Why not start this off with an overly-detailed autobiography?

There’s something inherently weird about the autobiographical “About Me” page. Do I give you my life story, or is it silly to presume you’re interested in all that? Is this where I give you my Mission Statement, a little glimpse into my general ethos? Is that already happening with this weird, meta introduction? Whatever. We’re all trying our best.

I’d like to call myself an Artist. I have a lot of thoughts about what it means to connect through performance, through writing, through my work, and through developing relationships. I hope you understand how sincerely I appreciate that you’re here, and that you’ve read this far, and that maybe we share an idea of how we’d like to leave an impression on the world.

My Story – The Short Version

I’m a native New Yorker, but I’ve been in Chicago for about 12 years. I came to study Theatre at Northwestern, and I fell pretty hard for Chicago.

I’ve spent the last decade performing around Chicago and the Midwest, with two years in the middle there spent aboard cruise ships with Disney and Royal Caribbean.

In 2016, I met the love of my life, Lizzie, and immediately left my heart in London. We married in 2019 and she moved to Chicago in 2021.

Since 2019, I’ve been a member of the The Fortunate Sons, Chicago’s premiere tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival, where I’ve played all around the Midwest, and a few stints touring the Netherlands (Dutch people love Creedence!).

In 2023 I created Mr. Zach’s Beatbox Factory, my one-man live-looping street performance, where “You Come Along and He Makes A Song!” Check out Mr. Zach on my YouTube channel.

Ok, the long version is…. long….

My Story – The Long Version

Way back when I was just a little bitty boy, living in a box under the stairs in the corner of the basement of the house half a block down the street from Jerry’s Bait Shop…. wait, that’s Weird Al’s “Albuquerque.” Sorry, I got confused there for a second.

I was born in White Plains, New York, a pretty typical white, suburban upbringing in the early 1990s. My parents, Donna and Steve, are two perfect examples of dream-seeking Americans who left their home towns in search of something grand, who found themselves in the Big Apple, and fell in love like anybody else used to: working at Orbach’s department store. I have to take their word for it, because Orbach’s was long out of business by the time I was born.

My performance background goes all the way back to singing in church choir when I was four, and it only grew from there. Little me had guitar lessons and piano lessons and whatnot, and when I was in Kindergarten, I put on a tiny tuxedo and sang “When I Was Seventeen” at my Elementary School talent show. I’ll throw a video over there somewhere; it’s pretty cute, wrapped up in that classic 90s home video VHS nostalgia that studios spend thousands of dollars to reproduce.

In sixth grade I ran for Middle School Treasurer. My campaign included printing and handing out hundreds of little masks with my face on them, taped to popsicle sticks, and boy did that work. Apparently I gave a good speech because the choir teacher told me I should audition for the musical. Ms. Davila, thank you. You changed my life. Little three-foot-tall Zach played Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees that year, and thus began a life-long excursion of seeking unreciprocated attention from a stage. There’s nothing like it. It’s fitting, I think, that my theatrical debut was literally playing the Devil. Little has changed.

I spent the rest of my formative years engrossing myself in theatre. My Dad likes to tell people about when his seventh grade son had to break the hard news that he didn’t want to play baseball anymore (and honestly, I probably didn’t want to play baseball long before that, but don’t tell my Dad, he doesn’t need to suffer the heartbreak a second time). My after school activities were split between the plays at my high school and performing with The Play Group Theatre, the most fantastic children’s theatre company that is still changing lives today.

When I was 13, I made my TV debut on As The World Turns, the record-breaking soap opera, as the ghost of a long-dead character named Bryant, haunting his father with guilt during a psychotic episode. The next year I played a Peeping Tom Boy Scout on Law & Order: SVU, spying on a woman from a Manhattan rooftop with a telescope. I think that episode is on Netflix. I met none of the stars, but what can you do? A couple years later I was back on As The World Turns as “Dylan” a.k.a. a “bad influence.” That was fun. I wore my own jacket and a lot of hair product. I’ve got clips of that too, it’s fun. My friends still harass me about my line “Girls drinking beer!” Yeah. Cool kid.

After high school, I made the big leap out of New York and moved to Evanston, IL, to study Theatre at Northwestern University. I’d considered several programs, of course, but my visit to Northwestern’s campus instilled in me the kind of excitement that you might reserve for certain coming-of-age films, where a youthful idealist sees himself instantly at home. Granted, visiting Evanston in October is a very different experience from living in Evanston come January, but I digress…

My time at Northwestern was monumental. I’ve never been busier (to this day, I think), visiting classes in between rehearsal for a show each quarter, work-study, and A Cappella rehearsals with Freshman Fifteen A Cappella. If you’ve heard any of Mr. Zach’s Beatbox Factory, you can probably guess that F15 had an outsize impact on how I express myself through music. And not to mention, those have continued to be some of my closest friends more than a decade later. F15 was actually an All-Male A Cappella group for its first 20 years, but has since made the switch to being Northwestern’s Only All-Bowling-Shirt A Cappella group. I couldn’t be more proud.

