Zach Braff

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**Zach Braff**
Zach Braff with Natalie Portman in Garden State
Born:	April 6, 1975 South Orange, New Jersey
Occupation:	Actor, director, screenwriter, and producer

Zachary Braff (born April 6, 1975) is a Grammy Award-winning American television and film actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He came to fame during the early 2000s with his role as John Dorian on the NBC sit-com Scrubs, and has since become a noted film personality, having written, starred in and directed 2004's Garden State.

1 Biography
2 Filmography
3 Footnotes
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Braff was born in South Orange, New Jersey to a Jewish family. His parents, who had divorced and re-married others during Braff's childhood,^[1] are Hal Braff, a well-known trial attorney, and Anne Braff Brodzinsky, a clinical psychologist.^[2] One of his siblings, Joshua Braff, is an author. Braff has wanted to be a filmmaker since his early childhood, and has described it as his "life dream".^[3] He graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, where he worked in the school's television station. Braff holds an academic degree in film from Northwestern University,^[1] where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

[edit] Career

Braff as J.D. on Scrubs

Braff began his career in stage productions of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Macbeth at New York City's Public Theater,^[3] and also appeared in Woody Allen's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Braff has played the role of protagonist "John "J.D." Dorian" on the sitcom Scrubs since the show's debut in 2001. Braff has been nominated for two 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.^[4] After the film's 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".^[5]

In February of 2005, he won a Grammy Award for "Best Compilation Soundtrack For A Motion Picture" for Garden State,^[5] on which he also served as the compilation producer. He has also done voice-acting, having voiced Chicken Little for the Disney animated film Chicken Little (2005) and the video game Kingdom Hearts II. He also voiced the puppy in a number of Cottonelle TV commercials. In 2005, Braff was featured on Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd when he was tricked into chasing after a supposed vandal who appeared to be spray-painting his brand new Porsche. The episode aired March 20, 2005.^[6]

Braff directed three music videos - Gavin DeGraw's "Chariot",^[7] Joshua Radin's "Closer" and Cary Brothers's "Ride".^[5]

Braff with Jacinda Barrett in The Last Kiss, 2006

In August 2006, Braff announced that he wanted to concentrate full-time on his film career and would leave Scrubs at the end of the show's sixth season,^[8] although he has stated that he would "miss" appearing on the show^[1] and that he has not yet decided if he would continue with a seventh season.^[4] Braff's most recent starring role is in the romantic drama The Last Kiss, which opened on September 15, 2006. The film's plot revolves around a couple (played by Braff and Jacinda Barrett) dealing with adulthood and the problems that arise during their early thirties. Braff, who tweaked several parts of Paul Haggis's 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.^[9] Braff discussed the film on its UK release in an interview with stv's Grant Lauchlan. The film's director, Tony Goldwyn, compared Braff to a younger version of actor Tom Hanks, 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 several unknown bands, as well as Remy Zero, Coldplay, and Aimee Mann,^[5] to appear on the track.^[9] The Last Kiss grossed $11 million at the North American box office,^[10] and was considered a disappointment.^[4]

Braff's next film, Fast Track, which he has described as a "silly comedy", is scheduled for release on December 29, 2006 and also stars Amanda Peet and Charles Grodin.^[11] Braff has been linked to star in a new version of the series Fletch, as well as direct a version of the Danish drama Open Hearts and, as of September 2006, is co-writing a film version of Andrew Henry's Meadow, a children's book, with his brother, Adam Braff.^[1]

[edit] Personal life

Braff started dating pop singer and actress Mandy Moore in the summer of 2004. One of their first public sightings together was when they arrived together at a fundraising event for the Democratic Party prior to the November 2004 election. In early 2006, unnamed sources told In Touch Weekly magazine that the couple were engaged.^[12] Braff called this a "total Internet rumor." Moore's representative denied the engagement.^[13] Moore appeared in a two-episode story arc on Scrubs in Season 5, Episodes 9 and 10 as a love interest for Braff's character. In early June 2006, tabloids reported that Braff and Moore had ended their relationship;^[14] however, around the same time period, the couple were announced to have arranged a week-long trip to Israel together, scheduled for July 2006.^[15] In September of 2006, Braff confirmed that his relationship with Moore has ended. In response to tabloids now linking him to singer Jessica Simpson, he joked: "I wish I was leading a fraction of the life that the tabloids have me leading." .^[1]

Braff is friends with singer Lauryn Hill, who graduated from Columbia High School in 1993, the same year as Braff. Braff mentions being great childhood friends with Hill, who went to his Bar Mitzvah in 1988.^[16]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Manhattan Murder Mystery	Nick Lipton
2000	Broken Hearts Club	Benji
2000	Blue Moon	Fred
2004	Garden State	Andrew Largeman	also writer/director/soundtrack producer
2005	Chicken Little	Chicken Little	(voice only)
2006	The Last Kiss	Michael
2006	Fast Track	Tom Reilly	post-production; scheduled for December 29
2007	Open Hearts		also director/producer; pre-production
2007	Fletch Won	Fletch	rumored