Zach Braff’s success as an actor began with the 2001 beloved
television series “Scrubs.” The half-hour show received numerous
Emmy® Award nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and Comedy
Writing during its nine-year run, and Braff earned an Emmy nomination
and three consecutive Golden Globe® nominations all while
transitioning to work behind the camera, where he soon found equal
footing as a director, writer and producer.

After earning his film degree from Northwestern University, Braff
worked at the renowned Public Theatre in New York. He starred in the
1998 staging of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as well as the 2002 New
York Shakespeare Festival production at Central Park’s Delacorte
Theatre of “Twelfth Night.” He went on to star in Paul Weitz’s
off-Broadway original drama, “Trust,” in 2010, and then made his
West End debut in 2012 starring in his own original play, “All New
People.” In March 2014, Braff made his Broadway debut as the lead in
“Bullets Over Broadway,” based on the screenplay of the 1994 film.

After directing seven episodes of “Scrubs,” (including the
show’s landmark 100th episode), Braff made his feature film debut as
a director and writer on the 2004 comedy-drama “Garden State,” in
which he also starred. Shot in Braff’s home state of New Jersey for
a budget $2.5 million, the film sold for a then-unprecedented $5
million to Fox Searchlight at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
“Garden State” grossed more than $35 million at the box office,
received accolades from film critics across the board and garnered
over three dozen award nominations. Braff won an Independent Spirit
Award for Best First Feature and was nominated for Best First
Screenplay. He also earned a Writers Guild nomination for Best
Original Screenplay and picked up a Best Director nod from the
National Board of Review (plus a second “special recognition”
prize). The film’s soundtrack sold more than one million copies and
earned Braff a GRAMMY® Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album.
Other “Garden State” honors include Breakthrough Director from the
Hollywood Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize nomination at the
Sundance Film Festival.

“Wish I Was Here” was the second feature film Braff directed.
Co-written with his brother, Adam, “Wish I Was Here” starred Kate
Hudson, Mandy Patinkin and Josh Gad, along with Braff in the lead
acting role. The film debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and
was released theatrically in June 2014.

In 2017, Braff directed a remake of the hit 1979 Martin Brest caper
comedy “Going in Style” for Warner Bros. written by Theodore
Melfi. Academy Award® winners Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan
Arkin reprised the roles originally played by George Burns, Lee
Strasberg and Art Carney.

Returning to network TV in 2018, Braff directed, produced and starred
in the ABC/Sony series “Alex, Inc.” Based on Alex Blumberg’s
popular podcast “StartUp,” the single-camera comedy was created by
“Scrubs” writer/producer Matt Tarses.

Adobe teamed with Braff in 2019 to create #MoviePosterMovie, a contest
for students to design a fictious movie poster using Adobe software.
The winning poster served as the basis for the short film “In The
Time It Takes to Get There” starring Florence Pugh and Alicia
Silverstone that Braff wrote and directed. The short won a 2020 Webby
Award for Writing and the UK’s prestigious D&AD Award for in both
the Entertainment Fiction Film and Writing for a Fiction Film
categories.

Braff and “Scrubs” castmate Donald Fasion launched the iHeart
podcast “Fake Doctor, Real Friends” in March 2020. Episodes
features an inside discussion about a particular “Scrubs” episode,
candid conversations about Braff and Faison’s 20-year friendship and
special-guest appearances. The podcast has over 100 million downloads,
over 200 episodes, and has spent weeks on the podcast Top 10 charts
and has been nominated for several awards.

In 2020, Braff re-teamed with “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence to
direct an episode of the AppleTV+ show “Ted Lasso,” which earned
him a 2021 DGA nomination and a 2021 Primetime Emmy Award. Braff,
Lawrence and AppleTV+ have since worked together again with
Braff-directing “Shrinking,” starring Jason Segel and Harrison
Ford, and Braff’s guest-starring role on “Bad Monkey,” starring
Vince Vaughn.

In February 2026 Zach will return to Sacred Heart Hospital in the
“Scrubs” reboot on ABC. The show follows J.D. and Turk as they
navigate a modern medical system that has “beaten them down” after
15 years, while J.D. faces the reality of being the “oldie” rather
than the “newbie.” Braff directs the pilot episode and serves as
the show’s executive producer.

Additional film acting credits include Greg Berlanti’s poignant
comedy, “The Broken Hearts Club”; Tony Goldwyn’s romantic
comedy, “The Last Kiss”; “The High Cost of Living”; “The
Ex,” opposite Amanda Peet and Jason Bateman; “Getting to Know
You,” adapted from works by Joyce Carol Oates; the Walt Disney
fantasy adventure “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” directed by Sam
Raimi; and he also voiced the title character of Disney’s 2005
animated hit “Chicken Little.”

PERSONAL INFORMATION
HOMETOWN: South Orange, New Jersey
BIRTHDATE: April 6
