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 split role of Julian.
It wasn’t until Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody that they 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 siblings took a break from Hollywood to go to college and have yet to reunite for a project.
“It’s more likely that I will write something for us to work in together, rather than someone approach us,” Dylan exclusively told Us Weekly in February 2020 of what it’ll take to work with Cole again. “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:
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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.”
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Dylan announced his engagement to Palvin via social media in June 2023. The couple’s revelation coincided with a joint interview for V magazine, in which they confirmed that they had been engaged since September 2022. During the interview, which was conducted by Cole, the pair teased that their wedding will take place in Hungary. “I’m nervous about the event,” Dylan told his brother at the time. “Frankly, it’s about the first dance. I’m nervous about a choreographed dance.”
Cole joked, “Why? Is it because you can’t dance? At all?” His sibling confessed, “I’m not a good dancer. And I’m nervous about remembering the steps.” The following month, Dylan wed Palvin in her home country.
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Cole received support from Dylan and their respective significant others, Fournier and Palvin, at the Hollywood premiere of his movie Lisa Frankenstein. “Got our tickets. Very proud of my brother and the very talented @zeldawilliams for this one,” Dylan wrote via Instagram at the time. “Always the dream when friends get to work together. Go see this!”
The movie marked Cole’s first film since wrapping Riverdale in 2023. He plays The Creature alongside Kathryn Newton’s Lisa.
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