Cole and Dylan Sprouse Through the Years: From ‘Big Daddy’ to ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ and Beyond

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Cole and Dylan Sprouse Through the Years: From ‘Big Daddy’ to 'The Suite Life of Zack and Cody' and Beyond

Twinning! Cole Sprouse and Dylan Sprouse have been captivating audiences since they were babies — and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. The Italian-born brothers have been acting since the early ‘90s, earning their big break with 1999’s Big Daddy. While they were each in the movie, they split the role of Julian. It wasn’t until Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody that Dylan and Cole started to branch off and play separate roles. The duo shot to superstardom for their portrayal of twin brothers Zack and Cody from 2005 to 2008. The show’s success was not lost on the actors, with Dylan later attributing much of his and Cole’s growth as individuals to the series. “A lot had happened in our lives that was difficult then and this show, in a way, saved us. 1000 years of gratitude to all involved,” Dylan wrote via Instagram in March 2020 in celebration of the 15-year anniversary of the show. The My Fake Boyfriend actor, who was only 11 years old when the series began, added: “I love you all and I’m glad this show can still give families the nostalgia they once had when watching it. I’ll keep those memories forever.” [jwplayer YXl6OVvC-zhNYySv2] Cole, for his part, echoed his brother’s sentiments about the Disney show in May 2021, confessing that it’s his not-so-guilty pleasure when drinking. “When I’m drunk or feeling really narcissistic, yeah [I put it on]," he said during an episode of Vogue’s “73 Questions" at the time. "I don’t really like to watch anything I do. So, I try to stay away from it.” The Riverdale star added: “I know it sounds cheesy [but] I still have a really deep fondness for The Suite Life." He recalled, “When I graduated middle school, the crew threw a big graduation. I cried on screen.” The siblings, who took a break from Hollywood to go to college, have yet to reunite for a project since their Disney Channel days. Dylan, however, hasn’t ruled out an onscreen comeback with Cole. “It’s more likely that I will write something for us to work in together, rather than someone approach us,” the beermaker exclusively told Us Weekly in February 2020. “Twin movies are never good! That’s just the universal truth I think the universe has given to us, and so if we can find the right thing then, yeah.” Scroll down to relive the Sprouse twins' ups and downs over the years: [podcast_block]

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SOAP Opera Start

The twins both got their acting start playing Patrick Kelly on Grace Under Fire from 1993 to 1998. They weren’t even two years old when they first went in front of a camera.

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Comedy Breakout

Dylan and Cole made their big screen debut in 1999’s Big Daddy. They split the role of Julian “Frankenstien” McGrath in the Adam Sandler comedy.

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Solo Start

Most of the pair’s early gigs with together, but in 2000, Cole began playing Ben Geller on Friends by himself. He had a recurring role as Ross Geller’s (David Schwimmer) son until 2002.

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Disney Channel Superstars

The duo shot to fame in 2005 after The Suite Life of Zack & Cody premiered on Disney Channel. Dylan and Cole played twins Zack and Cody, respectively, who lived in the Tipton Hotel and got into mischief alongside fellow hotel guests and residents. The series ended in 2008 after three seasons.

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Super Suite Life

The siblings headlined Disney Channel’s The Suite Life on Deck from 2008 to 2011. They reprised their roles as Zack and Cody Martin as the twins moved from the Tipton Hotel to the SS Tipton cruise ship.

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NYU or Bust

The twosome took a break from acting to attend college from 2011 to 2015. Cole graduated from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a degree in archeology. Dylan, for his part, focused on video game design before walking alongside his brother in May 2015. Both men graduated with honors.

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Camera Guy

During his time at NYU, Cole began experimenting with photography, sharing some of his work via social media. He has since launched a professional website and has shot magazine spreads, landscapes and personal life moments. In 2017, he photographed Kendall Jenner for The Sunday Times, Sophie Turner for W Magazine and Sam Smith for L’Uomo Vogue.

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Meet Jughead Jones

Cole made his TV comeback in 2017, landing the role of Jughead Jones on The CW’s Riverdale. The seventh and final season of the series will premiere in 2023.

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Dylan Returns to Hollywood

While Cole headed back to television, Dylan made his entertainment comeback with the 2017 film Dismissed. He followed it up with a starring role in 2018’s Banana Split.

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Master Brewer

In 2018, Dylan opened the All-Wise Meadery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after experimenting with beermaking in college. By 2020, the company was distributing product in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and New York. One year later, the mead became available in select locations in Hungary.

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Met Gala Guru

Cole made his Met Gala debut in May 2018 alongside then-girlfriend Lili Reinhart and turned heads the following year for their couple style. When the fashion event returned in May 2022 after a one-year hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Cole stepped out solo on the carpet, causing a stir among fans who loved his look.

