Born June 13, 1978, Ethan Embry grew up to be one of the few child stars to make a reasonably successful transition to adult (or at least young adult) roles. Beginning with his starring role in the ill-fated John Hughes vehicle Dutch (1991), in which he co-starred with Ed O'Neill, Embry went on to find steady work throughout the 1990s, maturing from child actor to drool material for teenage girls everywhere.
Following Dutch (in which he was credited as Ethan Randall), Embry had a minor role in the Albert Brooks comedy Defending Your Life (1991), and then in the same year starred in All I Want For Christmas with Leslie Neilsen.
His next substantial role was in the 1993 teen adventure film A Far-Off Place, in which he starred with Reese Witherspoon. The film met with lukewarm response, which was best summed up by Empire Magazine with the statement Potential date-movie for environmentally aware thirteen year-olds. Embry's subsequent film, Empire Records (1995), met with a similarly negative reception, although it did attain a certain cult status among hormonally-aware teenage girls.
After Empire, Embry was involved in two high profile projects, Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do and Ridley Scott's White Squall (both 1996). Neither film did particularly well, although the latter allowed Embry to appear with a virtual Who's Who line-up of up-and-coming male actors including Ryan Phillippe and Scott Wolf. Next up was Vegas Vacation (1997), the latest in the National Lampoon odessey, followed by Montana (1998) and two teen invasion showcases, Can't Hardly Wait, with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Disturbing Behavior (both 1998).
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide. 