Zach Braff

New Jersian Zach Braff is a Northwestern University's film graduate, best-known for his portrayal of the 'newbie' Dr John "J.D." Dorian in NBC's Scrubs. Perhaps Garden State (2004), in which he starred alongside Natalie Portman, truly flaunted all three of his capacities - acting, writing and directing. It was shot in his hometown South Orange and was initially called Large's Ark - eventually, the name changed because Braff considered it to be too much of a mouthful. Despite a budget of only $2.5 million, the film earned its way into the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it sold for $5 million to Fox Searchlight and Miramax.

Another actor-director then, huh?

The film also garnered substantial recognition including an Independent Spirit Award for "Best First Feature." On the writing side, Braff received a coveted WGA nomination for "Best Original Screenplay" and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best First Screenplay." This was not all. Braff was awarded "Best Directorial Debut" by the National Board of Review; "Breakthrough Director" by the Hollywood Film Festival; and "Most Promising Filmmaker" by the Chicago Film Critics Association. For his hand-picked soundtrack which included songs by Simon and Garfunkel, Coldplay, The Shins, Zero 7 and Frou Frou, Braff received a Grammy Award for "Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, TV or Other Visual Media" and a Broadcast Film Critics Award for "Best Soundtrack."

What about his acting?

In Scrubs, possibly the only hardlinked sitcom title on television, Braff's gum-faced performance can earn his character as much sympathy as it can irritation! Braff's stage experience includes New York City's Public Theatre productions of "Twelfth Night" and "Macbeth" with Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett. His filmography includes Chicken Little (2005), Getting to Know You (1999) and Manhatten Murder Mystery (1993) in which he plays Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's son.

Now honestly... why, oh why, do we love him?

First of all Zach's non-Hollywood physical features are nonetheless irresistable.
Disney's animated Chicken Little owes the voice of its tiny bespectacled star to him! His compensation actually included a piece of the sky.
His Scrubs co-star Donald Faison is his best friend in life.
Indubitably, Zach Braff is a family man. For "Garden State", Braff's parents ironed some technical scripting kinks since they are both practising psychiatrists. He cowrote an adaptation of the children's book "Andrew Henry's Meadow" with his brother Adam. Brother Josh is a poet and his online typepad daylog for Garden State is linked to his brother's own... although the latter does not update it as much!

The Website

As of June 7, 2006 the much awaited www.zachbraff.com is finally online! Although the site includes what Mr Braff calls "Shameless plugs", marketing ZB projects released and to be released, he promises the site will truly be dedicated to the fans. No bio, no picture galleries - instead, Zach plans to host a number of contests which will eventually showcase hot new talent, be it for music, photography or film. The blog remains... so do the lovely video posts.