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Model Behavior

Dylan began dating Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin in summer 2018. They celebrated their two-year anniversary in June 2020 with a remote getaway to Yosemite National Park.

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Cole’s Movie Comeback

Two years after returning to Hollywood, Cole starred alongside Haley Lu Richardson in 2019’s Five Feet Apart. His next movie role came in 2022 with Moonshot.

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TV Romance

Cole dated his Riverdale costar Reinhart on and off from 2017 to 2020. “Lili and I initially separated in January of this year, deciding to more permanently split in March,” he wrote via Instagram in August 2020, confirming the breakup. “What an incredible experience I had, I’ll always feel lucky and cherish that I had the chance to fall in love. I wish her nothing but the utmost love and happiness moving forward. All I’ll say about it, anything else you hear doesn’t matter.”

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Making Movie Magic

Dylan has continued to find success on the big screen starring in 2020’s After We Collided and both Tyger Tyger and The Curse of the Turnadot in 2021.

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Production Pro

Cole produced and starred in the “Borrasca” podcast from May to July 2020. The narrative podcast was written and created by Rebecca Klingel a.k.a. CK Walker based on her novel by the same name. In March 2022, it was announced that season 2 would be coming later that year.

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Back in the Dating Game

Cole sparked relationship speculation in February 2021 when he stepped out with Ari Fournier in Vancouver, Canada. The model seemingly confirmed the romance in August of that year while paying tribute to Cole on his birthday.

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Published Author

Dylan’s first comic book, Sun Eater, was published in July 2021 by Heavy Metal. The nine-issue saga was centered in ninth century Norway. “I love fantasy-action and I wanted to create something that would appeal to newer fans of the genre while tackling an elevated story,” the author told Heavy Metal ahead of the first issue drop. “The characters I wrote are from actual tales and bardic songs, and the story is about the adult, dark, grotesque, and somber world of Sun Eater and its desperate, faulty protagonist. While I have been actively writing Sun Eater for years, the culmination of the content rings especially true for me now, at this stage of my life.”

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Red Carpet Ready

The brothers attended the Vanity Fair Oscars Party in March 2022 together one week after they stepped out with their girlfriends, Fournier and Palvin, for the Los Angeles premiere of Moonshot.

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The Big 3-0

The twins celebrated their 30th birthday in August 2022. Cole joked via Instagram, “Make sure you say happy birthday to @dylansprouse 15 minutes before me, before sharing a poignant statement about how far he’s come over the past three decades.

“Feeling very privileged to be going into this new phase of my life with all my ducks finally in a row. Happiest I’ve been in a very long time. Glad to say I’ve chugged through the commercial pursuits of my 20s in order to build a solid and stable platform,” the Riverdale star wrote. “I’ve clarified what it is I truly want from this career I was placed into, and for the first time, feel truly grateful to have worked so much of my life. Film, television, and celebrity is not known for safeguarding its young talent, and I’m so glad I’ve surrounded myself with trusted friends and family in order to help me when I’ve stumbled.”

He continued: “Today I’m on set starting pre-production of Lisa Frankenstein, a passion project that sees real my childhood dream of playing a creature on film. The scared and skeptical 10-year-old Cole might actually be proud of the person he’s become. Loving you all very much today, and rarely enough, feeling love for myself. Here’s to 30.”

Cole also gave his brother a shout-out, writing, “Also, happy birthday to @dylansprouse too I guess.”

Dylan returned the favor via his Instagram Story, sharing a snap of the siblings chatting with one another on their special day. “Happy birthday to Old king Cole,” Dylan wrote. “May your beard be thick and your coin purse thicker love you. We made it.”

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A Broken Home

Cole claimed during a March 2023 episode of the “Diary of a CEO” podcast that mother Melanie Wright was a “tortured artist” and “narcissist” who struggled with “mental illness” and “drug abuse." 

The Five Feet Apart star also shared why his mom pushed the twins into acting at a young age. 

“I think she found a tremendous amount sense of self-identity through motherhood and tried to turn it into a profitable business at the same time, which for identical twin boys going into acting is [an] economic loophole — there are labor laws that can be incredibly profitable, so that’s what she did,” he shared.  “It made a lot of financial sense for her to put us into acting. I think it satisfied some sort of narcissism she probably had in order to be recognized as this sort of artistic success.” 

Cole added that the entertainment industry “broke” his mom — who is now estranged from both twins — and the court “had to step in” and send the boys to their father, Matthew Sprouse.

“This industry in very many ways encourages the worst qualities of you as a person … narcissism, selfishness, greed. A lot of these things that we have come to know as cardinal sins,” he explained. “It’s one of those things that encouraged a kind of selfishness that’s directly opposed to the very fundamental idea of motherhood.”