Cole Sprouse. Jim Spellman/WireImage Cole Sprouse and his twin brother Dylan starred on "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and subsequent spinoffs from 2005 to 2011. Their acting careers started out even earlier, playing Ross' son Ben on "Friends." "When you're a child actor, you're a minor, and so a lot of the larger business decisions that are controlling your career are outside your agency," Sprouse told Variety in 2019. "One of the dangers of, at least in my position, which was a sitcom inside a sound stage for nine years with Disney Channel, you're raised in such an insular environment that you forget what real human experience or boots-on-the-ground actually looks like."