"Bruce! Bruce! Bruce!" Oh, to be cheered on by a room full of your peers while you scoff an entire chocolate fudge cake. I wish my school days were more like that - only without Miss Trunchbull, obviously.
And while we're on the subject of reflecting on old school antics, I'd like to inform you that it will soon be a full 30 years since the iconic movie Matilda was released, having dropped just in time for Christmas on 20 December, 1996.
Based on the book by Roald Dahl, the movie featured Mara Wilson in the starring role alongside Rhea Pearlman, Embeth Davidtz and Pam Ferris, while Danny DeVito took on both the role of Mr Wormwood, and of director.
There are a lot of moments in Matilda that remain iconic to this day - we were all jealous of her ability to eat cereal with her mind, after all - but among the most famous is the scene featuring actor Jimmy Karz, who played Bruce Bogtrotter.
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Young Bruce finds himself forced up on to the stage by Miss Trunchbull, after he tucks into a slice of her huge chocolate cake, and as punishment the teacher forces the student to eat the entire thing. It's tough to watch, but Bruce makes it through with the help of his classmates. So, 29 years on from his big moment, where is Karz now?
Well, the actor went on to secure a couple of other film and TV roles in The Wedding Singer and ER before he took a step back from the spotlight.
As he grew up, the former actor went on to study medicine and in 2017 he graduated as a doctor at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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In an interview with The Do, per The New Zealand Herald, he explained his career progression away from life around the cameras, saying: “After undergrad, I worked as a production associate for MTV News for nearly two years. I realized I wanted to do more service-oriented work. I was really into community gardening at the time, and I began volunteering to teach people from low-income communities how to grow their own food."
Take a look at what Karz looks like as an adult:
Through his work gardening, Karz began to learn a bit more about biology and chemistry, which paved the way for him to dive more into the subject of science.
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"I went back to school to study biochemistry, which led me to medicine," he continued. "I liked osteopathic medicine’s focus on helping the whole patient, and I was interested in learning manual techniques to help patients.”
With little public social media presence to speak of, Karz is now largely out of the spotlight - though millions of people still see him stuffing his face with cake every year with their Matilda re-watches.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Food and Drink, Nostalgia, Entertainment
Emily Brown