Taran Noah Smith, best known for playing Mark Taylor on the hit sitcom âHome Improvement,â reemerged recently with a dramatically changed look â and fans can barely believe itâs him.
The 41-year-old former child star appeared on âThe Best Show with Tom Scharplingâ podcast earlier this year, giving the first public on-screen glimpse of himself in over a decade.
In the interview clip circulating online, Smith sports long, curly hair and a full beard â a far cry from his clean-cut, little boy persona on ABC in the â90s.
Smith Talks About His Goth Phase on ‘Home Improvement’
He talked about his time on âHome Improvement,â including the iconic goth phase his character went through during his teenage years.
During the show, he transformed from an innocent little boy who was picked on to fully goth. He noted how the change came to be mainly due to the fact that he was not taller than his on-screen brothers, played by Zachary Ty Bryan and Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
According to Smith, that era wasnât his idea: the showâs head writer allegedly modeled Markâs punk-goth look after his own son, who was about Smithâs age at the time.
He recalled a funny moment while filming.
He said the moment came when he met the head writerâs son backstage â the boy looked just like him in full goth wardrobe. âIâm in wardrobe, black fingernails, and dog collar and all the stuff on, and I went backstage and came face to face with his son, who was not in wardrobe, but looked just like me, and we had this very awkward moment of like, âOh, Iâm your dadâs way of kind of dealing with you, sorry,ââ he recalled.
Smith Has Stepped Away From Acting
Since leaving Hollywood, Smith has kept a low profile, stepping away from acting to pursue other passions. He confirmed on the podcast that he chose to quit acting at 16, wanting to explore a life outside of show business.
In his reappearance, Smith struck a reflective tone, revisiting his childhood career and the lessons heâs learned since.
He told The Mirror in 2001, he was so young when âHome Improvementâ began â just seven years old â and how he didnât fully understand fame until he was older.
He shared that his decision not to return to acting was deliberate: he wanted control over his own life, not just fortune or TV fame.
His last acting credit was a voice role for the animated show “Batman Beyond” in 1999, per IMDb.
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