William Van Zandt (born December 13, 1957) is an American playwright and actor, and author. He is the author of the theatrical memoir Because It's Funny! and the TV memoir Get in the Car, Jane!: Adventures in the TV Wasteland.
Van Zandt is the co-author and star of the Off-Broadway plays You've Got Hate Mail, Silent Laughter, Drop Dead!, The Boomer Boys Musical, and 21 other theatrical plays written with Jane Milmore, including A Night at the Nutcracker, Wrong Window, and summer stock perennial Love, Sex, and the I.R.S. Billy also wrote The Property Known as Garland for Adrienne Barbeau, which ran off-Broadway at the Actor's Playhouse in 2006.
Van Zandt was nominated for an Emmy Award for his television special I Love Lucy: The Very First Show, and won People's Choice and NAACP Image Awards for his work on the Martin Lawrence comedy Martin and a Prism Multi-Cultural Award for his work on TV's The Hughleys.
On television, he was a regular cast member on the second season of ABC's Anything but Love. He was writer and guest star in the 1990 Valerie Bertinelli series Sydney.
He toured in the Off-Broadway hit You've Got Hate Mail which ran at the Triad Theater from 2010 to 2015, [4] and as of 2024[update] tours in his play The Boomer Boys Musical.[5]
Van Zandt married actress Adrienne Barbeau on December 31, 1992. The couple met in 1991 during the West Coast premiere of his play Drop Dead!. They divorced in 2018. They have twin sons, William and Walker (born March 17, 1997).[6]
Two years after his marriage ended, Billy and actress Teresa Ganzel met during his Off-Broadway play You've Got Hate Mail and have been together ever since. They announced their engagement over Christmas 2020 and married September 12, 2021.[7]
On April 26, 2024, Van Zandt was honored by having the street his family lived on named in his honor, becoming 'Van Zandt Way.'
^Strauss, Robert. "IN PERSON; These Two People Are a Riot", The New York Times, April 14, 2002. Accessed June 13, 2011. "ABSTRACT - Article on Hollywood actors and television writers Billy Van Zandt, native of Middletown, and Jane Milmore, who grew up in nearby Keansburg; duo has been returning to Jersey Shore each spring for two decades for spring comedy productions."
