Miko Hughes has one of those faces that every child of the 90s remembers! Whether he was a creepy kid slashing his way through horror movies or the lovable brat antagonizing the Tanner kids in Full House, Hughes raised the bar for child actors, ultimately becoming one of the most prolific in history!
While most audiences recognize Hughes from Pet Sematary and Mercury RIsing, the actor who was famous for being a kid eventually grew up and moved on to other roles that demonstrate his range and versatility.
So let’s take a journey through the life of Miko Hughes and see what he’s doing now!
Background info
Hughes was born February 22, 1986 in Apple Valley, California. His father, John Hughes, was a special effects technician in the movie industry (not the same John Hughes that directed teen comedy classics like Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). This connection to the business helped Hughes find work from the very beginning. In fact, he was only 22 months old when he landed his first gig in a public service announcement. He was a natural from the start!
Mere months after his first time in front of a camera, the call came for Hughes to make his feature film debut. And the role would carve out a space for Hughes in horror history.
Pet Sematary
1989’s Pet Sematary adapted the Stephen King novel into a horror classic. The story follows the Creed family, who moves into a new home with a pet cemetery on the property with the power to bring the dead back to life. In the movie, Hughes played Gage Creed, the youngest child, who dies in an unfortunate accident involving a semi-truck. When he comes back to life, he transforms into a homicidal zombie child who takes down a 6’5” Fred Gwynne with a scalpel to the Achilles tendon! I won’t spoil the rest, but what a memorable big screen debut . . . especially for a kid who was barely two years old!
He would star in the movie alongside Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby and Fred Gwynne.
Pet Sematary would set the stage for an impressively prolific career for the young Hughes, who hit the ground running in Hollywood and wouldn’t slow down until his early twenties.
What did he do after Pet Sematary?
By 1991, Hughes’ career was just beginning to take off, and already he had become the youngest person to ever be interviewed by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. During the course of the coming decade, Hughes found success by expanding his reach to television and voice over acting.
Full House
He created another iconic role when he played classroom bully Aaron Bailey in thirteen episodes of Full House. Focusing primarily on the growing pains of the Tanner family children, Full House ran for eight seasons, and Hughes’ character appeared in most of them! Known for his obnoxious hijinks and constant pestering of Michelle Tanner (Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen), Aaron was widely disliked by fans of the show.
However, Hughes’ portrayal tempered Aaron’s bullying with comic tones that endeared him to audiences, and Aaron eventually was welcomed into Michelle’s friend circle. His face, frozen in a grimace, became a famous meme in Brazil, often delivered in response to someone complaining online.
In addition to his regular television roles, Hughes regularly had guest slots in famous shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Baywatch, Melrose Place, and Doogie Howser, M.D.
Voice acting
Besides live acting, Hughes has worked extensively in the realm of voice acting. For three seasons, he provided the voice of Louie’s brother Tommy in Life with Louie, an animated series documenting the childhood of comedian Louie Anderson. The series won critical and popular acclaim, and Hughes shared Emmy recognition with the show’s cast and creators as a result.
Other voice work from Hughes includes the twins Sly and Whit in Baby Geniuses and Alan Redmond in an episode of Hey Arnold!
Mercury Rising
Perhaps his second-most enduring major film role came in the 1998 mystery thriller Mercury Rising. Starring opposite Bruce Willis, Hughes played Simon Lynch, a young boy with autism who easily cracks the government’s new top-secret defense code. A rogue FBI agent (Willis) protects Simon from being captured by the government to retain its secrets. The film was generally received poorly but has maintained something of a cult following.
Never one to shy away from a challenge, Hughes took on parts in other famed features such as Spawn, Zeus and Roxanne, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, Apollo 13, and Jack the Bear, where he plays one of Danny DeVito’s sons. One of his lines becomes a running joke after an especially humorous moment opposite Arnold Schwarzeneggar in Kindergarten Cop.
What is Miko Hughes doing now?
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Although his schedule is not as busy as it used to be, Hughes has acted continuously through his adulthood. He showed up in the TV series Boston Public and Roswell and even had a cameo in the comedy Tropic Thunder. Fans will also be excited to learn that he continues to appear in fan-made horror films, such as the upcoming Freddy Kreuger-themed Dylan’s New Nightmare, where he will reprise a role he played two decades ago.
In 2013, Hughes had his first and only (to date) writing and directing credits with the film Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear, a horror anthology exploring taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight. Hughes’ segment is called “See”, and it tells the unfortunate tale of a doctor who can see through his patients’ eyes. Creepy!
Personal Life
Details about Miko Hughes’ personal life remained private, most likely from a lifetime of finding that work-life balance. He does have three siblings: Molly, Mike, and Mitch.
Fans can see his upcoming convention appearances here or even request a personalized video through his Cameo account.
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