Jake Lloyd

Jake Matthew Lloyd was born in Fort Collins, Colorado on March 5, 1989.^[3] Lloyd attended Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana, where he graduated in 2007.^[4]

Lloyd began his acting career in 1996, playing Jimmy Sweet in four episodes of ER. He was then cast as Jake Warren in Unhook the Stars. He got his big break playing Jamie Langston in Jingle All the Way. He also played Mark Armstrong in Apollo 11. Lloyd gained worldwide fame when he was chosen by George Lucas to play the young Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the first film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Lloyd received the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film.^[5]

In 2000, Lloyd starred in the dramas Die with Me and Madison, then retired from acting, although Madison was not released in cinemas until 2005.^[6]

After retiring from acting in 2001, Lloyd continued to make appearances at sci-fi and comic-book festivals.^[7] In 2012, he announced that he would be directing a documentary highlighting Tibetan refugees in India. Lloyd was commissioned in 2012 to create a promotional video for singer Mallory Low. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones actor Daniel Logan, who played the young Boba Fett in the film, starred in the video.^[8]

Lloyd left Hollywood for Chicago, and dropped out after a semester at Columbia College Chicago, where he studied film and psychology.^[7]

In 2012, Lloyd stated that his decision to retire from acting in 2001 was due to bullying at school and harassment by the press, both in response to his role in The Phantom Menace.^[7][9][10] In 2024, Lloyd's mother, Lisa Riley, claimed that he quit acting because of family drama and that he was largely protected from the negativity surrounding his role in Star Wars. She also said that Lloyd remains a fan of Star Wars.^[11]

According to Riley, Lloyd's mental health began worsening in high school. He began suffering from delusions that he lived in multiple different "realities." He was initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but refused to take the medications prescribed to treat the condition.^[11]

By college, Lloyd began suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations, causing him to miss classes and earn poor grades. He complained of people with black eyes following him and had imaginary conversations with Jon Stewart while watching The Daily Show. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008, unaware of his own condition due to anosognosia despite his father's family having a history of the illness.^[11] His sister Madison, who was an extra in The Phantom Menace, died in her sleep from natural causes on July 16, 2018,^[12] adding to his personal struggles.^[13]

In March 2015, police responded to an alleged assault by Lloyd on Riley. In a statement to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Riley alleged Lloyd arrived at her house and began verbally berating her before physically assaulting her. She declined to press charges, stating that Lloyd had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not taking his medication at the time.^[14]

On June 17, 2015, Lloyd was arrested in Colleton County, South Carolina, under the name Jake Broadbent for reckless driving, driving without a license, and resisting arrest; he failed to stop for a red light while driving on a trip from Florida and Canada, which initiated a high-speed police chase across multiple counties.^{[11][15][16][17]} At a hearing on June 22, his bail was set at $10,700.^[18] Riley stated that he refused to speak with her and that the police refused to give him his psychiatric medication. She also was unable to have him transferred to a psychiatric hospital for 10 months because no beds were available.^[11] On June 23, she publicly revealed his schizophrenia diagnosis to TMZ and said that "the family plans to try and get him help again ... once he's released from jail".^[14] In April 2016, Lloyd was transferred from Colleton County Detention Center to a mental health facility.^[19][20]

Riley said his mental health deteriorated further after the death of his sister Madison in 2018.^[11] In January 2020, Riley and Lloyd confirmed that they had moved to California to be closer with family.^[11][20][21]

In May 2023, when Riley said Lloyd was suffering a complete "psychotic break," he was arrested again after turning off Riley's car in the middle of a busy freeway. When police attempted to talk with him, he communicated in incomprehensible word salad. Lloyd was immediately hospitalized and sent to inpatient care at a mental hospital for 18 months. In a March 2024 interview, Lloyd's mother stated that his mental health was improving during his hospitalization.^[11]

• Jake Lloyd at IMDb
• Jake Lloyd – 10 years After Ep One – with Sci Fi Pi at the Wayback Machine (archived July 24, 2009)
• The Force Is Not With Him: Anakin Skywalker 10 Years Later at the Wayback Machine (archived July 28, 2009)