Iain Armitage's Journey from Young Sheldon Star

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Iain Armitage was just nine years old when he stepped into the role of Sheldon Cooper, cast as the kid version of the oddball genius played to Emmy-winning perfection by actor Jim Parsons in the beloved mega-hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” As the star of the spinoff prequel series “Young Sheldon,” Armitage delighted fans of the original series with his portrayal of the boy genius while growing up in an average family in small-town Texas.

When the show ended after a highly successful seven-season run, Armitage faced an exciting future full of possibilities as the teenager pondered what was next. “I love an action movie or maybe a superhero movie,” Armitage revealed during an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It’d be fun to do something with martial arts. I’d like to do something physical for once. ‘Sheldon’ is so mental. I’d love to do a drama too.”

While Parsons’ own transformation from little-known actor to sitcom stardom has been impressive, so too has the journey of the youngster who’s entertained millions as the younger version of his character. To find out more, read on to explore the transformation of “Young Sheldon” star Iain Armitage from child star to pilot.

He was born into a theatrical family

It shouldn’t be surprising that Iain Armitage gravitated toward acting at a young age when considering who his parents were. His mother, Lee Armitage, is a producer, while his father, Euan Morton, is an actor; in fact, his name was inspired by another actor, Sir Ian McKellen.

Armitage’s father was born in Scotland and studied theater in London. He landed his breakthrough role when he was cast as 1980s pop star Boy George in a West End production of “Taboo.” The show attracted numerous fans — one of whom was comedian and theater buff Rosie O’Donnell, who loved the show so much that she spent $10 million to bring the show — and its star — to Broadway. On Broadway, he’s also starred in several musicals, including “Parade,” “Sondheim on Sondheim,” and “Hamilton.” Playing King George III in the latter, Morton joked about making his entry in the show and receiving enthusiastic applause even though he’d yet to utter a word. “I walked into a role that gets entry applause even if you’re a capuchin monkey,” Morton quipped in an interview with Broadway.com. “If you stuck a monkey in the role and it came out dressed like the king, people would go wild!”

Not surprisingly, their son developed a love of theater. That, in fact, would propel young Armitage on his path to stardom at a ridiculously young age.

He began posting YouTube theater reviews at age 3

When Iain Armitage was three years old, his theatrical flair was already on display when his mother filmed him while taking a bath, singing “Stars” from the musical “Les Misérables.” That video was posted on YouTube, and two years later, he launched his own YouTube channel, Iain Loves Theater, where he reviewed theatrical productions. For his first review, the five-year-old shared his childlike impressions of “Hairspray.” “But I was only three, so I was just saying, ‘It was amazing, I love the cast, thank you so much.’ That lasted five seconds,” Armitage told W Magazine.

More reviews followed, becoming more sophisticated as he grew older and his knowledge of theater deepened. At one point, New York-based agent Jamie Pillet, an agent from New York, came across his videos via social media and was immediately impressed. She tracked down his parents to discuss the possibility that their son could try some acting. When she assuaged their concerns, offering all the right answers to their questions, he suddenly had an agent.

With that, the youngster embarked on the first steps to becoming a child actor, his mother accompanying him on auditions set up by his new agent. Eventually, Armitage’s mom put her career on hold in order to be by his side to protect him from the pitfalls that have befallen numerous child actors. “You hear all those horror stories about all the terrible things that happened in Hollywood with children who had gone crazy from being there,” Lee Armitage explained in an interview with Northern Virginia magazine.

Iain Armitage was a correspondent for Perez Hilton at the Tony Awards

Iain Armitage’s Ian Loves Theater videos were also viewed by gossip blogger Perez Hilton. So impressed by the youngster, Hilton hired him to be a correspondent on the red carpet at the 2015 Tony Awards. That, Armitage told W Magazine, was quite literally a dream come true. “I still have a diary from when I was like four, and I wrote in it ‘I wish that I was on the red carpet with my mama.’ And then a couple of years later I was reporting to Mr. Perez Hilton on the red carpet. So that came true!” he said.

Among the stars he spoke with were Broadway legend Chita Rivera, “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer, and “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston, who appeared delighted to speak with the child correspondent. That was especially true when the actor asked Armitage about his attire for the award show. “It’s a full kid’s tuxedo,” Armitage gushed. “My mom got it on Amazon for $30!” he added, with Cranston observing his tux cost about the same amount, just with a few zeros added. “I was lucky to be the only six-year-old interviewing people on the red carpet,” Armitage recalled when interviewed by Esquire.

Armitage’s interviews were such a hit that he continued on as Perez Hilton’s Tony correspondent in the years that followed. In the 2019 edition, he was name-checked as “that ‘Young Sheldon’ kid” in the Tony Awards’ opening number; Armitage shared his awed reaction in a video he shared via Facebook. “That was pretty amazing,” he told W Magazine. “I’ve loved the Tonys since I was little.”

