Jake T. Austin is an actor who started his career young. His start was simply playing a small part in various commercials and even had a role in a comedy sketch on The Late Show With David Letterman. It was after these that he began to earn voice acting roles in animated shows and movies, moving his career fully into the film industry. From there, he managed to gain Disney's interest, and his role as Max Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place remains one of his most recognizable roles.
Of course, he didn't stop there. After his time on the Disney Channel, Austin continued voice acting while also finding other live-action movies and shows to act in, showing off his range as well as his affinity for dramas. Though he still has a bright future ahead of him to continue building his portfolio, we've gathered some of his best current performances to take a look through and enjoy.
10 New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is a rom-com that brings together several stories of people's problems on New Year's Eve. Between trying to complete resolutions before the ball drops, a tense mother-daughter relationship, and a hospital full of activity, there's a lot of ground covered in this movie.
Austin plays Seth Anderson, the boyfriend of Hailey, and is caught in the middle of the mother-daughter relationship issues. Hailey wants to spend the evening at a party with him, but her mother wants to spend time together in light of a recent divorce. Austin is the perfect choice for Seth, as he knows just how to act as the innocent boyfriend who doesn't seem to realize how much trouble he's causing.
9 Hotel for Dogs
The family comedy Hotel for Dogs follows two orphan siblings as they struggle with their current foster home. The parents don't seem to care for Andi, Bruce, or their dog, Friday. This often leaves the kids to try and swindle or steal dog food to feed Friday. They soon discover an abandoned hotel that has become a home for several stray dogs, and as they decide to take care of them, more and more dogs begin to fall into their care in the hotel.
Austin plays Bruce, a preteen who often invents little machines to help take care of and entertain the dogs in the hotel. He really brings himself into the role, making us feel not only for the siblings but for all the dogs under their care too.
8 Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn
Based on Tom Sawyer's books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn brings the two protagonists together as friends. When they witness a graveyard murder, they flee together and make a pact to never say a word. However, when a good-natured man is blamed for the murder and won't allow Tom to break him out of jail, they have to go back on the promise if they want to save him and find the real murderer.
Austin plays Huckleberry Finn, leading the film and its story. He picks up the role well, really embodying the character Sawyer originally wrote. You can tell he respected the original material as well, which is always a good sign.
7 Grantham & Rose
Grantham & Rose is a coming-of-age story focusing on the titular characters. Grantham is in a rough spot in his life, struggling to find himself as an adult. A sudden road trip gives him a new friend and someone to help give him advice along the way — an 81-year-old woman named Rose.
Austin takes up the role of Grantham, the character who needs the most work and who changes the most over the course of the movie. You might not even expect the Grantham at the end of the movie to be the same one from the beginning, as Austin shows us every facet of his personality and every change into the person he wants to be.
6 The Valley
In the drama The Valley, a father searches for answers after his daughter's suicide. Though his family seemed rich and successful from the outside, the death of his daughter showed just how vulnerable the family truly was. As the tragedy weighed on their family and the tech company the father owns, he begins to reminisce on the last year to figure out what might have happened.
Austin plays Chris Williams, one of the teens the daughter knew before she died. Though it's not the biggest, his role is still very important to the plot and coming to terms with the death. The movie wouldn't be the same without him.
5 Adverse
Adverse tells the story of a brother bent on revenge. His family struggles for money, and he finds out that his sister owes debts to a local crime syndicate because of it. When she goes missing the brother blames the gang and decides to worm his way into the organization to take them out and hopefully save his sister.
Austin plays Lars, a drug addict caught in a similar scheme that the sister was in. It's different from what Austin is normally seen in as this movie has more dark and gritty vibes than anything before, but it just shows how he's growing and changing as an actor. As the movie released during the pandemic, it didn't get a whole lot of attention, but it's worth checking out.
4 Go, Diego, Go!
A spinoff of the popular Dora The Explorer, Go, Diego, Go! follows her cousin Diego on his own adventures. This kid's show has a similar setup as its predecessor, where Diego breaks the fourth wall to get the kids to help him when he's in trouble. However, instead of exploring adventures, Diego is all about rescuing animals and protecting the environment.
This was Austin's earliest major role, and he lends his voice to Diego himself. It's a great show that teaches children about the environment, and with Austin in the lead, he helps bring the character to life on screen to make him more believable and relatable.
3 The Perfect Game
Based on a book of the same name and true events, The Perfect Game is a sports drama around the events of the 1957 Little League World Series. César Faz recruits children in Monterrey, Mexico to become an official little league team, one that is good enough to compete internationally. Though their arrival in the US is not without many issues, they still have a game to win.
Austin plays Ángel Macías, the team's pitcher and, so far, the only little league pitcher in history to pitch a perfect game. He gives the respect Macías deserves as such an important person in the story and in history and does a great job at highlighting the highs and lows of their struggles to climb to the top.
2 Wizards of Waverly Place
In Wizards of Waverly Place, a family of wizards lives hidden amongst the people of New York as they run their sandwich shop. The Russo siblings all inherited magic from their father, something they now get to learn how to use and control over the course of the show. Of course, as kids and teenagers, they don't always use these powers responsibly, and can often get themselves into trouble.
Austin plays Max Russo, the youngest brother of the siblings and the one who is often the comedy relief. Max's problems usually come from him getting dragged into his sister's messes, but as the youngest, he can create his fair of magical issues too. However, as a side character, he isn't seen all the time, and people even thought he quit when he was replaced by Bailee Madison for a few episodes. He was simply off-recording for a movie at the time, so they created a genderbend issue to fill in the missing time.
1 The Fosters
The Fosters is a TV drama that follows the life of the blended Adams-Foster family. The family is made up of a lesbian couple, alongside some biological and some adopted children. Their different ethnicities, as well as the mid-2010s setting, brings up a lot of issues for the family that they all have to struggle through together.
It's arguably one of the most recognizable roles Austin has performed, as he plays Jesus Foster, one of the adopted children. Austin really brings the character to life on screen and brings a whole new perspective to the show that makes it even better than it was before, which made his exit after the second season even more noticeable.