“Elf” cast: Where are they now?

If smiling's your favorite, then fill up on Christmas cheer and check EW's list to see if the cast of Elf has been naughty or nice since the film's release in 2003.

Elf tells the Yuletide tale of Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human raised at the North Pole who believes he's one of Santa's magical helpers. When the happy-go-lucky misfit discovers the truth about his parentage, he leaves Santa's Workshop behind and travels to New York City to find his biological father, Walter (James Caan).

While it's widely regarded as a Christmas classic now, the executives at New Line Cinema weren't convinced the Jon Favreau-directed comedy would be a hit with audiences at the time. The film was only Favreau's second outing as a director, and Ferrell had yet to prove himself as a box office star. Elf would be his first movie post-Saturday Night Live, and his previous effort, 1998's A Night at the Roxbury, was not a financial success.

In a true Christmas miracle, the holiday adventure was a hit, earning over $220 million during the course of its theatrical run, and proving the execs were just a bunch of cotton-headed ninny muggins. It has since been adapted into a Broadway musical, and the musical was then turned into an hour-long stop-motion animated special, Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas, in 2014. Ed Asner reprised his role as Santa, and was the only cast member from the film to return for the special.

Read on to find out what the rest of the cast of Elf has been up to in the decades since Buddy's arrival in New York City.

Will Ferrell (Buddy Hobbs)

The SNL alum has had one of the most successful post-show film careers of the cast, thanks in part to the huge success of back-to-back hits Old School (2003) and Elf. After his turn as Buddy became the stuff of Christmas legend, the Groundlings-trained performer continued to churn out box office hits with comedies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Blades of Glory (2007), Step Brothers (2008), The Other Guys (2010), and Daddy's Home (2015).

He also voiced a number of characters in animated projects, most notably DreamWorks' Megamind (2010), and the hit Lego Movie franchise. In 2006, Ferrell took on his first dramatic starring role alongside Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Queen Latifah in the quirky dramedy Stranger Than Fiction, receiving some of the best reviews of his career, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. He made the leap to Broadway in 2009 with a one-man show, You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush, that served as a retirement for his impersonation of the former president. The limited engagement, co-written by longtime collaborator Adam McKay, was a financial and critical success, earning the duo Emmy and Tony nominations.

In addition to his work as a performer, Ferrell has produced a lengthy list of film and TV projects, including Eastbound & Down, Dead to Me, Drunk History, and Succession. He was also a founding member of the comedy platform Funny or Die, and, in 2016, became a part-owner of the Major League Soccer team, the Los Angeles Football Club, which won the league championship in 2022. The year 2019 saw the dissolution of his partnership with Adam McKay, reportedly due to the director's decision to cast John C. Reilly over Ferrell for the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

Ferrell was a recipient of the James Joyce award from the University College Dublin's Literary and Historical Society in 2008, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2011. He has been married to his wife, Viveca Paulin, with whom he shares three children, since 2000. In November 2022, Ferrell added another Christmas film to his canon with the Apple TV+ release Spirited, costarring Ryan Reynolds, in which he puts a musical twist on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.

Zooey Deschanel (Jovie)

Zooey Deschanel has been very busy since Elf's release. After bringing Buddy's deadpan love interest, Jovie, to life, the actress had starring roles in the films The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), The Happening (2008), Yes Man (2008), and (500) Days of Summer (2009). Outside of acting, she found success as part of the musical duo She & Him with fellow musician M. Ward. They released their first album, Volume One, in 2008, and have since released six more, including two holiday albums: 2011's A Very She & Him Christmas and 2016's Christmas Party.

In 2011, she began a seven-season run as the quirky Jessica Day on the hit Fox sitcom New Girl. Deschanel served as both star and producer of the ensemble comedy, and helped develop the character along with series creator Liz Meriwether. Over the course of its 146 episodes, the actor-singer received Emmy, Golden Globe, and People's Choice award nominations for her performance.

Deschanel cohosts a New Girl rewatch podcast with her former costars Hannah Simone and Lamorne Morris. She also hosted a brief revival of The Celebrity Dating Game with singer Michael Bolton for ABC in 2021, but the series was canceled after one season. She has two children with her ex-husband, film producer Jacob Pechinek, and is in a relationship with Property Brothers star Jonathan Scott.

James Caan (Walter Hobbs)

The former Sonny Corleone portrayed Buddy's biological father, Walter, a self-centered book publisher on Santa's Naughty List. Caan was already a Hollywood legend by the time of Elf's release, thanks to his Oscar-nominated performance in The Godfather (1972), and his turns in Rollerball (1975), Michael Mann's Thief (1981), Misery (1990), and Honeymoon in Vegas (1992). The year 2003 proved to be a fruitful year for the actor, as he also found success as casino president "Big Ed" Deline on the NBC series Las Vegas.

He left the show after four seasons in 2007, and continued to work in film before returning to television in 2013 for the Starz drama Magic City, on which he portrayed Chicago Mob boss Sy Berman for five episodes. Caan also provided the voice for the character Tim Lockwood in both animated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movies (2009, 2013).

His final role was the 2021 comedy Queen Bees with Ellen Burstyn, Jane Curtin, and Loretta Devine. The actor died of a heart attack on July 6, 2022 at the age of 82. He is survived by his five children, including Hawaii Five-0 star Scott Caan.

