American Pie star Thomas Ian Nicholas is back in the spotlight and looking, unlike the character he played in the raunchy teen franchise.

The actor played Tara Reid’s onscreen boyfriend Kevin Myers in the films and was the mastermind behind the pact for the male characters to lose their virginity before they finished high school.

Nicholas, who was just 20 when the first film came out, sported a clean-cut appearance in the movies, which ran from 1999 to 2012.

However, this week as he did the rounds to promote his new Tubi mockumentary  in both LA and Australia, he rocked longer wavy hair and a full goatee.

Appearing on , Nicholas, now 43, was completely unrecognizable in a video cross from Los Angeles as he spoke to hosts Kylie Gillies and Matt Doran.

In the interview, the actor recalled when he first saw the script for before the movie was released in 1999.

“I first thought that it was a bit dirty, maybe something for the adult channels,” he admitted.

“So I sort of threw it in the trash and called my agent and said, ‘Don’t send me this’ … That is the truth.”

However, producers were relentless and really pushed for him to audition.

“I gave the script a whole read through and I realized that it was great, there was a lot of heart to it, so I auditioned,” he said.

“Each film that we did, we would have more fun, I would say off-camera, especially as we started getting onto locations and things.”

Three more installments we made: American Pie 2 in 2001, American Pie: The Wedding in 2003, and in 2012.

Nicholas appeared in all four movies but did not reprise his role of Kevin in the five series spin-offs.

Amid his success on , the actor had roles in films such as  and TV shows such as  and .

But remains his most famous film.

The franchise also starred Jennifer Coolidge who played the role of Stifler’s (Seann William Scott) mum.

After an extended career slump, Coolidge experienced a career resurgence thanks to her role in the HBO series,, which streams locally on .

But despite her new-found fame, Nicholas says Coolidge will “always be ‘Stifler’s mum’ to me.”