Zach Gilford

Not to be confused with Zac Guildford.

Zach Gilford
Born	Zachary Michael Gilford[1] (1982-01-14) January 14, 1982 (age 42)
Education	Northwestern University (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2003–present
Spouse	Kiele Sanchez ​ (m. 2012)​
Children	1

Zachary Michael Gilford (born January 14, 1982^[2]) is an American actor, best known for his role as Matt Saracen on the NBC sports drama series Friday Night Lights. In 2021, he starred in the Netflix horror limited series Midnight Mass. In 2022, he appeared in the horror mystery-thriller series The Midnight Club, and in 2023, he had a main role in the horror drama miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher.

Early life and education

Gilford is the son of Anne and Steve Gilford.^[3] His mother is Lutheran, and his father is Jewish.^[4] He graduated from Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University.^[5][6] He worked as a trip leader for Adventures Cross-Country^[7] and has led wilderness and adventure trips for teenagers to Alaska, British Columbia, California, Hawaii, and the South Pacific. Gilford also worked as a staff member for YMCA Camp Echo in Fremont, Michigan.^{[citation needed]}

Career

In 2005, he appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.^[8] In 2006, Gilford landed a regular role in Friday Night Lights, in which he played the role of Matt Saracen in the main cast, from Season 1 to Season 3.^[9] In 2009, Gilford was switched to the recurring cast in Seasons 4 and 5. That year, he also made his feature film debut, co-starring in The Last Winter (2006).^[10] He had a cameo in the film Rise: Blood Hunter and guest starred in an episode of Grey's Anatomy.^[11]

In 2009, he co-starred as Adam Davies in the romantic comedy Post Grad opposite Alexis Bledel.^[12] He also starred as Johnny Drake in the romantic drama Dare opposite Emmy Rossum.^[13] In 2010, he starred as Gus in the indie drama film The River Why alongside Amber Heard.^[14] He had a cameo in the movie Super.

In 2010, he joined the cast of ABC's medical drama Off The Map^[15] which premiered in January 2011 but was cancelled after 13 episodes. In 2011, he appeared in Taylor Swift's music video for "Ours", in which he played her love interest.^[16] He played the role of Evan in the drama film Answers to Nothing.^[17] In 2012, he starred as Seth in the indie drama film In Our Nature alongside Jena Malone.^[18]

In 2012, he was cast in another medical drama, The Mob Doctor, on Fox, opposite Jordana Spiro; however this was also cancelled after 13 episodes.^[19] In January 2013, he appeared with Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand.^[20] He played the role of Matthew Iris in the film Crazy Kind of Love.^[21]

He co-starred alongside Allison Miller in the horror film Devil's Due (2014), set in New Orleans and the Dominican Republic, and released on January 17, 2014.^[22] He also co-starred in the film sequel The Purge: Anarchy, released on July 18, 2014.^[23] He guest starred in shows such as Drunk History, Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories and Kingdom.^[24] In 2016, he starred as Danny Warren in the ABC drama series The Family.^[25] In 2017, Gilford starred as Conner Hooks in the YouTube Red futuristic web series Lifeline.^[26]

Since 2018, Gilford has had a recurring role as Gregg in the NBC series Good Girls.^[27] In 2019, Gilford was cast as Ben Walker in the Bad Boys spinoff drama L.A.'s Finest.^[28] Zach also held a leading role in Midnight Mass released in 2021. In 2022, Gilford was cast in a recurring role as Elias Voit, the series recurring unsub in Criminal Minds: Evolution.^[29] His real life spouse Kiele Sanchez joins the series as his wife Sydney Voit.^[30]

Personal life

In the spring of 2010, Gilford began dating actress Kiele Sanchez, whom he met on the set of the television pilot for the TV movie Matadors.^[31] The couple became engaged in November 2011,^[32] and married on December 29, 2012.^[33][34] The couple also co-starred in The Purge: Anarchy. In August 2015, Sanchez announced that she and Gilford were expecting a son in November.^[35] In October 2015, they announced that Sanchez had suffered a late-term miscarriage.^[36] The couple have one daughter, born in November 2017 through surrogacy.^[37]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Handbook to Casual Stalking	Jimmy	Short film
2006	The Last Winter	Maxwell McKinder	Nominated – Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2007	Rise: Blood Hunter	Sailor
2009	Dare	Johnny Drake
	Post Grad	Adam Davies
2010	The River Why	Gus Orviston
	Super	Jerry
2011	Answers to Nothing	Evan
2012	In Our Nature	Seth
2013	The Last Stand	Jerry Bailey
	Crazy Kind of Love	Matthew
2014	Devil's Due	Zach McCall
	The Purge: Anarchy	Shane	Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Scared-As-Shit Performance
2019	Boy Genius	Gordon
2023	There's Something Wrong with the Children	Ben

