What Robert Iler Has Been Doing Since The Sopranos Ended

Hard as it is to believe, over a decade has passed since the legendary mafia drama series The Sopranos ended its six-season run on HBO. Since The Sopranos' divisive final episode aired in the summer of 2007, virtually every member of the show's sprawling ensemble cast has managed to carve out a steady career for themselves in front of the camera — even if many have been typecast as mobsters, coppers, tough guys, and manipulative molls. 

However, post-Sopranos life has been less eventful for an actor who portrayed the child of the series' big boss Tony (the late, great James Gandolfini). We are, of course, talking about Robert Iler, who played the younger Soprano sibling Anthony Jr. (better known as A.J.). Unfortunately, Iler has all but disappeared from the limelight since leaving The Sopranos behind. Here's a quick look at what the one-time star of The Sopranos has been doing since the show ended.

The short answer is "not much" — at least within the acting arena. 

While Iler earned his first film credit at the ripe old age of 13 (starring opposite Gregory Hines, Carol Kane, and Christopher Marquette in 1998's The Tic Code) and landed the life-changing role of A.J. Soprano just a year later, it appears the acting bug never fully took hold for the talented youngster. That may come as a surprise to many, as Iler continued to book steady work in his down time from the series — claiming supporting parts on projects like 2002's indie comedy Tadpole, 2003's Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil, and USA Network's underrated serialization of Stephen King's The Dead Zone. 

Once The Sopranos ended, Iler took a couple of years off from acting. It looked like Iler was prepping for a comeback when he took a role as a low-level tough guy on Law & Order circa 2009, but it's essentially been crickets for his acting career since.

But don't worry. Robert Iler — who narrowly avoided jail time after being arrested for larceny in 2002 during The Sopranos' episodic run — hasn't continued down the same brooding bad boy path that's proven the undoing of so many child stars before him. In fact, he's doing quite well for himself in a surprising new role: that of a Vegas-based card shark. 

Yes, it's hard not to grin knowing that the former star of a mobster series has since carved a niche out for himself amongst the poker tables of Sin City, but that seems to be just the case. Iler now splits time between the World Series of Poker and the occasional illicit, underground poker game to boot.  

In an interview with Poker Listings (via PopCulture.com), Iler confirmed that, after his Law & Order appearance in 2009, he decided to "take a year off" from acting. "Then one year became two, two years became three" — and, well, you get the picture. Iler apparently even instructed his agent to stop sending him film and television scripts altogether so he could focus on playing cards. 

While Iler — who likely squirreled away a nice little nest egg from his time on The Sopranos — refuses to call himself a professional poker player, there's no denying how passionate he is about it. 

"That's definitely all I do," he said. "I'd love to just play poker for the rest of my life." 

As luck would have it, poker is the very thing that finally got Robert Iler back in front of cameras. In 2017, Iler found himself again on the Hollywood radar when he appeared front and center (along with Mike Tyson, Kevin Pollock, Ernie Hudson, and Armand Asante) in the trailer for Mars Callahan's Vegas-set drama series 4 Kings. Not surprisingly, the show follows four poker-loving, would-be movers trying to make a name for themselves in the gritty Vegas underground. 

Sadly, in the two years since that trailer dropped, it appears 4 Kings — which hardly seems like network television fare — is having a little trouble finding a home. At the moment, the show's IMDb page still lists the project in "post-production," but little else is know about the state of the series.

While we wait to see what happens with 4 Kings, it seems the best place to catch Iler on the screen is via reruns of The Sopranos — though it's also possible you'll catch his stone-faced mug at this year's World of Series Poker. Either way, we wish him all the luck in whatever "career path" he choses.