Why You Don't See Freddie Prinze Jr. In Movies That Much Anymore

In the 1990s and early 2000s, it seemed like Freddie Prinze Jr. was starring in one hit movie after another. The actor was almost ubiquitous, appearing in everything from "She's All That" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" to "Down to That" and "Scooby-Doo." He had the looks, charm, and talent to become a major leading player in Hollywood.

At least, that seemed to be the track he was on, but in the mid-to-late aughts, something changed, and it became far less common to see Prinze on the silver screen. He stepped back from his usual big-budget fare and began working on smaller projects, either for television or outside of acting altogether. This has led many of his fans from that time period to wonder where he went.

While it's true that Prinze hasn't been as visible as he once was, he hasn't retired to a small, quiet life out of the limelight. In fact, he's has been working steadily in the years since he played Fred Jones opposite a CGI dog. Here's everything Prinze has been up to since pulling back from feature films.

It's become incredibly common for actors to take on work voicing animated characters in movies, TV shows, and video games, and Freddie Prinze Jr. is no different. He first began performing behind the microphone in a 2002 episode of "Frasier," and in 2006, he played the lead in "Shark Bait" as Pisces, aka "Pi."

Prinze must have enjoyed working in that capacity, because he's been doing it ever since. The same year "Shark Bait" hit theaters, he voiced Rick in "Happily N'Ever After." Some of his more popular voice work has been in the "Star Wars" franchise, but outside of George Lucas' galaxy far, far away, he's played a plethora of different animated characters. In video games, he's the voice of Lt. James Vega in "Mass Effect 3" and "Mass Effect Legendary Edition," and he plays the Iron Bull in "Dragon Age: Inquisition."

One of the main reasons you don't see Prinze so much anymore is because you're hearing him, even if you don't realize it, and it seems unlikely that he'll put down the microphone anytime soon.

Freddie Prinze Jr. nearly died while filming "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which is one of the reasons he decided to work in television. Though it's become far more common these days. It was an unusual move for the time, but it worked in Prinze's favor despite taking him away from higher-profile projects.

Still, he landed some impressive roles on some popular series. Prinze landed a guest spot on "Friends" because Tom Hanks had to drop out after getting stuck at an airport, stepping in to play Sandy the "manny," who completely upends Ross' (David Schwimmer) fragile masculinity. While only a minor role, it's a memorable one for "Friends" fans and a great gig for Prinze.

Granted, this wasn't his debut on the small screen — his first professional acting gig was on an episode of "Family Matters" in 1995, so he was already familiar with the medium. Since his appearance on "Friends" in 2002, Prinze has appeared in significant parts on many popular programs. He even starred in his own series, "Freddie," which lasted a season from 2005-06.

One of the biggest reasons you don't see much of Freddie Prinze Jr. anymore is that he's a family man. In fact, he devotes a great deal of his time and energy to his family, which he's prioritized over work. Prinze married "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" star Sarah Michelle Gellar in September 2002. The couple met while filming "I Know What You Did Last Summer" years earlier.

They also co-starred in two "Scooby-Doo" films, "Happily N'Ever After," and "Star Wars: Rebels," and Gellar also appeared in a non-speaking role in "She's All That." They have two children together — a daughter, Charlotte, born in 2009, and a son, Rocky, born in 2012. The family resides together in Los Angeles, and Prinze is focused on them.

Prinze's father passed away when he was only one, so family is incredibly important to him. The actor told E! News in 2017, "For me, being a father, not having a dad, it makes it my number one priority. So, when my daughter was born, that was pretty much it for me. I became a full-time father. It's not a job. It's what I love to do."

Freddie Prinze Jr. is a huge wrestling fan who attends numerous events, and he was also a creative force behind the WWE. His first opportunity to work with the organization came in 2008, when he landed a writing job on "WWE SmackDown." Prinze got the gig while attending Ric Flair's final (at that point) match and was introduced to Stephanie McMahon.

He met with then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, a meeting that he recounted on "The Masked Man Show." "I go, and I meet Vince, and I had a great conversation with him," the actor recounted. "I kind of got offered the job in the room and just said, 'Yes,' before I even spoke to Sarah [Michelle Gellar] 'cause it just felt perfect and it felt right."

But once he began working with WWE, he discovered that most of the other writers didn't want him there. That was largely due to McMahon telling them that Prinze was there to fix their mistakes, but it all worked out in the end. Years after his writing gig was finished, Prinze returned to the organization, hosting "WWE Rivals" for 16 episodes from 2022 to 2024. He's currently in the process of developing his own wrestling promotion.