Bob Newhart (Papa Elf)

Comedy legend Bob Newhart slipped into the pointy shoes of Papa Elf, Buddy's adoptive father and the film's narrator. The Peabody award winner mostly worked on television in the decades after Elf, with the exception of a small role in the movie Horrible Bosses in 2011 opposite Jason Bateman. He has appeared on Desperate Housewives, NCIS, The Librarians, and Hot in Cleveland, and recurred on the CBS sitcoms The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon.

His time on Big Bang netted Newhart his first Emmy award in 2013, over 50 years after his first nomination in 1962 for The Bob Newhart Show. During the many Christmases since his stint as Santa's chief elf in charge, he published his first book, a collection of personal anecdotes and comedy routines titled I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!: And Other Things That Strike Me as Funny. Newhart's wife, Ginnie, to whom he was married for 60 years, died in April 2023. He has four children and 10 grandchildren.

Ed Asner (Santa Claus)

The man, the myth, the legend himself, Santa Claus, was ho ho ho'd to life by Mary Tyler Moore alum Ed Asner. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductee had a long and storied career prior to putting on Kris Kringle's famous red suit. The most-awarded male performer in Emmy history, he won the statue seven times, and was nominated for a career total of 17.

Post-Elf, Asner accumulated more than 170 credits across television, film, video games, and animation. As a voice actor, he took on the lead role of Carl Fredricksen in the Oscar-winning Pixar film Up (2009) and breathed life into characters on shows such as The Boondocks, American Dad!, and Teen Titans Go!. On camera, he guest-starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cobra Kai, Grace and Frankie, Dead to Me, Doom Patrol, and Blue Bloods, to name a few.

Asner supported several nonprofit organizations such as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Autism Speaks, and Defenders of Wildlife, and was an outspoken member of the Democratic Party and SAG-AFTRA. Asner died of natural causes in 2021 at the age of 91, and is survived by his children Matthew, Kate, and Liza from his first marriage to Nancy Sykes, and his son Charles, from his relationship with Carol Jean Vogelman.

Mary Steenburgen (Emily Hobbs)

Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen portrayed Emily, Walter's wife, and stepmother to Buddy. Following Elf, she played a maternal role opposite Ferrell once again in Step Brothers, and later the same year added another Christmas film to her résumé with the Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn comedy Four Christmases (2008).

On television, she costarred on Joan of Arcadia for two seasons, and played recurring roles on 30 Rock, Justified, and Orange Is the New Black, and was a series regular on The Last Man on Earth and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. She added two more movies to her list of Yuletide credits with Hulu's holiday rom-com Happiest Season (2020) and the Roku Channel film Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas (2021). She has also starred in the romantic comedies The Proposal (2009) and Book Club (2018) — plus the latter's 2023 sequel.

After minor arm surgery in 2007, Steenburgen started hearing music in her head, and began learning to write songs to cope with this strange side effect. She has since written over 50 compositions, and in 2020 signed a songwriting contract with Universal Music. Her 2018 piece "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)," performed by Jessie Buckley, was featured in the film Wild Rose, and earned her Critics' Choice, Hollywood Critics Association, and Houston Film Critics Society awards.

Steenburgen has two children from her first marriage to Time After Time costar Malcolm McDowell. She has been married to Ted Danson since 1995, and the couple have starred in several projects together including Curb Your Enthusiasm and Mr. Mayor.

Peter Dinklage (Miles Finch)

Peter Dinklage, who played best-selling children's book author Miles Finch, has had quite a bit of success since he laid a holiday season smackdown on Buddy. Following back-to-back critical and commercial successes in late-2003 with The Station Agent and Elf, he played himself in an episode of HBO's Entourage, before starring on the short-lived CBS series Threshold, and guesting in a seven-episode arc on FX's Nip/Tuck. He costarred in both the British and American versions of the dark comedy Death at a Funeral, as well as the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), before landing the biggest role of his career on HBO's smash hit Game of Thrones.

From 2011 to 2019, Dinklage portrayed Tyrion Lannister on GoT, making him a household name and earning him four Emmys, a Golden Globe, and 11 SAG award nominations. He has starred in the Marvel blockbusters X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and received acclaim for his turns in Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and the stage and film adaptations of the musical Cyrano. He also has a role in 2023's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as the inventor of the Hunger Games.

Dinklage is an advocate for animal rights and has worked on campaigns with organizations such as PETA and Farm Sanctuary. He has been married since 2005 to playwright, director, and Cyrano scribe Erica Schmidt, with whom he shares two children.

Daniel Tay (Michael Hobbs)

The young actor who played Buddy's half-brother, Michael, has stepped away from Hollywood since Elf, only appearing in a handful of roles and voice-over gigs before leaving the industry behind. In 2006, he voiced the titular character in the animated film Doogal, followed by on-camera work in the movies Beer League (2006) and Brooklyn Rules (2007). His final two acting credits were in 2009 for American Dad! and the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

In 2014, the former Michael Hobbs graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of arts degree in economics. After a few years as an SAT prep tutor, he became a research fellow at Columbia University, and is now studying medicine at Cornell University. In news that will make you feel as old as Jolly St. Nick, Buddy's little brother is now in his 30s.

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Related content:

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• Will Ferrell's Christmas movie Spirited calls out Elf in the most cotton-headed ninny muggins way

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.