Zachary Levi

Details:

Birth name:  Zachary Levi Pugh
Birth date:    September 29, 1980
Birth place:   Lake Charles, Louisiana
Height: 6’4″

Zachary Levi is best known for his roles as Kipp Steadman in Less Than Perfect and Chuck Bartowski in Chuck. He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and is the middle child between two sisters. The family lived all over the country and eventually settled in Ventura, California where Zac graduated from Buena High School.

He began acting at the young age of six, where he performed in local theater and school productions. Some of his lead roles were in the productions of Grease, The Outsiders, Oliver, The Wizard of OZ, and Big River. It was this training and his perfomance as Jesus in Ojai’s Godspell that brought him to the attention of Hollywood.

After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of acting. Soon after, Zac made his TV movie debut with a supporting role in FX’s Confessions of a Campus Bookie. In 2002, he won the role of Kipp Steadman on ABC’s sitcom Less Than Perfect which aired from 2002 to 2006.  He also made appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Division and in the TV movie, See Jane Date.

After Less Than Perfect ended, Zac moved onto making a film with his friends called SPIRAL. He and his friends formed the production company Coattails Enterainment and produced their first independent feature. Zac also starred along side Martin Lawrence in Big Momma’s House 2 and starred in the independent film, Shades of Ray with Sarah Shahi.

In 2007, Zac was faced with a major decision. He was offered a role in the theater production of Young Frankenstein in New York but Chuck also got picked up at the same time. Zac chose to play Chuck Bartowski on Chuck and Roger Bart took his place on the stage. NBC’s Chuck debuted September 24, 2007 and is now starting its fifth season.

In the summer of 2010, Zac partnered up with one of his friends to bring the world The Nerd Machine. Zac’s vision for the site is to make it a hub for nerds featuring all kinds of goodies, beginning with NERD apparel. At Comic Con 2011, Zac started the Nerd HQ which was a place where nerds could gather to play video games, hang out, relax or attend a small Q&A session with a celebrity called,  “Conversations for a Cause” for $20. One hundred percent of the proceeds from these panels benefited Operation: Smile. Over $40,000 was raised.

Zac’s role as the loveable nerd and secret spy has led to more fame and roles in feature films such as buddy comedy/adventure Wieners, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Disney’s Tangled. Zac also recently did voice overs for the video games, Halo: Reach and Fallout: New Vegas.

Written by Tricia