Justin Berfield

The Business of Being the Dumb Brother

Justin Berfield was five years old when he recorded his first national commercial. Before turning ten, he had already racked up a hundred commercials on his résumé and a regular role in the sitcom The Mommies. His face was the prototype of the middle-class American kid brands wanted to sell cereal or toys.

In 1995, he landed the role of Ross Malloy in Unhappily Ever After. He worked on a hundred episodes of that series before turning thirteen. It's a figure that would dizzy any child actor, but Berfield handled it with a coolness unusual for his age.

And television devoured him.

His big break came in 2000 with the premiere of Malcolm in the Middle. Berfield played Reese, the violent, simple-minded older brother who balanced out the chaos of the most dysfunctional family on Fox. He won a Young Artist Award in 2000 and became the youngest actor in television history to appear in one hundred episodes of two different series.

The Office Takes the Place of the Set

When the series ended in 2006, many expected him to pursue a leading role in film. But Berfield decided that being in front of the camera interested him less than controlling the strings of the industry. He voluntarily stepped out of the spotlight to move into production offices.

In 2010, he co-founded Virgin Produced, the film and television arm of Richard Branson's empire. He went from being the kid who took orders to the executive who decided which scripts got made. He worked on producing films such as Limitless and Movie 43.

Money was no longer a problem.

His life moved away from Hollywood and focused on business management and his passion for fly fishing. In 2010, he sold his Calabasas home, once owned by newlyweds Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, for nearly four million dollars. It was a clean financial move that confirmed his detachment from the lifestyle of a young star.

In 2021 the parent company of his production firm restructured its assets to focus on digital content. Berfield has stayed out of the media spotlight ever since. He lives in California, and his last credited on-screen appearance was a voice cameo in 2012.

In 2024 his main income came from real estate investments and his stakes in venture capital funds. His estimated net worth exceeds ten million dollars.

In 2021 his first daughter was born, and his public profile was limited to posting landscape photos.