Jonathan Taylor Thomas doesn’t regret walking away from fame

Jonathan Taylor Thomas was one of the leading teen heartthrobs in the 90’s. After making it big on Home Improvement alongside Tim Allen, Jonathan went on to star in Man Of The House, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, and several other films. He even leant his voice to The Lion King and The Adventures of Pinocchio. Then, at the peak of his career, Jonathan walked away from the spotlight and the hearts of pre-teens everywhere were broken.

“I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old,” Jonathan explains to PEOPLE of his decision to walk away from his acting career. “I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break.”

“To sit in a big library amongst books and students, that was pretty cool. It was a novel experience for me.” Jonathan’s last on-screen role was back in 2005 and since then, he’s been full-force into his studies attending Harvard, Columbia and St. Andrew’s University in Scotland.

“I never took the fame too seriously,” Jonathan says. “It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me. When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers.”

Attention child stars: This is how you do it!

Currently, Jonathan is living in Los Angeles and focusing on directing and writing scripts.

Tonight on the season finale of Last Man Standing, Jonathan will reunite with his former TV dad Tim Allen. The show airs on ABC at 8/7c.