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Actor Bug Hall's signature cowlick and Hollywood career are both long gone, with The Little Rascals star now living off-grid as 'a radical Catholic extremist' under 'a vow of poverty' with his wife and young children, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Hall 'self-canceled' from Hollywood for good and moved his family to an 80-acre plot near the town of Mountain Home, Arkansas, after taking a vow of poverty.
The father-of-five, 40, says he gave up the fortune he made as a child star as part of his religious pledge, donating all his savings and most of his belongings.
He and his family now live in a campervan with a water well and a generator as he plans to go completely off-grid and build them a house within six months.
In an exclusive interview Hall told the Daily Mail their only bills are for gas to power the generator and run their car and $100 for him and his wife to have cellphones.
'My goal is to maintain a life as free of any need for an income as possible,' he says. 'If there's a financial need that comes up, I'll go take some work or do an odd job, for cash to fulfill that need.'
Bug Hall (center) was once a beloved child actor taking on the iconic role of Alfalfa in the 1994 Steven Spielberg movie The Little Rascals
A young Bug Hall (right) is seen in a scene from Little Rascals alongside co-star Travis Tedford
Brandon 'Bug' Hall appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1994
Hall has abandoned Hollywood to go off-grid with his family in Arkansas, embracing life as a 'radical Catholic extremist' and voicing controversial views, including severely punishing his children
Hall plans to go totally off-grid with a hydro-electrical dam and by installing his own plumbing and electrical systems.
Hall and his wife, Jill, who married in 2017, had their eldest daughters while living in LA before moving across the country and briefly living in Texas in 2020. The family went on to live in Michigan and Ohio before putting down roots in northern Arkansas.
The couple homeschool their children, and will 'strongly discourage them' from going to college, he said, calling formal school mostly 'nonsense'.
His eldest daughter, aged eight, wants to start her own convent on the land, while another of his children has asked Hall to build a house for her and her future husband, he told us.
Hall was born Brandon Rowan but his childhood nickname stuck. He has now legally changed his name to Bug Hall-Barnett in a tribute to his stepfather, Mark Barnett, who raised him.
He found fame as Alfalfa in Steven Spielberg's 1994 film The Little Rascals and was nominated for a Children's Emmy for A Tale Dark and Grimm. He later co-wrote the movie This Is the Year, with Selena Gomez as executive producer. But now Tinseltown is long forgotten.
In his April 2025 YouTube video titled 'Into the Unknown', Hall started off by praying before launching into an explanation of why he left his career, saying in hindsight it was 'a big pile of nothing'
In the video, he described himself as a 'radical Catholic extremist' and claimed that raising 'extremists' was the only way 'to combat our age'
Hall lives in northern Arkansas. His brother Gemini Barnett lives nearby in a town called Mountain View. Their mother Twila and stepfather Mark relocated to nearby Cave City
Gemini bought a 10-acre plot in the town of Mountain View for $150,000 in June 2024 and has finished the majority of the property's construction
His exodus from public life began in 2020 after he was arrested for huffing air duster cans at a hotel while visiting his parents in Weatherford, Texas.
He was booked on misdemeanor possession, but he said he faced no charges and the Daily Mail could find no court records.
Hall said that before that, he was sober for 15 years but suffered several relapses which 'got brushed to the side' as he continued working in 'high energy' Hollywood.
Hall, who had two young daughters at the time, says his very public arrest was one of the best things that ever happened to him.
'I loved making movies. I loved writing, producing, acting,' he said, adding he didn't believe God wanted him to give up on showbiz.
'So God had to shake me up a little harder, I suppose.'
Hall has said he struggled to be open in Hollywood about his 'traditional' - and controversial - beliefs on issues like gay marriage and abortion – he calls gay marriage 'contrary to natural law' and abortion 'plainly murder'.
He decided to quit Hollywood because he didn't want to live a life of 'manipulation, of other people, in how I speak to them, in the stuff that I make or produce… including myself, as an addict'.
Hall was arrested for allegedly inhaling air duster cans at a hotel in Texas in 2020
'I didn't want to go work some job that was basically meaningless, making widgets to entertain people or distract people,' Hall told the Daily Mail.
He has won praise from some members of the 'trad Cath' community for his seemingly inspirational journey to finding faith and his decision to lead a stripped-back life on the land.
