Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar (/ˈɡɒslər/;[1] born March 1, 1974) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Zack Morris in the NBC series Saved by the Bell. In 1991, he won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Actor, model
1986–present
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Lisa Ann Russell(m. 1996; div. 2011)
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Catriona McGinn(m. 2012)
4
He also played Paul Johnson in the ABC sitcom series Mixed-ish, Detective John Clark Jr. in NYPD Blue, and Peter Bash in the TNT legal series Franklin & Bash. He was also the lead in the 1998 film Dead Man on Campus. He later starred in the Fox TV series Pitch (2016) and The Passage (2019). He reprised the role of Zack Morris in a recurring capacity for the Peacock sequel series Saved by the Bell (2020) and stars in the NBC procedural drama Found (2023).
Early life[edit]
Gosselaar was born in Panorama City, Los Angeles, the son of Paula (née van den Brink), a homemaker and hostess for KLM, and Hans Gosselaar, a plant supervisor for Anheuser-Busch.[2][3] He is the youngest of his parents' four children, and was the only one not born in the Netherlands.[3][4]
His Dutch-born father is of German and Dutch Jewish descent.[5] Gosselaar's Jewish paternal great-grandparents, Hartog and Hester Gosselaar, were murdered at the Sobibor extermination camp during the Holocaust.[6][7] His Indonesian mother, who was born in Bali, Indonesia, was a flight attendant for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.[8]
Gosselaar has described himself as "half-Asian,” and mentioned collecting things from Indonesia.[9][10][11][12][13]
Gosselaar speaks Dutch,[3][4] and was fluent for a time, at home.[9] His parents later separated.[2]
Gosselaar's mother was his manager.[11] He began modeling at the age of five,[2] and as a child, he also appeared in commercials for Oreo cookies and Smurf merchandise, later winning guest spots on television series.[14] He spent his teenage years in the Santa Clarita Valley in Southern California, where he attended Hart High School.
Gosselaar has said that his natural hair color is brown, but he was "blondish" as a kid.[15][16] His hair was dyed blond throughout his run on Saved by the Bell.[17]
Personal life[edit]
In a July 2009 interview with People, Gosselaar revealed that while Saved by the Bell was in production, he dated, at different times, his three female co-stars: Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Thiessen,[28] and Elizabeth Berkley.[29] He remains friends with his Saved by the Bell cast mates.[9]
In 1996, Gosselaar married former model Lisa Ann Russell.[2] Together, they have two children: a son (b. 2004), and daughter (b. 2006).[30] After 14 years of marriage, Gosselaar and Russell announced their separation in early June 2010.[31] Gosselaar filed for divorce June 18, 2010,[32] and it became final in May 2011.[33]
Gosselaar was engaged to advertising executive Catriona McGinn in August 2011.[33] They married July 28, 2012, at the Sunstone winery in Santa Ynez, California.[34] They have a son (b. 2013),[35] and a daughter (b. 2015).[36]
Gosselaar is a sports car enthusiast, race car driver, track cyclist, dirt biker, and pilot.[37] In 2005, he competed in the Far West Championships for track cycling. He won the Category 4/5 Sprint Championship event at the Encino Velodrome.[38] He is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt under Rigan Machado.
Gosselaar resides in Los Angeles. He sold his Sherman Oaks home in February 2022.[39]