Dewey From ‘Malcom in the Middle’ Quit Show Business to Be A Victorian Literature Scholar

In the incredible series finale of Malcolm in the Middle, the viewers (and Malcolm) learned that the titular boy genius was destined to become the greatest, hardest-working and most empathetic president in American history while his brother Dewey will live a life of luxury. To Dewey, luxury means a life spent in study of Charles Dickens.

Everyone who watched Malcolm in the Middle during the aughts knows that Dewey was not-so-secretly one of the smartest characters in the entire show. Despite his big-brained brother getting the brunt of their parents’ expectations, Dewey, sneaking by in special ed, consistently demonstrated both a social and emotional intelligence far higher than those of any other elementary or middle school-aged child, including the kids on track to be the next Krelboynes. 

As such, it should come as no surprise that the role of Dewey in Fox’s beloved working-class sitcom could only have been played by a precocious child actor who had the intellect to understand that, shortly after the credits rolled on the last episode of Malcolm in the Middle, he should get the hell out of Hollywood.

Four years after Malcolm in the Middle concluded, Erik Per Sullivan retired from acting indefinitely to pursue a life in more refined arts. In an interview with the international Malcolm in the Middle fan channel “Malcolm in France,” Jane Kaczmarek, who played the matriarch Lois, gave an update to all the Malcolm fans who have spent the last 15 years wondering where Dewey went: “He goes to school at a very prestigious American university that he’s asked us all to be quiet about, and he loves Charles Dickens.”

Basically, Sullivan traded playing impoverished children for reading about them.

“He’s well, he’s very, very well," Kaczmarek answered when asked about her most reclusive co-star, saying of Sullivan's former day job, “He did Malcolm for seven years. He started at 7, he ended at 14. He wasn’t interested in acting at all.”

However, Kaczmarek revealed that she does keep close enough in touch with her former youngest son, who, at 33 years of age and with a fruitful acting career behind him, is spending his early 30s in the same place as many people his age who don’t care about making money – grad school. “He’s doing graduate work in Victorian literature,” Kaczmarek said of Sullivan’s current academic pursuits. “I admire it because so many people think being in show business is the greatest thing in the world. It’s not for everyone.”

Kaczmarek’s comments on Sullivan’s post-showbiz life in literature corroborate what Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz recently told Metro about his little brother’s whereabouts, saying of Sullivan’s path after it veered away from acting, “One thing I know, some actors or some people just got to do it when they were a kid and then they wanted to experience other things and kind of live a more normal life out of the spotlight. I think that’s what he wanted to do so good for him.”

Of course, Sullivan’s retirement from the screen could prove problematic if the long-speculated Malcolm in the Middle reboot ever gets off the ground. Though, considering what Lois said Dewey’s future had in store during the original finale, the writers could always just hand-wave away Dewey’s absence by saying that he’s summering in England.