Anyway, at Northwestern I was also involved in several historic institutions like the Waa-Mu Show (the largest student-written musical in the country, for which I served as writer, assistant director, and cast member for 3 years), the Dolphin Show (the largest student-produced musical in the country), and many other productions with StuCo, the Student Coalition of entirely student-produced theatre.

My time at Northwestern made me hungry to pursue performance in any respect, and taught me that being an actor isn’t about becoming famous; it’s about using stories and relationships as a means of truly connecting with other people, whether they’re in the audience or they’re sharing the stage with me.

When I graduated, I made the literal last-minute decision to stay in Chicago. I’d always had this idea that I’d return to New York, live with my parents, and save some money while I could commute into Manhattan to audition and start my career, but the very weekend of my graduation, my family took a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit some relatives, and on the drive back, it dawned on me that I wanted to stay in Chicago and make my own way. I had this feeling that I’d become complacent or something, and regardless of how “right” I was at the time, I am so grateful I made this decision, because I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t taken that risk.

I moved out of Evanston into Chicago proper, into an apartment with two of my closest lads in West Lakeview, a place we called The Attic. I got my first job at the W Hotel, checking in guests at the Welcome Desk in an all-black suit provided as my uniform, which I still have, because it fits, and it’s got this sick W-brand pink lining on the inside. Who cares what it’s made of, am I gonna throw it out? You’re crazy.

A few months into my stint at a day-job (which was really more like an afternoon job, since I was usually there for the afternoon check-ins until about 11pm), I booked a role in The Sound of Music at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as Rolf, everyone’s favorite “You are 16 going on 17, wait it’s Act 2 and I’m a Nazi now, but don’t worry I’m still a good guy.” Stunning production, stunning theatre, can’t recommend highly enough.

My time at the Lyric Opera opened the door to meeting Gray Talent Group, one of the hardest-working, loyal representatives an actor could ask for. They’ve seen me through every bit of the last decade with an unwavering support that will always make me grateful.

Soon after Sound of Music I was whisked away by the Mouse, where I was “friends with” Aladdin in the Aladdin Musical on board the Disney Fantasy. I spent a year away, and I couldn’t wait to get back to Chicago, where I promptly blew all my savings and booked another cruise gig with Royal Caribbean.

Now, to say I was unprepared to leave Chicago for another full year is an understatement, but after moving everything I owned to my parent’s house in Florida, I joined the inaugural cast of Grease on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas as Doody, and I promptly met the most incredible Frenchy on the planet. That was Lizzie.

A year at sea with Lizzie changed everything, and after two years of a long-distance romance between Chicago and London, we got married in the company of our parents and siblings at the Orlando County Courthouse. Then, after a Global Pandemic and two more years of long distance, Lizzie joined me in Chicago where we could finally start writing the story of our future together.

In the midst of all this long-distance pining, my professional life took a turn when I joined The Fortune Sons, Chicago’s premiere tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival. The band was in need of a new singer for an upcoming tour of The Netherlands, and I managed to eke my way in. Now, we’ve gone to Holland together four times, and the songs still haven’t gotten old. True story: remember that Elementary School talent show? When I was in third grade, I played and sang “Bad Moon Rising”, my first public performance with the Fender Stratocaster I still play now. (Don’t worry, I’ve changed the strings a couple times since then…)

The last few years in Chicago have stretched my skills in so many directions, from understudying Elvis in the short-lived Heartbreak Hotel, to finally playing Elvis in Million Dollar Quartet at the beloved Theatre At The Center in Munster, IN (shout-out to Munster Donuts!), to swinging in the Goodman Theatre’s historic production of The Who’s Tommy, and to playing Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof at Drury Lane Theatre, one of the most gratifying artistic experiences of my life.

And all this time, I was spending my free time making crazy music with my voice and a loop station. After years of stalling, I finally debuted Mr. Zach’s Beatbox Factory in 2023, a street performance that takes my love of improvised music, a cappella, beatboxing, and a complete and utter lack of shame to the streets of Chicago. I don’t think there’s ever been a more exciting part of summer than knowing that soon, somewhere in Chicago, a man in a big suit is gonna make some songs on the spot with the help of strangers.

That brings us the to the present. Now, every day is in pursuit of the next story, the next adventure, the next chance encounter. There’s always guitar practice, journaling, wondering, learning lines, reading. I’m always craving inspiration, and finding it in the smallest moments, always falling in love, with Lizzie, with work, with Chicago, always hoping that today will be a day to remember, and knowing that it’s up to me to make it so.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s make something.