After filming the “Spy Kids” trilogy, Daryl Sabara had numerous small roles in television series. He appeared in two episodes of “Wizards of Waverly Place” as T.J. Taylor, a young wizard who doesn’t like to play by the rules. He had one-episode appearances in some of the hottest shows of the 2000s, too, having guest starred in one episode of “Friends” in 2003 and played a patient at the center of a case in one episode of “House” in 2005. Sabara gave a memorable performance in one episode of “Criminal Minds,” as a teenager caught up in a child-porn human trafficking ring. Sabara appeared in seven episodes of “Weeds” between 2005 and 2012 as Tim Scottson, a boy with anger management issues who tangles with Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) and her children repeatedly throughout the series. Sabara also joined the main cast of the short-lived sitcom “Resident Advisors” as Leslie Flowers, a male college student who is accidentally paired with a female roommate.
On the big screen, he played Kyle in the black comedy “World’s Greatest Dad,” with Robin Williams playing his father. Sabara has said it’s his favorite role as an actor. He also appeared in a slew of forgettable teen movies, such as, “Her Best Move,” “Worst. Prom. Ever,” “Normal Adolescent Behavior,” and “Teen Lust.”
During this period of his career, it also seems Sabara was trying to distance himself from Juni Cortez. The roles he took weren’t obvious picks for the former lead of a family-friendly spy franchise. In Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” prequel, for instance, Sabara plays a school bully who becomes the first victim of a young Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch). Sabara appeared five years later as author Edgar Rice Burroughs in the massive box-office bomb “John Carter.”
