Zachary Israel Braff, commonly known as Zach Braff, is a famous American television director and producer, screenwriter, voice actor, as well as an actor. To the public, Zach Braff is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Dr. John Dorian in “Scrubs”, a popular medical comedy-drama series. Created by Bill Lawrence, the series premiered on screens in 2001, and finished its nine-season run in 2010. Aside from Braff, the main characters were played by Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, Neil Flynn, Ken Jenkins and John C. McGinley. Over the years, “Scrubs” met with positive critical reviews and was largely praised for its comedic style, and the ability to incorporate such topics as life and death, love and sex. The show received numerous awards, including BET Comedy Awards, Emmy Awards, as well as Peabody Awards. Meanwhile, Braff received several nominations for Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards, and Satellite Awards. Braff’s performance in “Scrubs” gained him a lot of acting opportunities, as he guest starred on such shows as “Arrested Development”, “Saturday Night Live”, “Cougar Town” and “The Exes”. Braff’s most recent project is a comedy-drama film with Josh Gad, Ashley Greene and Kate Hudson “Wish I Was Here”, where he not only served as the main star, but also a director and co-producer.
Zach Braff Net Worth $22 Million
A well-known actor and director, how rich is Zach Braff? According to sources, he earned as much as $350,000 per every episode of “Scrubs”. In regards to his overall wealth, Zach Braff’s net worth is estimated to be $22 million, most of which he has earned from his appearances on television screens, as well as directing and producing.
Zach Braff was born in 1975 in New Jersey, United States. Since he had always desired to become a filmmaker, Braff enrolled in a performing arts summer camp called “Stagedoor Manor”, where he received his first award. He then enrolled in the Northwestern University School of Communication, from which he graduated with his degree in 1997. Braff started his professional career in 1989, when he was cast to appear in a television series entitled “High”, yet the pilot of the show was never put to air. As a result of that, Braff starred opposite Meghan Andrews and Avriel Hillman in an episode of “The Baby-Sitters Club”, and then auditioned for “Manhattan Murder Mystery”, directed by Woody Allen. Braff’s mainstream breakthrough came in 2001, when he joined the cast of “Scrubs”, in which he portrayed one of the main characters. In addition to that, Braff was the director of several episodes of the show. In 2004, Braff came out with a comedy-drama film called “Garden State”, which he wrote and directed. Released to positive reviews, “Garden State” brought Braff several nominations for Teen Choice Awards, as well as MTV Movie Awards. The film serves as a reminder that Braff is an extremely talented actor, as well as a director.
In regards to his personal life, Zach Braff started dating the well-known model Taylor Bagley in 2009. However, the couple fell apart in 2014.
I think - not to push this on anyone - that this is the life we have. There is no afterlife and there's no cloud that we get to sit on and read the paper. When I fold that into the search for my own spirituality, I want to seize the day. I want to live each moment. I want to make the most of it, because this is it.
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[on his mother's conversion to Judaism] Well, my mom converted - she was Protestant - so she doesn't have any of the stereotypical attributes of a Jewish mother. But she's amazing. I got all the benefits of having an amazing Jewish mom without having any of the annoying things. I'm a total momma's boy.
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[6/25/07, on his MySpace.com Blog] I'm not sure when or why the tabloid angle on me was decided that I am a cad. I would have much rather it had been that I am secretly a dentist or that I love soup. I am, in fact, merely doing what every other single 32-year-old man in NYC is doing this summer. I am dating. If you must read that stuff, please don't digest it as fact. It is probably one of the only real shitty things one has to get used to when living in the public eye, but I suppose one of the benefits of this blog is that you can hear it directly from me. [on his MySpace.com Blog] [25 June 2007]
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I was kosher until I had my Bar Mitzvah, and I parlayed officially becoming a man into telling my father I wanted to eat cheeseburgers.
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My mother's a psychologist, my stepfather's a psychologist, my stepmother is a therapist and my dad's a lawyer. So it was all prominent in my life. I don't know anyone who doesn't know someone on some form of prescription medicine.
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[Responding to E! Ted Casablanca, when asked what he thinks of studio heads] They put all this money into these huge movies, and then no one goes to see them . . . That sort of shows that they're out of touch. Then, everyone in town passes on my little movie, and it does really well.
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Everyone has an idea that they think would be a great movie. Everyone has a cousin who they think you should work with. Everyone has a warped vision of Hollywood and what success in Hollywood is like. That you love cocaine and that you spend every night in orgies with models. If only it were true.
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[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.
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[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.
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[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".
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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.
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I love Scrubs (2001). It's the best day job in the world.
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Fact
1
Zach had his Bar Mitzvah ceremony in a Conservative synagogue.
2
Good friends with James Franco. James' younger brother, Dave Franco, starred as one of the new interns in the final season of Braff's show Scrubs.
When he sent the script for Garden State (2004) to people, he would also send them a copy of the songs (which he handpicked) that would eventually be the soundtrack. This was in the order in which they appeared.
11
His alma mater, Columbia High School, is in a town (Maplewood, NJ) adjacent to (and is a de facto rival of) Millburn, where Zach's Scrubs (2001) co-star John C. McGinley grew up and attended high school. Actress Anne Hathaway also attended Millburn High.
12
The actor has cut a one-year deal with Scrubs (2001) producer ABC TV Studio that will pay him about $350,000 per episode for the 2007-2008 season.
13
Some of the events in Garden State (2004) (which Braff wrote and directed) are quirky, exaggerated derivatives of occurrences in his real life.
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His right leg is an eighth of an inch longer than his left, which led to a herniated disk in late 2006.
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Directed the music video "Chariot" for singer Gavin DeGraw. Zach Braff's real-life friend and Scrubs (2001) cast mate, Donald Faison, also made a cameo in the video.
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On Scrubs (2001), Braff's character is often called by various girl's names. Ironically, his first TV role was in an after school special called CBS Schoolbreak Special (1984) (Episode: My Summer as a Girl), in which he poses as a girl to get a summer job.
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Zach's father, Harold Irwin "Hal" Braff, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (from a family from Austria and Russia). Zach's mother, born Anne Hutchinson Maynard, is from a family of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry (Anne converted to Judaism). Through his mother's line, Zach is a ninth cousin of politician Mitt Romney. Zach and Mitt are both descendants of Francis Nurse (c. 1619-1695), and of his wife, Rebecca Nurse (1621-1692), a woman who was hanged in the Salem, Massachusetts, witch trials, after being falsely accused of practicing witchcraft.
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Mandy Moore accompanied him to the Golden Globes in 2006.
Named among Fade In Magazine's "100 People in Hollywood You Need to Know" in 2005.
21
Graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in film
22
Per his request that she contribute a song to the soundtrack of Garden State (2004), his ex-girlfriend Bonnie Somerville recorded the song "Winding Road" for the film.
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!".
26
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.
27
Parents are divorced, each is remarried, and all get along with one another. Zach's "four parents" are all at Thanksgiving dinner together every year, with the four children, and the grandchildren.
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Middle brother, Joshua Braff, and oldest brother, Adam J. Braff have collaborated on screenplays for TV. Sister works in fine dining in a major hotel.
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The youngest of four children: Adam J. Braff, Joshua Braff (wife, Jill; children, Henry and Ella), and Shoshanna Braff.
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Is best friends in real life with Scrubs (2001) co-star Donald Faison, who plays Turk.
$22 Million
