Erik von Detten’s role as Sid in the Toy Story franchise is far from his only time working for Disney. His resume under the Mouse House includes such films and TV shows as “Escape to Witch Mountain,” “Hercules,” “Brink!” “Tarzan,” and “Recess.” Disney diehards will likely recognize him from 2001’s “The Princess Diaries,” where he portrayed Josh Bryant, the classroom crush of high school student-turned-high royalty Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway).
Von Detten has been out of the spotlight for some time now, with his latest role being his Sid cameo in 2010’s “Toy Story 3.” For the former performer, keeping a steady acting career was not easy. As he told E! News in a 2021 interview, “I would literally go for a length of time without any roles that I fit the bill for … You’re either in the very top half a percent doing very well or, well … it’s just very competitive.” Despite his best efforts, exiting the entertainment industry was something von Detten needed to do to pursue the life he envisioned. “Since I was a kid, I wanted to have a large family. And, in Los Angeles, that requires a consistent, realistic income. So, the fickle nature of employment as an actor just wasn’t consistent enough for me.”
Von Detten has gone on to have a fruitful management career at a commodities brokerage and shares his life with his wife Angela and their three kids in Los Angeles. Asked if he’d ever consider returning to the acting world, von Detten told E! News, “Absolutely … if there’s a script with a role that doesn’t require an arduous audition process, I’m definitely open.”
