Justin Berfield

Berfield was born on February 25, 1986, in Agoura Hills, California, to Gail Berfield (née Stark) and Eric "Rick" Berfield. He is the younger brother of actor Lorne Berfield. Berfield is Jewish.^[4]

Berfield's first screen appearance was in a Folgers coffee commercial at age five. He went on to appear in 20 other nationally broadcast American commercials as a young child. His TV debut came in the short-lived series The Good Life (1994) in which he co-starred with Drew Carey. Berfield also made appearances in the TV shows Hardball, The Boys Are Back, and The Mommies (1994–1995).^[5]

Berfield's first long-running TV role was as Ross Malloy in Unhappily Ever After (1995–1999), in which he appeared in 100 episodes. In 1995, he (then aged 9) was one of 3000 juvenile actors who auditioned for the role of the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.^[6]

Berfield's big breakthrough role came in 1999 when Linwood Boomer cast him to play Reese, the trouble-making older brother of Frankie Muniz's title character on the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (in reality, Berfield is nearly three months younger than Muniz), which premiered on January 9, 2000. He appeared in all 151 episodes of that series. The original run of Malcolm in the Middle ended on May 14, 2006, though Berfield remained active for another six years, concentrating on production work; he confirmed in February 2025 that he would return for the reboot of the series.^[7] He also made a one-off appearance in the series Sons of Tucson in 2010.^{[8][unreliable source?]}

In 2001, Berfield was asked to serve as a National Youth Ambassador for Ronald McDonald House Charities, in which he participated for three years until turning 18. He has been active with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and most recently Virgin Unite, the charitable arm of Virgin Group.^[9]

Berfield has two children with his wife Liza Almeida, whom he married in 2017.^[10]