Robert Iler was born on March 2, 1985, in New York, New York, and it seems as though he was always destined to be in the spotlight. His manager, Jeff Mitchell, discovered Robert while he and his father were out for a walk in Manhattan. After appearing in a commercial for Pizza Hut shortly after, Iler took several years off from acting. In the late 1990s, he did several commercials for AT&T, IBM, and VH1. He also appeared in the 1999 film The Tic Code, starring Chris Marquette, Polly Draper, and Carol Kane.

By far the biggest accomplishment of 1999, and also the most significant one so far in his career, was securing a role on the HBO series The Sopranos. The show also stars James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, Edie Falco as Tony’s wife, Lorraine Bracco as Tony’s therapist and love interest, Jamie Lynn Sigler as the surprisingly sensible daughter, and Michael Imperioli as Tony’s hitman and possible successor.

Iler’s character, A.J., was listed in the tenth spot in TV Guide’s list of TV’s Ten Biggest Brats, and with good reason. He performs poorly in school, and is constantly getting into some form of trouble on the television show. Smoking marijuana, crashing his mother’s car, and vandalizing school property are all typical examples of A.J.’s troublesome behavior. He, like his sister Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), struggles to come to terms with his father’s illegal activities.

While starring in The Sopranos, Robert also made appearances in several other films and television series. He won a co-starring role in the 2002 film Tadpole, starring Aaron Stanford and Kate Mara, and had a small role in Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, and Colin Farrell. Iler has also been a guest of Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel, and David Letterman on their various television talk shows. Since the end of The Sopranos, it isn’t clear whether Iler has any new films in the works, but the series has no doubt provided him with a great start to a potentially long and successful career.

YUDDY