He made his television debut in Law & Order: SVU

After about a year and a half of auditioning, Iain Armitage landed his first television role. “Before that his [audition] tapes were so good, even at that young age,” his agent, Jamie Pillet, told Esquire. “I think he was, like, four at the time, but his tapes were incredible.”

Armitage made his screen debut in 2017, appearing in an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” titled “Chasing Theo.” Cast as the titular Theo, Armitage played a young boy who’d been abducted, leading Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her team on the hunt to find him.

Interestingly enough, Armitage’s association with the show pre-dated being cast in the show. Back in 2015, he paid a visit to the set to visit “SVU” star Raúl Esparza (ADA Rafael Barba), who just happens to be his godfather. During that visit, he met Hargitay for the first time, leading to something of a full-circle situation when he appeared on the show alongside her as an actor.

His big break came with Big Little Lies

For Iain Armitage, everything changed when he auditioned on tape for an upcoming HBO series based on one of novelist Liane Moriarty’s bestsellers. A few weeks later, he got a callback, and a week after that, he learned that he’d been cast as Ziggy, daughter of Shailene Woodley’s character, in HBO’s adaptation of “Big Little Lies. “And me and my mom just shared this look of joy,” he recalled in an interview with Vulture. “It was like, ‘Is this really happening?'”

Acting alongside Woodley and the show’s other primary stars, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, was an amazing experience for the fledgling young actor. But when the show became a pop-culture phenom that returned for a second season, Armitage found himself acting alongside one of his idols when Meryl Streep joined the cast. “She is amazing,” Armitage told W Magazine. “The great thing about people like her is that she is such a wonderful actress and she raises people to her level. So, you really feel so good. And she gives us fun little acting tips kind of!”

In that interview, Armitage also gushed about his onscreen mom, revealing that they first got to know each other virtually before meeting in person on the set. “We FaceTimed her before we filmed the first ‘Big Little Lies,’ and she said that acting is like being on a giant playground, it’s so fun, you’re going to have so much fun, and from the very start she was like my real mom,” he added.

Big Little Lies led to movie roles

There’s a reason why the star of “Young Sheldon” looks so familiar, and to say that his role in “Big Little Lies” raised Iain Armitage’s visibility in Hollywood is putting it mildly. Playing Ziggy led him to be cast in some movies alongside some big-name actors. In the 2017 film “The Glass Castle,” he shared the screen with a cast that included Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts. That same year, he appeared in “I’m Not Here” alongside Sebastian Stan, J.K. Simmons, and Mandy Moore. Also in 2017, Armitage co-starred alongside two Hollywood legends in “Our Souls at Night,” which starred Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, with Armitage playing the latter’s grandson.

“I get so happy just saying her name,” he said of Fonda when interviewed by The New York Times. He recalled a conversation in which he revealed he enjoys going fishing but was hesitant because he didn’t want to injure fish. “She said, ‘Well, there’s a thing called fly fishing with bent hooks so it doesn’t hurt the fish,'” he recalled, revealing that she booked them both on a fly-fishing excursion the following day.

Armitage has remained friendly with Fonda. In fact, in 2019, he joined her on the steps of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for one of her Fire Drill Friday protests, drawing attention to the need to address climate change. During the event, Armitage gave a brief speech in which he heaped praise on Fonda. “Thank you for being such a strong example to kids like me,” he said, via footage filmed by TMZ.

He landed the lead role in the Big Bang Theory spinoff Young Sheldon

“Big Little Lies” may have propelled young Iain Armitage to a whole other level as a child actor, but it was his next role that made him a bona fide star. That role was nine-year-old Sheldon Cooper in “Young Sheldon,” the childhood version of the eccentric brainiac portrayed by Jim Parsons on “The Big Bang Theory.” While some may have wondered whatever happened to Parsons, he not only provided narration for the show but also served as an executive producer — and was instrumental in Armitage’s casting. When reviewing all the numerous audition tapes, Parsons confirmed that it was Armitage’s that really stood out from the rest. “Iain’s was mind-blowing in some ways. It’s true,” Parsons said when promoting the show at the Television Critics Association press tour, as reported by ET Online. “There was a naturalness with it and a spirit with it, and an understanding.”

On the set, Parsons proved to be a source of instruction and direction in how to play a scene. As Armitage told TV Guide, “Advice can be ‘maybe we could say this line differently’ to ‘let’s play this scene a whole different emotion.'”

Watching Armitage act gave Parsons a bit of a wake-up call about his own approach to acting. “You are having fun and it’s been really inspirational to watch,” he told Armitage during their appearance at the Television Critics Association press tour. “There’s just a way in which he’s tackling all this that is so such fun and such joy of the process … You’re a reminder to, I think, anybody who’s been doing it for a while to [see] how much fun it is.”

