Whatever Happened To Charlie's Actor From The Santa Clause?

Not long after Disney released "The Santa Clause" in 1994, it was apparent that the movie would be a perennial family holiday favorite for years to come. This was in spite of its rather dark premise that sees a man named Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) accidentally cause Santa to fall off of a roof to his death. Upon investigating St. Nick's cold, dead body, Scott discovers the legal technicality that forces him to become the new Father Christmas, effective immediately. And with that, a new Christmas movie entered the canon — and an entire generation would learn to misspell Santa Claus's name. 

While "The Santa Clause" is Allen's biggest film franchise where he doesn't voice a Star Command space ranger, he's not the only one who will be forever remembered for that series. Playing Scott Calvin's son, Charlie — who unfortunately was also witness to the original Santa's violent demise — was a young actor named Eric Lloyd. Lloyd had appeared in small roles in a few films and TV shows before "The Santa Clause," but Charlie was his breakout role and remains his most well-known. But did Lloyd do any other acting outside of the "Santa Clause" trilogy once he took on the role of Charlie? And what else has he been up to since 2006's "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause?" 

Despite "Dunston Checks In" failing to add any cache to the rising career of Eric Lloyd, the following year saw the actor having no trouble finding work on the big screen. In addition to playing Bruce Wayne in childhood flashbacks in "Batman & Robin," Lloyd also got what was at the time a highly coveted goal for most actors — a role in a Woody Allen film. And he wasn't even old enough to be in high school when he got that chance.

Lloyd played the role of Hillard Block in Allen's 1997 dark comedy "Deconstructing Harry," the son of Allen's title character. Not only did this give him the chance to star in a movie directed by a high-profile filmmaker, but it also meant that he was then able to count names like Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Tobey Maguire, Demi Moore, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Shue, Kirstie Alley, and Mariel Hemmingway as his co-stars. A few write-ups of the film praised Lloyd's performance in the movie, which is saying a lot considering his relatively small role and how many acting titans were there to potentially overshadow him.

Eric Lloyd had no shortage of acting gigs as a pre-teen actor in the mid-'90s. After that, he seemed to slow down a bit on that particular career path — while subsequently discovering that another branch of the performing arts was also of great interest to him. Lloyd's teen years saw music begin to introduce itself as a viable new creative outlet for him, and it wasn't just about composing or playing music. He also quickly developed an interest in producing music as well, even going so far as to build his own recording studio in a shipping container that his friends referred to as The Crate.

When Lloyd got involved in his first band, Conflict Conveyed Through Audio (or CCTA), the group already had The Crate to use as the perfect rehearsal space. After a few years of rehearsals and playing live gigs with other local bands in Lloyd's native Glendale, California, CCTA eventually released its debut album in 2007 — when Lloyd was just 21 years old. Of course, the album was recorded at The Crate, which had by that point grown much more sophisticated as Lloyd's own skills in music production and recording improved over those formative years. As for CCTA, a 2010 Facebook post seems to confirm that the band had already broken up by that point. 

The fact that Eric Lloyd was already establishing makeshift — which evolved into professional and legitimate — recording studios as a teenager probably clued you into his drive and talent in that area. Sure enough, it's something that he continued to develop into adulthood, to the point that building studios and production facilities has become his primary career in the last decade or so.

In 2014, Lloyd founded LP Studios — aka Lloyd Production Studios — for the purpose of providing the same sort of post-production services that he'd already been doing for both musical artists as well as film and television projects. Over the years, LP Studios has taken various forms, including facilities and studio spaces in various locations that Lloyd himself designed. Per his website, Lloyds claims that he "built and designed the first location to contain a cyc-wall sound stage/green screen." In 2020, he also established a remote studio space that allowed him and his clients to continue working and creating in the face of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent iteration of Lloyd Production Studios opened in 2022. 

Though he's long since left his first band — Conflict Conveyed Through Audio — behind, Eric Lloyd did not give up the dream of playing music just because they broke up. Since at least 2014, Lloyd has been in a band called Radiomason, where he is the lead vocalist and also plays guitar. Per the group's social media pages – which describes them as "four artists in one metal shipping crate," suggesting that The Crate is still very much in use – Radiomason played a number of live gigs throughout 2014 and 2015. 

Radiomason's Facebook page has been quiet since November 2015, when they posted about taking a hiatus until further notice. However, the group's Instagram page has new posts as of October 2023 that not only suggest a band still very much in active status, but one that is even currently working on new music.

A lot of celebrities use the service Cameo as a side gig. For those that don't know, Cameo is a website that offers users the chance to pay for a celebrity to record a personalized greeting that is then typically sent to someone as a gift. Eric Lloyd got in on this trend too, using his roles in "The Santa Clause," "Dunston Checks In," "Heart and Souls," and "Jesse" to advertise his services for recording personalized video messages for a fee.

Based on the viewable Cameo videos on his page that he has made for previous clients, people seem to most often request holiday-related greetings wherein he references playing Charlie Calvin in his breakthrough role. But at least one client knew someone who had "Heart and Souls" as their favorite film, and had Lloyd record his message while calling attention to his role in that lesser-known movie. According to the analytics on his Cameo page, the most common age range of the people who request his service is between 25 and 34 years old — so in other words, people who grew up with Lloyd's movies and shows. 

Even with Eric Lloyd being out of the acting game for the most part — save for his heartwarming cameo in "The Santa Clauses" — he hasn't forgotten his acting roots and still supports his fellow performers. This was evidenced by an Instagram post he made in November 2023 that seemed to show him on the picket line of the SAG-AFTRA strike. He mentioned that it was day 111, though it's unclear if he himself had actually been picketing that long or if he was simply calling out how long the strike had been going up to that point.

Of particular note is Lloyd calling out Disney in the post, not only via hashtag but also a sign that looks like a Mickey Mouse hand putting up its middle finger. Given that his biggest acting role was in a Disney film and television franchise, it's clear that Lloyd wasn't afraid to make things personal — and is perhaps suggesting that he maybe hasn't made as much money from playing Charlie Calvin as one might assume. When asked about that very thing during his Reddit AMA, Lloyd responded, "Sometimes [the residual checks] are nice, other times, they're minuscule, but it's not as much as you would think."