he gushed to Van Gogh's ear about his career back in 2014, adding, "I love acting, and that is my job. I hope I do it for the rest of my life. ... I will never give up acting." However, he is also interested in getting into more producing and maybe even some directing in the future. Peter Pan may be all grown up, but it's clear he's just excited about the magic of filmmaking as he was a kid.