Where Is Kenny Morrison Now? The Other Atreyu Behind the Camera

By CelebPaid Research · Updated October 7, 2026 · 8 min read

Thematic illustration: a director with a film camera on set, evoking Morrison's second act as a director and photographer. This is a generic illustration, not a photo of the subject.Image via Wikimedia Commons

Every fantasy franchise has its recasting stories, and The NeverEnding Story has one of the most notable: when the 1990 sequel needed a new Atreyu — Noah Hathaway having aged out — the role went to Kenny Morrison. Born December 31, 1974, in Los Angeles, Morrison was already a working child actor with sitcom credits when he inherited Fantasia's most famous warrior.

Unlike many child performers, Morrison did not flame out or vanish; he worked steadily for two decades, then did what few former child actors manage — he moved behind the camera and built a second craft. This is the verified story of where Kenny Morrison is now.

The Peak: Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story II (1990)

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990) recast nearly the entire principal ensemble — Jonathan Brandis took over as Bastian, Alexandra Johnes as the Childlike Empress — and Morrison stepped into Atreyu's boots for the sequel's journey through a Fantasia threatened by the Emptiness. Directed by George T. Miller, the film gave Morrison the biggest role of his young career at 15.

But Morrison was never just the sequel's Atreyu. His first role had been Tom McKaskel in the TV movie The Quick and the Dead (based on the Louis L'Amour novel), and by the time of the sequel he had already logged appearances on Our House, Who's the Boss?, and Growing Pains — where he recurred as Vito Paducci across four episodes from 1988 to 1990. He even turned up, in full Foot Soldier regalia, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991).

The Working Actor Years: Voyager, CSI, and Indies

Morrison's adult acting career was the unglamorous, respectable kind: guest spots and supporting roles across two decades. The standout credit is Star Trek: Voyager's "Learning Curve" (1995), in which he played Gerron — the introverted young Bajoran, a former Maquis insurgent, struggling through Starfleet discipline. For a generation of Trek fans, it is a memorable one-episode turn in one of the franchise's most beloved series.

The rest of the filmography fills out the picture of a working actor: Horses and Champions (1994), Opposite Corners (1997), Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1998), Triples (1998), the short Bobby Starr (2001), L.A. D.J. (2004), Porno (2004), a 2004 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as an ATF undercover agent, Little Athens (2005), I'll Be There with You (2006), and Baja Beach Bums (2009). Twenty-four acting credits in all — the record of someone who kept showing up.

Behind the Camera: Director and Photographer

While still acting, Morrison was already building his second career. His directing credits include music videos for the rock band Incubus — "Take Me to Your Leader" (1996) and "A Certain Shade of Green" (1997) — plus the video When Incubus Attacks (2002), the short Bobby Starr (2001, which he also starred in), and the short documentary AfriCobra: For the People 1968-2010 (2010). Five directing credits, spanning music video, short film, and documentary — a real, if quiet, directing practice.

He is also described as an active photographer — the third leg of a creative career that moved progressively behind the lens. The trajectory makes sense: a child actor who grew up on sets, learned how images are made from the inside, and eventually decided he preferred making them to being in them. It is the rare child-star second act that uses everything the first act taught.

Where Is Kenny Morrison Now?

As of 2026, Kenny Morrison is described as an active director and photographer. His last listed acting credit dates to 2009; his directing work extends to 2010. He keeps a low public profile — no convention circuit, no nostalgia interviews — having traded the performer's spotlight for the maker's workshop.

His story is the quiet professional's version of the child-actor arc: two decades in front of the camera, then a deliberate move behind it.

The Recasting Business: Stepping Into Fantasia

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter arrived in 1990 under the shadow of an impossible original — and with an entirely new young cast. The recasting was total: Jonathan Brandis replaced Barret Oliver as Bastian, Alexandra Johnes replaced Tami Stronach as the Childlike Empress, and Morrison replaced Noah Hathaway as Atreyu. For a 15-year-old actor, inheriting one of the most beloved child roles in fantasy cinema was both a career-making break and a no-win comparison. Nobody was going to love the new Atreyu the way they loved the old one; the job was to be good enough that the film worked anyway.

The sequel's production tells its own story about the franchise's ambitions. Producer Dieter Geissler had always intended a trilogy — Michael Ende's novel was, in his view, too rich for a single film — but legal battles with Ende himself delayed everything, and by the time the sequel went into production, the landscape had changed. Director George T. Miller (not to be confused with Mad Max's George Miller) inherited a project that needed to honor the original's practical-effects wonder while working with a smaller budget and a new cast. Morrison, at the center of it as Atreyu, carried the action-hero half of the film while Brandis handled the emotional arc.

The film's reputation has always been complicated. It did not — could not — recapture the original's lightning, and critics were unkind. But it has its defenders, and for a certain generation it was their NeverEnding Story: the one they saw first, the one on the VHS shelf, the one where Atreyu looked like Kenny Morrison. That is the quiet consolation of the recast role — you may never win the comparison with the original, but you become the original for someone.

Morrison's performance sits inside a specific tradition of sequel recasting that the industry has never quite solved. Audiences bond with faces, not characters; replacing the face breaks the spell, no matter how capable the replacement. What Morrison brought was professionalism — the ease of a kid who had already done sitcoms, TV movies, and a turtle sequel, and who treated Atreyu as a job to be done well rather than a legacy to be protected. There is no record of him complaining about the comparison, then or since. He did the work, moved on to the next role, and kept working for twenty years.

And that, in the end, is the more interesting story than the sequel itself. Plenty of actors get one big recast role and disappear; Morrison turned it into the foundation of a two-decade acting career and then a directing and photography practice. The 15-year-old who inherited Atreyu's sword grew up to hold the camera instead — which, when you think about it, is the natural evolution. He spent his childhood watching directors work from the other side of the lens. Eventually he walked around to their side and stayed there — the most natural career change in this entire series, made by someone who had been studying for it since he was twelve. Twenty-four credits in front of the camera, five behind it — and counting, quietly.

Then vs Now: Two Chapters

Kenny Morrison inherited one of fantasy cinema's most famous roles — and then, rarer still, he inherited himself: the kid on the set grew up to run the set.

Frequently asked questions