There are few straight and linear paths in the world of showbusiness. Some creators find success the moment they walk into Tinseltown, while others will fight tooth and nail for decades before finding the right opportunity and project through which to shine. For Lou Taylor, star of Evil Dead (2013) and Thumbsucker (2005), Hollywood came calling at a young age and the journey hasn't stopped ever since.

With the pedal to the floorboards, Lou Taylor has enjoyed a meteoric rise through rather unconventional roads to become one of the more exciting young stars in the industry, today. To properly understand how far he has come, we must first go back to the beginning.

An Inauspicious Beginning For Lou Taylor

Lou Taylor was born in Seaside Heights, NJ, to mother Linda Farver and father Louis Pucci. Linda worked as a model and beauty queen throughout Lou's childhood, while Louis performed as a guitarist for various musical groups around town, including The Watch as well as Leap of Faith. Raised alongside two brothers, Lou and his family would relocate to Keansburg when Lou was just two years old. It was here that he began attending the Christian Brothers Academy, a precursor to his work on stage as a child. 

While Lou would begin acting at a young age, eventually making it to Broadway by the age of 12, he wasn't always destined for an entertainment career. Lou was presented with a pair of options by his parents while he was still in school - either attend church as an Altar Boy or perform regularly with the theater for extracurricular activities. Lou chose the altar boy route, citing the colorful robes and belts as a motivating factor.

The decision didn't last

When Lou hung up his altar boy robes for good, it was only an audition or two before his breakthrough role in Oliver!. A few short years later, Lou would be in The Sound of Music in New York. It was in this role that Lou began to flourish, working with major actors for over 18 months while commuting in and out of New York. Management would quickly come calling. Lou says of this period, "I was amazed by that, so it kind of made me stay with it. I think."

Even though Lou had proposed some resistance to creating art and theater, he was following in his parent's footsteps all the same. With entertainment in his family DNA, it didn't take long for Lou to embrace it for himself. Lou admits that his parents named him Lou Taylor because it was a "good stage name". Lou admits that his father originally wanted to be a musician, which Taylor says is "hilarious."

From Broadway to SXSW

Even the brightest of young talents aren't guaranteed any future success in the acting industry. There have been notable young names throughout Hollywood's history that have failed to capitalize on their earlier successes. This was an issue that Lou Taylor did not have to face.

Instead, Taylor went from his stirring run on Broadway's Sound of Music straight into professional management and then a full-time acting career.  Taylor would go on to land his first major acting project in 2002's Personal Velocity across from early aught's mainstays, Fairuza Balk and Kyra Sedwick. The role got Lou his first taste of mainstream success and the film would prove vital for Lou's next step -- a role in the film Thumbsucker along with Vincent D'Onofrio, Tilda Swinton, Vince Vaughn, and Keanu Reeves.

Landing the lead role in Thumbsucker was a mix of serendipity and hard work paying off all at once. At the time, Lou hadn't been large enough to get scripts sent directly for his approval. So when a potential manager called requesting Lou to read the entire script, he knew there was something there. These thoughts were echoed by Mike Mills, director of Thumbsucker. Mills believed that Lou was the actor for the role. Lou says of the character, "He is a piece of me but at the same time, not me. It's tricky."

Needless to say, Thumbsucker would hit the festival circuit with aplomb, instantly garnering major recognition for Lou at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. The project premiered to glowing reviews, attaining a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing. Roger Ebert laid personal praise at Lou's feet, saying, "I have focused on Justin, but really the movie is equally about the adult characters." 

Thanks to his work in the role, Lou Taylor would earn Best Actor honors at Sundance and the Berlin Film Festival.

Life After the Big Break

Even though his Big Break came at a relatively young age, that didn't stop Lou Taylor from plunging forward. Having starred in 47+ projects at the time of this writing, Lou is one of the rare child actors to have stayed active long after their big debut. Along the way, Justin would separate himself from his independent roots by taking increasingly challenging roles.

Lou says of his work in acting, "When I look at a career, I take it apart (...) and ask, How do I extend my freedom to allow people, or trick people, into thinking I can do anything?"

For Lou, being restricted to a certain niche of acting was something that he had always wanted to avoid. Pointing to Paulie Shore, who had grown up in the 80s and 90s as a comedic actor, Lou says, "He stopped getting films because he did one thing and it faded out."

Thankfully for Taylor, finding new ways to reinvent himself on camera has been a recurring theme throughout his career. Following his success in Thumbsuckers as an indie darling, Taylor would go on to land leading roles in major projects like Green Day: Jesus of Suburbia, The Informers, Carriers across from Chris Pine, and his big breakthrough role in Evil Dead (2013).

Most recently, Lou Taylor appeared in recurring roles for the television series American Horror Story: 1984 and Physical (2021).