Zach Braff Biography

Zach Braff played J.D. on the television hospital comedy Scrubs and wrote, directed and starred in the 2004 feature film Garden State (co-starring Natalie Portman).

Braff is a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied film.

A professional actor even as a teen, he made his big screen debut in the 1993 comedy Manhattan Murder Mystery, playing the son of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.

After college Braff landed acting jobs on TV and in the movies, but the success of Scrubs in 2001 was a career breakthrough that afforded him the chance to work in feature films and on his own projects.

The independently produced Garden State made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival and nearly achieved cult status, thanks in part to the popular compilation soundtrack album (which earned producer Braff a 2005 Grammy).

Until Scrubs came to an end in 2009, Braff continued to work in films as an actor occasionally, while writing screenplays and directing music videos on the side.

Since then, he’s appeared in a few films, guest-starred on TV and tried another series, 2018’s Alex, Inc., but has devoted much of his time to directing television commercials. To modern audiences, he might be more famous as Florence Pugh‘s boyfriend.

His other film roles include the animated feature Chicken Little (2005, with Don Knotts), The Last Kiss (2006) and The Ex (2006, also known as Fast Track and co-starring Amanda Peet).