Biography

Zach Braff

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Zach Braff was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, to Anne Hutchinson (Maynard), a clinical psychologist, and Harold Irwin Braff, a trial attorney. His father is from Russia and Austria, while Zach's mother is from a family with deep roots in New England. Zach attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, and also graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in film. Zach is known for playing Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian on the television series Scrubs (2001), for writing, directing, and starring in the films Garden State (2004) and Wish I Was Here (2014), and for starring in the movies Chicken Little (2005), The Last Kiss (2006), and The Ex (1996).

He just completed directing the New Line/ Warner Bros. feature "Going In Style" starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

Is best friends in real life with Scrubs (2001) co-star Donald Faison, who plays Turk.
Some of the events in Garden State (2004) (which Braff wrote and directed) are quirky, exaggerated derivatives of occurrences in his real life.
Won a Grammy in February of 2005 for "Best Compilation Soundtrack For A Motion Picture" for Garden State (2004), on which he served as the compilation producer.
According to an article in The Chicago Sun-Times, when Braff won his Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award for Garden State (2004), his father jumped up from a back table in the room and yelled, "That's my kid!".
Close friend with Scrubs (2001) co-star Sarah Chalke.

I love Scrubs (2001). It's the best day job in the world.
I love The Office (2001). I think it's the funniest thing - Ricky Gervais is possibly the funniest person I've seen in my entire life.
[on working with Woody Allen] That was a very surreal experience: I had studied the script right down to the punctuation marks, and then he would say, "We're not going to say what's on the page, and you don't really have to, either. Try to keep up".
[on Hollywood's initial response to his Garden State (2004) script] Everyone said no. Everyone with a date book and a phone in Los Angeles said no.
[on casting Natalie Portman in Garden State (2004)] When you are writing a script, you can't help but stop and daydream about which actors are going to play the parts, and I kind of imagined Natalie Portman. Not just because she is beautiful, because obviously she is, but she is a wonderful actress who hasn't had a chance in a long time to show the world how talented she is.