He learned how to speak Russian

Richard Armitage wearing a tuxedo with his palms facing the camera, in front of an HBO banner

Barry King/Getty Images

As a kid, Iain Armitage not only had to memorize pages of script dialogue, and then perform in front of the camera, he also studied with a tutor each day on set. In the midst of all that, he also learned to speak another language. It began when the pandemic shut down production of “Young Sheldon,” and he decided to learn Russian. “I’m on an app, but my favourite way to learn is through talking to other people,” he said during an interview with Etalk, revealing he was also dabbling in some other languages as well. “I have some friends at a local park,” he added. “I like to go to speak Russian or Ukrainian, Armenian, sort of around that area. For the most part, we can talk and it’s just really cool.”

His “Young Sheldon” co-star Emily Osment confirmed his multilingualism when she made an on-camera appearance on KCTV5. “He speaks Russian — a lot,” she said, jokingly adding, “Yeah, that’s my daily life at work, it’s all Russian.”

As Armitage explained, his grandfather — diplomat and former deputy secretary of the Department of State Richard Armitage — exposed him to various languages when he was little, and Russian stuck with him. “I always thought that Russian was such a beautiful language, and I always wanted to learn another alphabet,” he said in an on-camera interview, via TikTok.

He voiced a beloved cartoon character in a Scooby-Doo! series

Sheldon Cooper isn’t the only iconic TV character that Iain Armitage has stepped into. In addition to playing a younger version of “The Big Bang Theory” character for “Young Sheldon,” he’s also played the younger iteration of a classic cartoon character: Shaggy from “Scooby Doo, Where Are You!” Armitage voiced the character — who was originally voiced by legendary radio deejay Casey Kasem — in the 2020 animated film “Scoob!” (the adult Shaggy was voiced by “Saturday Night Live” alum Will Forte).

Armitage reprised the role in a prequel, “Scoob! Holiday Haunt,” in which the focus was placed entirely on the younger versions of Shaggy and the rest of the gang. After the film was completed, however, Warner Bros. decided to shelve the $40-million project. This, Armitage admitted during an appearance on “The Creative Coalition” podcast, had been a source of frustration for him. “The first ‘Scoob!’ movie that came out was incredible and amazing. This one, they had to do it in half the time with half the budget. And in pretty much everyone’s opinion, it’s even better. So I am so mad that’s been postponed,” he said.

He said goodbye to Sheldon Cooper after 7 seasons

While Jim Parsons was the reason that “The Big Bang Theory” ended, “Young Sheldon” did not experience that particular issue. In fact, the series proved to be as big a hit as had been hoped and ran for seven successful seasons until the series’ creators decided the time had come to bring the show to a conclusion. While the cast of “Young Sheldon” has drastically transformed since the series began, that was particularly true for Armitage. Just nine when the series started and 16 when it ended, bringing the saga of “Young Sheldon” to an end brought about a mix of complicated and competing feelings. “It’s very hard because it’s been basically half my life,” he told Arlington Magazine. “I’m of course very sad but also happy, and I feel so grateful that I’ve gotten so much wonderful time with our incredible cast and crew and writers.”

When the day arrived to shoot the series finale, Armitage found the experience of saying goodbye to Sheldon to be an emotional one. “It was harder than I thought it was going to be,” he admitted in an interview with “CBS Mornings.” “But also, sort of in a weird way, kind of just nice.”

At age 16, Armitage was a television veteran with a long-running, successful series under his belt. While his future plans were in flux, there was no denying that he would have numerous options to place under consideration. “I have no idea what’s next,” he mused to “CBS Mornings,” “and that’s kind of the most exciting thing about it.”

Iain Armitage got his pilot’s license at 16

Learning a new language hasn’t been the only non-acting pursuit to capture the attention of Iain Armitage. While in his teens, he became fascinated with aviation and began taking flying lessons. While attending an event honoring “Young Sheldon” creator Chuck Lorre in October 2024, Armitage had some big news to share with People. “I just got my pilot’s license, or my student pilot’s license,” he said. “I hopefully will get my private [pilot’s license] when I’m 17. And I’ve been having a bunch of fun flying while I’m here in L.A.,” he added.

Previously, Armitage took to Instagram to celebrate piloting his first solo flight. “I’m grateful to everyone who helped me make this a possibility,” he wrote in the caption accompanying some photos of himself — including a selfie taken in the cockpit, wearing a pair of mirrored aviator shades. “This was one of the very best days of my life!!” he added.

According to Armitage, he celebrated his 16th birthday in the air while flying with his mother and grandmother as passengers. “She was surprisingly completely calm and collected,” he said of his grandmother. “I was very, very impressed.” His onscreen brother, Montana Jordan (who went on to star in his own “Young Sheldon” spinoff, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage”), felt differently and vowed he’d never be a passenger in a plane that Armitage was piloting. “He does have his pilot’s license now,” Jordan said when interviewed for “Entertainment Tonight,” adding, “I would never … his ass ain’t flying me!”