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CLARISSA Explains It All star Jason Zimbler, who played bratty little brother Ferguson Darling opposite Melissa Joan Hart, has resurfaced in New York City decades after his 90s fame.
The former child actor, who is now 47 years old, picked up coffee from a cafe in Queens on Wednesday, April 16.
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He wore a blue jacket, shorts and sandals in the warm spring weather.
Jason scored his breakthrough role as Ferguson on the Nickelodeon kids TV show in 1991, when he was just 13 years old.
He played the villain, often clashing with Melissa’s stubborn big sister Clarissa.
After the show ended in 1994, Jason completely disappeared from the spotlight.
Instead of continuing his acting career, he began attending college at University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1998.
He then moved back to his native New York, and earned graduate degrees from Brooklyn College and Columbia University.
After eight years working behind the scenes at HBO, he now works in the clean transportation industry.
In 2023, he was interviewed for a Santa Fe radio station about his efforts to promote the use of electric vehicles.
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Melissa, who continued acting with major roles in Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Melissa & Joey, recently said she lost touch with her Clarissa TV family.
“I don’t talk to any of the Clarissa cast,” Melissa told People in 2024, claiming the show’s era was “pre-cell phones, pre-email, pre-everything.”
“The cast just kind of all went in different directions and nobody kept in touch.”
REBOOT RUMORS
A reboot was in the works in 2018, with Melissa playing Clarissa as a mom.
But a year later, Melissa said the reboot was “on hold.”
“There’s no update. No, I’ve been busy on my Netflix show, and just been trying to get family time on the side, and that show’s kind of on hold right now,” she told Us Weekly.
“I don’t know what’s going on with it.”
Elizabeth Hess, who played Clarissa’s mom Janet, went on to have guest roles on various shows, including Law & Order.
Joe O’Connor, who took on the role of Clarissa’s dad Marshall, had an arc on Mad Men and The Young and the Restless.
Like Jason, Sean O’Neal, who played Clarissa’s best friend Sam Anders, also left the film industry.
Clarissa Explains It All is available for streaming on Paramount Plus and Apple TV.
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