Freddie Prinze Jr. had a horrific experience filming "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which is one of the reasons he stepped back from making movies years later. Something similar happened while working in television, and it made him completely rethink his career path, significantly reducing his on-camera work.

In 2014, Prinze landed the role of Cole Ortiz on the highly popular series "24," starring Kiefer Sutherland. Prinze worked on the series for 24 episodes, but it wasn't a great experience for him. He told ABC News, "Kiefer was the most unprofessional dude in the world." He explained that working with Sutherland made him want to quit the business altogether.

"24" was the show that caused Prinze to hit rock bottom, career-wise, and it made him rethink what he wanted to do with his life. He hated every moment he was on set, so it's understandable that he would want to try something else. After "24," Prinze significantly reduced his on-camera work, preferring to focus on lending his voice to animated characters instead.

While he's had many voice acting roles over the years, the one Freddie Prinze Jr. is probably best known for is playing Kanan Jarrus in "Star Wars: Rebels." Kanan is a major character throughout the series, as he's the one who trains Ezra Bridger in the ways of the Jedi. Initially, he's reluctant and wants to find someone else to train the young future Jedi. This was due to his past, having barely survived the Great Jedi Purge after witnessing his master's death at the hands of the Clone Troopers.

Kanan is the focus of several prominent stories, and he overcomes great hardship, proving himself a true hero. In the end, he sacrifices himself to save the people he loves, and it's a brilliant and heartfelt ending to an amazing character. Fans would love to see Kanan Jarrus brought to live-action, perhaps in a flashback, but Prinze has no interest in this possibility. He loves how his character ended and doesn't want to mar that legacy. That said, he did voice Kanan at the end of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" and in "The Bad Batch." Also, a picture of Prinze as Kanan is visible in the live-action show "Ahsoka."

One thing that Freddie Prinze Jr. loves to do is cook, as it's a big part of his family life. That said, the star has proclaimed that he isn't a chef, telling Forbes, "There is not much that I can't make, but I don't have the title that is earned through skill and the time and the sacrifice." Prinze's mother, Kathy, is a chef, however, and he worked at her restaurant throughout high school.

He briefly attended Cordon Bleu but left when he booked his first movie, choosing to become an actor instead of following in his mother's footsteps. Despite this, he loves to cook, and, in 2016, he published his own cookbook, "Back to the Kitchen: 75 Delicious, Real Recipes (& True Stories) from a Food-Obsessed Actor: A Cookbook."

Prinze spent three months working on his recipes and writing the cookbook, during which time his "kids and wife ate like royalty every single night." Like many celebrity cookbooks, it's filled with pictures of his family and stories about their life in Hollywood, with a focus on Prinze's Puerto Rican heritage. Upon publishing his book, he worked with Libby's Vegetables and Meals on Wheels America to donate 500,000 food coupons for Thanksgiving.

Despite stepping back from Hollywood, Freddie Prinze Jr. does still act on occasion. His foray into cooking kept him busy for a few months, but it wasn't long before he returned to his roots, albeit with fewer roles than he took on earlier in his career. Since he's still as charming and affable as ever, he continues to receive scripts for rom-coms.

"I've been offered a bunch of romantic comedies over the last 15 years," Prinze told Esquire. "I was just never reading any of the scripts. I didn't have any interest in doing it." This is notable because the romantic comedy "She's All That" is the movie that really put him on the map. While not his first film, it was one of the earliest to feature him as a lead.

In 2021, when it came time to do the remake "He's All That," Prinze was asked to return but declined. His former co-star, Rachael Leigh Cook, told People that Prinze told her, "It's not going to work out for me, but I totally obviously support you doing whatever you want with this; go run with it — I'll support this movie all the way and everyone involved."

Like many modern celebrities, Freddie Prinze Jr. has gotten into podcasting, hosting several over the past several years. His first was "Prinze and the Wolf," which he did with his friend and actor-comedian Josh Wolf. The podcast covered various topics, from cooking and popular culture to parenting and mixed martial arts. It typically featured hilarious stories and was good for a laugh.

Prinze's more popular podcast came in 2021 when he launched "Wrestling With Freddie," and you can probably guess its focus. Prinze talks about the world of professional wrestling alongside comedian and fellow fan Jeff Dye. They discuss all things wrestling with a focus on what happens behind the curtain, delving into every aspect of the sport with a great deal of enthusiasm.

In 2023, Prinze was at it again with a new podcast, "That Was Pretty Scary," which focuses on horror movies. This is a topic that Prinze knows a lot about, having starred in several throughout his career as well as being a self-described fan of the genre. He's passionate about horror movies and knows a ton of trivia, which he discusses alongside Jon Lee Brody as they break down every horror flick they've seen.

