What Happened To The Kid Who Played Young Michael Hobbs In Elf?

Back in the more innocent and magical time of 2003, one Christmas movie came along that revitalized the world's love for magical holiday fare. The film was "Elf," and it starred Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, a human man who was raised as an elf in the North Pole. Buddy strikes out on his own to meet his human father, Walter Hobbs (played by the incomparable James Caan, who sadly died in July 2022), and finds friendship with his much younger half-brother, Michael, played by child actor Daniel Tay.

While much of the sizable cast of "Elf" went on to explore other projects and have different Hollywood adventures, it seems the calling of fame and stardom didn't echo out for Tay. The actor was only 11 when he played Michael Hobbs, and he brought a youthful and enthusiastic energy to his interactions with Ferrell — including their memorable snowball fight in Central Park against a bunch of school bullies, and the film's emotional conclusion when Michael gets his surly and stone-hearted dad to believe in Christmas magic once more to save the day. It's a heartwarming scene – one that even made Ferrell himself cry during filming!

For six years after the momentous release of "Elf," Tay continued to work in the industry, with small parts and voice acting roles. However, as his teen years came to a close, Tay's life took a different, more education-focused path away from the limelight and into higher education and then medicine. Now, more than two decades after "Elf" hit theaters, Tay is living his dream — just a very different dream than what he likely imagined for himself when starring in a major film as a pre-teen actor.

Daniel Tay's career didn't begin and end with his role as Michael Hobbs in "Elf," although it was his biggest part and most high-profile performance during his brief acting career. The same year that "Elf" rode into theaters, Tay made his big screen debut in the biopic "American Splendor," which details the life of iconic underground indie comic book writer Harvey Pekar. Tay played a young Pekar and even featured heavily in the film's trailer, adding to his profile as a young actor.

After "Elf," Tay went on to do a lot of voice acting alongside some heavy hitters as part of some particularly stacked casts. Tay provided the voice of the main character Doogal in the 2006 release "Doogal," an American dub of the 2005 animated French film "The Magic Roundabout," alongside William H. Macy, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Stewart, Judi Dench, Bill Hader, John Krasinski, and Chevy Chase. After that, he struck up a working relationship with Rockstar Games and was cast to provide voice lines for characters in some of their major releases, including the 2006 video game "Bully."

Tay's final acting credit came in 2009, when he voiced a character for the video game "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony." That year, Tay stepped back from show business to reprioritize and focus on the next chapter of his life — his education.

Many young actors dream of hitting it big, acting alongside A-list stars, and enjoying the fame that comes with being in a classic film. For Daniel Tay, starring with Will Ferrell in the certified Christmas classic "Elf" checked off a lot of those boxes early in his career. When it came time to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, Tay decided to focus on his academic career. Tay graduated from Yale University with a degree in economics and also studied Mandarin, which earned him the Richard U. Light Fellowship. 

At Yale, he worked as a teaching assistant and peer tutor. He continued that passion for teaching after graduation as an SAT tutor for Veritas Prep. From there, he went on to study medicine. After graduating from Yale, Tay worked as a research fellow at Columbia University and then began studying medicine at Cornell University. He was a recipient of the CTSC Summer Fellowship for Medical Students in 2023 as a rising second-year student and was focused on autism research. So, yeah, it sounds like he might be too busy to reprise his role as  Michael Hobbs if that long-rumored "Elf"  sequel ever magically materializes in the future.