{"id":2495561,"date":"2026-07-09T20:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2495561"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:36:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:36:32","slug":"diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-star-robert-capron-unrecognizable-years-after-famous-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-star-robert-capron-unrecognizable-years-after-famous-meme\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Diary of a Wimpy Kid&#8217; star Robert Capron unrecognizable years after famous meme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cDiary of the Wimpy Kid\u201d star Robert Capron has turned 28 \u2014 and nearly three decades after a meme from the movie went viral, fans are stunned by his transformation.<\/p>\n<p>X account Pop Crave <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PopCrave\/status\/2075067414996210144?sort_replies=recency\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shared side-by-side photos<\/a> of Capron as his franchise character Rowley Jefferson, and the fully unrecognizable, nearly 30-year-old adult with darker hair and a fit physique. <\/p>\n<p>In the comments thread, fans were in disbelief, with one person writing, \u201cthe glow up is serious lol\u201d and another gushing, \u201cOh, he\u2019s so adorable!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A third follower lamented, \u201cBro didn\u2019t have to grow up,\u201d while a fourth remarked, \u201cWait a minute! Who are you?\u201d <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cDiary of a Wimpy Kid\u201d star Robert Capron looks unrecognizable years after a viral meme from the franchise (seen above). <span class=\"credit\">20th Century Fox<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Capron, seen here in a recent Instagram upload, is now all grown up in his late 20s. <span class=\"credit\">Instagram\/@robert_capron<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Fans on social media weighed in on the dramatic transformation in honor of his 28th birthday on Thursday. He\u2019s seen here in a previous social media upload.  <span class=\"credit\">Instagram\/@robert_capron<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>A fifth person enthused, \u201cDamn, Rowley grew up handsome. Good for him.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cRowley all grown up is making an entire generation of millennials and Gen Z feel ancient right now,\u201d yet another wrote. <\/p>\n<p>Capron famously played Rowley in the franchise movies between 2010 and 2017. But it was a moment from 2011\u2019s \u201cDiary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules\u201d that caught the attention of an entire generation. <\/p>\n<p>In the viral clip, entitled \u201cRowley Waves and Looks Down,\u201d Capron\u2019s character sees pal Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) walking into church with a pink shawl covering a chocolate stain on his pants. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Capron, seen here with co-star Zachary Gordon, played Rowley Jefferson.  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>A meme featuring his character went viral. He\u2019s seen above with Gordon in the franchise\u2019s first film in 2010.  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rowley waves cheerfully before looking down at the shawl with a dubious expression. <\/p>\n<p>Across social media, fans looked back on the meme on Thursday in honor of the actor\u2019s birthday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks for the meme,\u201d one person wrote, while another chimed in, calling the meme \u201cunforgettable.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Rowley once shared that, despite starring in four of the beloved movies based on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2025\/12\/16\/style\/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-author-jeff-kinney-shares-his-six-favorite-books\/\">author Jeff Kinney<\/a>\u2018s 2007 book, his favorite part has been the memes. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Fans on social media called the meme \u201cunforgettable.\u201d Capron is pictured above with Gordon and Grayson Russell in 2012\u2019s \u201cDiary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Capron, seen here in a social media upload, once called the meme his \u201cfavorite part\u201d of appearing in the franchise.  <span class=\"credit\">Instagram\/@robert_capron<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, my favorite part now, truly,\u201d Capron<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/featurefirst.net\/robert-capron-on-vial-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-memes-better-call-saul\/\"> said in a 2024 interview<\/a> with Feature First.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs somebody who went to high school and sent around some goofy GIFs and all of that, it is so delightful to me that I am now being sent around as a reaction GIF, presumably in a lot of different high schools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in the interview, Capron added, \u201cPeople talk about winning an Oscar and different things. I think like the goofball teenager in me is very proud to be a part of the meme pantheon that way, it\u2019s very weird but I\u2019m thankful for it. It\u2019s kind of wild.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cDiary of the Wimpy Kid\u201d star Robert Capron has turned 28 \u2014 and nearly three decades after a meme from the movie went viral, fans are stunned by his transformation. X account Pop Crave shared side-by-side photos of Capron as his franchise character Rowley Jefferson, and the fully unrecognizable, nearly 30-year-old adult with darker hair [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2495562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[304752,24003,21787,361906,375671,21912],"class_list":["post-2495561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-celebrity-birthdays","tag-celebrity-news","tag-celebrity-social-media","tag-child-stars","tag-memes","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Diary-of-a-Wimpy-Kid-star-Robert-Capron-unrecognizable-years.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2495563,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495561\/revisions\/2495563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2495562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}