You already know that Freddie Prinze Jr. spends a great deal of his time either enjoying wrestling as a fan or working with professional wrestling organizations. In April 2023, he took that love a step further by joining the ownership team of Premier Streaming Network, taking an active role in the company as co-owner along with Paul Owen, Fred Shernoff, and Josh Shernoff.

In a press release, Prinze explained, "Premiere Streaming Network has rapidly established an impressive, user-friendly platform that champions independent promotions and creators and their diverse content. ... Combining my own experiences with their passion, we're forming a dynamic team focused on delivering the content viewers want to see and offering talented content creators a home to showcase their talents."

PSN was launched in January 2023, so it wasn't around long before Prinze got involved. By the time he came on board, PSN already had 2,000 hours of content, which included live shows and more. It's also the exclusive home of Major League Wrestling's "MLW Underground Wrestling" and was rebranded as Premier Wrestling App at the end of Q1 2024.

As a co-owner of Premier Wrestling, Freddie Prinze Jr. was heavily involved in the development and launch of MyFandom, a sports-themed app that debuted in June 2024. At launch, it featured a database of over 100,000 sporting events covering a large number of disciplines, extending well beyond pro wrestling.

"We believe that sports fans are the lifeblood of the game," Prinze said in a press release when the app launched. "From Football, Basketball, and Baseball to MMA and Pro Wrestling, MyFandom gives them the tools to showcase their passion, connect with like-minded individuals, and create a lasting legacy."

Some of the app's key features include keeping fans up-to-date on trending topics and maintaining a comprehensive calendar of both future events and those they attended in the past, maintaining a digital memory of their passion. It's unclear how much time Prinze spends working with the company, but he's all in on promoting the app and getting it out to as many people as possible. It's relatively new, with room to grow as things develop, and is marketed as the cornerstone of the Premiere Wrestling brand, so Prinze is invested in its success.

Freddie Prinze Jr. has claimed that he's retired from acting — but it's not as though he no longer acts. He does, but in a relatively limited capacity, so it's entirely possible you've seen him in something lately. Prinze finally got to play a role that showed off his Latino roots in "Christmas with You" in 2022, so he's still in the game. That said, some of his recent movies haven't been well received.

"Christmas with You" was successful on Netflix when it premiered, and it maintains a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the movie is an outlier when it comes to Prinze's recent filmography, as his other movies have landed flat with viewers and critics. Between 2005 and 2024, Prinze has appeared on camera in seven movies and shorts, largely in minor roles but also as leads in some.

Of those films, only two rate as fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning only "Christmas with You" and "Clerks III," the latter of which he briefly plays himself in, were critically successful. His worst movies of that period were "New York City Serenade" and "Jack and Kill vs. the World," two little-seen films where Prinze played the lead.

Freddie Prinze Jr. wears many hats: acting, cookbook writing, and more, but he also enjoys some hobbies. The one that appears to eat up much of his time is tabletop gaming. One of his favorites is "Battletech," a tabletop game that uses highly detailed miniatures of all kinds of mechanized characters. These come unpainted, and it takes a lot of time and talent for gamers to make them look good.

Many players lack the skill to paint them well, but you can't say that of Prinze. He's clearly in love with these kinds of games, which is apparent from a glance at his Instagram. Prinze regularly posts pictures and videos of his figures, proudly showing them in great detail. Of course, painting figurines isn't all there is to tabletop gaming — you also play the games, which he definitely enjoys as well.

It's unclear when he first started playing, but his first post on the subject came in January 2020 when he showed off a massive "Star Wars: Edge of the Empire" playscape. This was soon followed by all kinds of figurines, which he mentioned having begun painting at some point in 2022. It appears he's only gotten deeper into the hobby since then.

Despite his many claims of retirement, Freddie Prinze Jr. still acts, even if he hasn't appeared in many major feature films in years. That's about to change, however, because he's returning to his roots; in 2024, Variety reported that Prinze will appear in the then-untitled "I Know What You Did Last Summer" sequel set to hit theaters on July 18, 2025.

This is significant, as "I Know What You Did Last Summer" marked Prinze's big break in Hollywood, and he returned for the sequel the following year. Details regarding the franchise's movie return remain thin, but its logline echoes the original's plot: "A group of friends is terrorized by a stalker who knows about a gruesome incident from their past."

Prinze's return is interesting, given how terrible his experience was when filming the first movie. The actor hasn't spoken much about the project, but it could be the first indication of a renewed interest in returning to larger-production feature films. Whatever his reason is for stepping back into that world, be it his love of horror or something else entirely, fans of the franchise will certainly enjoy seeing him try to avoid being taken out by a slasher once again.