Elf is one of the most-loved Christmas movies of all time.
From Buddy’s sweet character to the warm and fuzzy message of believing in the festive period, it’s not hard to understand why the iconic movie is as popular today than it was 21 years ago.
Since its 2003 release, it’s hard to believe how much the characters will have grown up – and one of them is little Michael, Buddy the elf’s younger half-brother who was played by Daniel Tay.
Now 32 years of age, the former actor might be known as playing Michael Hobbs in the Christmas movie, but things really have changed since Elf hit screens.
In the film, Michael watches his father Walter (played by the late James Caan) navigate life as a cynical children’s book publishing executive. Early on, he also discovers he is the younger brother of Buddy, a man who claims to be an elf.
It was actually his first major role in film, and he also appeared in American Splendor as Young Harvey Pekar during the same year. Even though he only had few roles, it’s Elf that makes the former star go viral every festive season.
Despite being widely remembered for his role in Elf, Tay’s acting career was short lived. It wasn’t long before he moved on from acting, and later graduated from Yale University, having studied economics.
Now you’d hardly recognise Tay from his acting days. More recently, he’s reported to have worked as an instructor for the SAT.
According to the company’s website, Tay spent time as a Teaching Assistant and Peer Tutor in the Department of Computer Science while at Yale. He was also a recipient of the Richard U. Light Fellowship for his studies in Mandarin Chinese language.
“He believes that teaching and learning are expressions of the basic human need for mutual understanding,” it read. “With this in mind, he works with students to cultivate relationships based in clarity, humour, structure and respect.
“Following his stint as an SAT tutor, the former actor became a research fellow at Columbia University and is now reported to be in his second year of studying medicine at Cornell University.”
When it was first released in the US, Elf became quickly popular, grossing $220m (£164m) worldwide. But, prior to his sad passing in 2022, Caan claimed there were reasons a sequel never happened, explaining Will Ferrell and director Jon Favreau never really got along.
According to Metro.co.uk, he said: “We were gonna do [a sequel] and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I finally got a franchise movie, I could make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do’.
“The director and Will didn’t get along very well… so, Will wanted to do it, he didn’t want the director, and he had it in his contract, it was one of those things.”