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Zach Braff
Braff during the 2007 Writers Guild of America Strike
Born	April 6, 1975 (1975-04-06) (age 33) South Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
Official website
Awards won Grammy Awards Best Soundtrack Album 2005 Garden State

Zachary Israel "Zach" Braff (born April 6, 1975) is an Independent Spirit Award-winning American television and film actor, director, screenwriter and producer. During the 2000s, he became known for his role as John "J.D." Dorian on the now ABC comedy Scrubs which earned him his first Emmy nomination. Braff also wrote and directed 2004's Garden State. The soundtrack record, which he selected and produced, earned him a Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album in 2005.

Early life

Braff was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. His parents, Hal Braff, a trial attorney and sociology professor, and Anne Brodzinsky, a clinical psychologist, divorced and re-married others during Braff's childhood.¹²³ One of his siblings, Joshua, is an author. Braff has wanted to be a filmmaker since his early childhood and has described it as his "life dream."⁴ Braff was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder at age 10.⁵ As a teen, Braff attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York.

He graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, where he worked in the school's television station. Braff graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in film where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. While attending Northwestern University, Braff met current singer songwriter Joshua Radin whose music is featured on Braff's ABC comedy Scrubs.

Career

Zach Braff in July 2006.

Braff began his career in stage productions of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Macbeth at New York City's Public Theater,⁴ and also appeared in Woody Allen's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery. Braff was briefly on the Disney program The Baby-sitters Club in an episode entitled "Dawn Saves the Trees."

Braff has played the role of protagonist John "J.D." Dorian on the tv show Scrubs since the show's debut in 2001. Braff has been nominated for seven Golden Globes and an Emmy for his role as the offbeat doctor. In addition to directing several episodes of Scrubs, Braff wrote, directed, and starred in 2004's Garden State, which was filmed in his home state of New Jersey, in various towns such as South Orange, Maplewood and Tenafly. Producers were initially reluctant to finance the film, which Braff wrote in six months.⁶ After its success, he was sent a large number of scripts that he rejected because they were the kinds of films that he "would never go see or have any interest in being in."⁷ In February 2005, he won a Grammy Award for "Best Compilation Soundtrack For A Motion Picture" for the Garden State soundtrack,⁷ on which he also served as the compilation producer. He has also done voice-acting, having voiced the title character for the Disney animated film Chicken Little (2005) and the video game Kingdom Hearts II, and the Cottonelle Puppy. In 2005, Braff was featured on Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd when he was tricked into chasing a supposed vandal who appeared to be spray-painting his brand new Porsche. He then proceeded to hurl expletives at the young boy until Ashton Kutcher showed up. ⁸ The episode aired March 20, 2005.⁹ Braff has also made a couple of guest appearances on the show Arrested Development as Phillip Litt, a filmmaker in the vein of Girls Gone Wild who produces a film series called "Girls with Low Self Esteem".

Braff has directed several music videos: Gavin DeGraw's "Chariot",¹⁰ Joshua Radin's "Closer" and Lazlo Bane's "Superman", the theme song from Scrubs. Despite winning a Grammy Award, choosing music for The Garden State, and directing two music videos, Braff has said that he "know[s] nothing about music."¹¹ However, his music production has resulted in newfound success for some of the artists featured on his film soundtracks, such as The Shins, who were prominently featured on the Garden State soundtrack, resulting in the expression the "Zach Braff effect."¹²¹³

In March 2007, Braff signed a one-year deal with NBC for the seventh season of Scrubs. He will reportedly earn $350,000 per episode, making him one of the highest paid actors on television,⁶ alongside House's Hugh Laurie and Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen. However, Braff claims that these reports "have not been very accurate."¹⁴

Braff starred in the romantic drama The Last Kiss, which opened on September 15, 2006. Braff, who tweaked several parts of Paul Haggis' script for the film, noted that he could relate to his character,¹ and wanted the script to be as "real as possible" and "really courageous" regarding its subject matter.¹⁵ The film's director, Tony Goldwyn, compared Braff to a younger version of Tim Allen, describing Braff as "incredibly accessible to an audience... a real guy, an everyman."¹ As with Garden State, Braff was involved with the film's soundtrack; he served as executive producer and selected lesser known artists such as Frou Frou, Joshua Radin, Schuyler Fisk, and Rachael Yamagata, as well as Remy Zero, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Turin Brakes, The Shins and Aimee Mann,⁷ to appear on the track.¹⁵ The Last Kiss grossed approximately $11 million at the North American box office,¹⁶ and was considered a commercial disappointment;⁶ However, worldwide box office receipts and DVD rentals added $35 million to the take, bringing in nearly twice the production cost of $20 million for the film.¹⁶

In 2007, Braff starred in the film The Ex, which he has described as a "silly comedy,"¹⁷ and which was released on May 11, 2007 and also starred Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin and Jason Bateman. Braff said on his blog that "the movie didn't do as well as he expected."^{citation needed} On May 19, 2007, he hosted the 32nd season finale of Saturday Night Live, where in one sketch, he plays a high schooler who tries to explain to the two snobby heads of the prom committee (Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph) how Garden State is an important film to his peers.

Braff was in talks to star in the film Fletch Won and had signed on to play the role eventually played by Dane Cook in Mr. Brooks,¹⁸ but dropped out of both roles to work on Open Hearts, which he will direct and adapt based on a Danish film. He has also co-written a film version of Andrew Henry's Meadow, a children's book, with his brother, and is scheduled to direct one of the segments for the film New York, I Love You.¹⁹

In late October 2008, Bill Lawrence confirmed Braff will star in what is expected to be the final season of Scrubs, but stated should ABC decide to continue Scrubs, Braff will not return.

Personal life

In early 2006, unnamed sources told In Touch Weekly magazine that Mandy Moore and Zach Braff were engaged.²⁰ Moore's representative denied the engagement.²¹

Filmography

He also voiced the character Chicken Little in Kingdom Hearts II, a video game for the Playstation 2 console.

Episodes of Scrubs Directed

• "My Last Chance"
• "My Best Laid Plans"
• "My Way Home"
• "My No Good Reason"
• "My Growing Pains"
• "My Princess"

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Zach Braff

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Zach Braff

• Zach Braff at the Internet Movie Database
• Zach Braff at Allmovie
• Zach Braff at MySpace
• Official website