In an April 2025 video titled 'Into the Unknown', he explained why he made the decision to leave Hollywood despite 'loving' the work he was doing, equating his career in hindsight as 'fiddling with straw.'
'It was a big pile of nothing,' he added.
Property records also reveal that Hall's mother Twila and her husband Mark are starting to build on a 10-acre plot in nearby Cave City, which they bought in April 2025 for $80,000
Hall has caught flack for his his social media statements, including previous 'sexist' remarks describing his son as his 'heir'
In response to the flak about his dubious post on his son's birth, Hall equated his daughters to 'dishwashers'
Hall is pictured with his wife Jill and three of their daughters. The family currently lives in a campervan
The father-of-five was banned from X in 2022 after saying his children were 'severely' punished for 'unacceptable behavior' starting from only 10 months old
'It really wasn't all that great of a sacrifice compared to what our Lord had planned to give me in return. The fruits of that decision to live this radical lifestyle.'
The self-canceled actor also described himself in the video as a 'radical Catholic extremist' and said raising 'extremists' was the only way 'to combat our age'.
Hall's move to Arkansas has been a family affair: his younger brother, Gemini Barnett, their mother, Twila and Hall's stepfather Mark also recently bought plots of land.
Married father-of-six Gemini, 35, also a former child actor who appeared in The Wedding Singer, bought a 10-acre plot in the town of Mountain View for $150,000 in June 2024, according to property records obtained by the Daily Mail.
Gemini has erected most of his house, where he, his wife Carrie and their kids spent Christmas with his mother and stepfather, Twila revealed in festive snaps shared on Facebook last month.
Meanwhile, Hall said he 'will start his build soon', she revealed in the update.
In the YouTube video, Hall said he plans to build a church on the property and was working in construction to gather funds for its development.
Twila and Mark are starting to build on a 10-acre plot in nearby Cave City, which they bought in April 2025 for $80,000, property records reveal.
Prior to Arkansas, Hall and his family lived for a year-and-a-half in a house on a 60-acre farm in Ida, Michigan, owned by a friend he met at church.
His brother Gemini, 35, was also a child actor who appeared in The Wedding Singer and has seemingly followed his brother's footsteps by leaving Hollywood behind
He was evicted from the farm in fall 2024, according to court records seen by the Daily Mail.
Hall – who describes himself on X as a 'patriarch of six' and 'medieval moralist' – has regaled followers and 'trad Cath' YouTubers about how his family's overhead cost now comes to just 'a few hundred dollars a month'.
He has been widely criticized for his social media statements, including previous 'sexist' remarks describing his son as his 'heir' and his daughters as dishwashers.
He was temporarily banned from X in 2022 after saying his children are 'severely' punished for unacceptable behavior, starting from the age of just 10 months old.
'We punish severely in my home for unacceptable behavior,' he wrote. 'Punishment begins at around 10 months. Before the age of reason it's an immediate corporal/retributive justice. It then begins to shift to a privation/reparative model.'
Hall conceded it was possibly 'not the right choice of words', adding: 'We believe in severe punishment, meaning that it's swift, it's exacting.
'I do spank my kids, and I'm a firm believer in spankings as a means of creating right cogitative associations early.'
Hall is set to host a $500-a-ticket Florida fundraising gala next month, billed as an event 'dedicated to preserving and promoting the timeless beauty of traditional Catholicism'
He said a ten-month-old would get a 'small swat on the diaper' but that 'spanking' is 'age dependent' in their home.
As his children got older, the discipline changed to what he called 'a more deprivation' style of punishment they would understand, such as taking their toys away.
Hall says he 'self-canceled' years ago 'largely for the purpose of being able to just say what I think is true and good.'
And he doubled-down on this rhetoric in his YouTube video, saying that more young men 'ought to speak boldly' and 'fight the good fight'.
Next month, Hall will be master of ceremonies for a $500-a-ticket Florida fundraising gala 'dedicated to preserving and promoting the timeless beauty of traditional Catholicism.'
After the gala, Hall plans to 'disappear' from social media, sharing only occasional updates on the progress of his Arkansas homestead.
Only time will tell if stays true to his word, and casts off the final trapping of his former public life.
English (US) ·