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Kevin Wilcox	Episode: "Contagious"
2006–2011	Friday Night Lights	Matt Saracen	Main role; 62 episodes
2009	Grey's Anatomy	Charlie Lowell	Episode: "Here's to Future Days"
2011	Off the Map	Dr. Tommy Fuller	13 episodes
2012–2013	The Mob Doctor	Dr. Brett Robinson
2014–2019	Drunk History	Jim Abbott / Roger Sharpe / Ed Pulaski	3 episodes
2015	Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories	Matt Peters	Episode: "Tornado"
2016	The Family	Daniel "Danny" Warren	12 episodes
2017	Kingdom	Tim	2 episodes
	Lifeline	Conner Hooks	8 episodes
2018–2019	This Close	Danny	Recurring role, 8 episodes
2018–2021	Good Girls	Gregg	Recurring role, 11 episodes
2019–2020	L.A.'s Finest	Ben Walker	Main role; 26 episodes
2019	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	James Miller	Episode: "The Burden of Our Choices"
2021	Midnight Mass	Riley Flynn	7 episodes
2022	The Midnight Club	Mark
2022 — present	Criminal Minds: Evolution	Elias Voit	Recurring role (season 16), Main role (season 17)
2023	The Fall of the House of Usher	Young Roderick Usher	Main role

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song	Notes
2011	Taylor Swift	"Ours"	Taylor Swift's love interest

References

1. A broken version of the American dream from The Daily Northwestern, May 9, 2002, retrieved April 27, 2015
2. Mike Rose, cleveland com (January 14, 2023). "Today's famous birthdays list for January 14, 2023 includes celebrities Dave Grohl, Carl Weathers". cleveland. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
3. ""Friday Night Lights": Even Peyton is a fan". ESPN. September 23, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
4. Fallon, Kevin (September 28, 2021). "Zach Gilford Breaks Down the Shocking 'Midnight Mass' Twists". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021.
5. "TV Tattler Interview: Zach Gilford of 'Friday Night Lights' on NBC". AOL Television. Archived from the original on March 27, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
6. "Zach Gilford: the boy next door". SPLASH. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
7. ":: Our Leaders". Adventurescrosscountry.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
8. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit". TVGuide.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
9. "Zach Gilford". Variety. October 26, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
10. "The Last Winter". PopMatters. October 5, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
11. "The Biggest Stars You Forgot Were on 'Grey's Anatomy'". Entertainment Weekly. May 6, 2016. Archived from the original on January 20, 2018. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
12. Griffin, Christine (August 21, 2009). "Post Grad Movie - Interview with Alexis Bledel and Zach Gilford". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
13. "Emmy Rossum, Sandra Bernhard, Zach Gilford and more at the DARE Premiere". Sundance Channel. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
14. "New fields in play for star of 'Friday Night'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
15. Ausiello, Michael (August 8, 2011). "Scoop: 'FNL' MVP Zach Gilford scores role in Shonda Rhimes' 'Off the Map'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
16. Warner, Kara (December 2, 2011). "Taylor Swift Cozies Up To Zach Gilford In 'Ours' Video". MTV. Archived from the original on December 4, 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
17. "First Trailer for ANSWERS TO NOTHING Starring Dane Cook and Elizabeth Mitchell". Collider. October 5, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
18. "Zach Gilford and John Slattery on Mocking Hipsters and Dating Younger Women". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
19. "'Friday Night Lights' Alum Zach Gilford to Co-Star in Fox's Josh Berman/Robert Wright Medical Drama Pilot (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
20. "IMDB filmography". imdb.com. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
21. Jagernauth, Kevin (May 30, 2013). "Exclusive: Clip From Rom-Com 'Crazy Kind Of Love' Starring Virginia Madsen, Zach Gilford & 'True Blood' Star Sam Trammell". IndieWire. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
22. Luoma, Sarah (March 4, 2013). "'Friday Night Lights' actor Zach Gilford joins horror 'Devil's Due'". digitalspy.com. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
23. "IMDB filmography". imdb.com. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
24. "'Friday Night Lights' Star Zach Gilford Joins Final Season of Kingdom". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
25. Andreeva, Nellie (February 14, 2015). "Zach Gilford Cast In Jenna Bans ABC Pilot, Ed Oxenbould In 'Chev & Bev'". Deadline. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
26. Petski, Denise (March 2, 2017). "'Lifeline': Zach Gilford & Sydney Park To Topline Dwayne Johnson's YouTube Series". Deadline. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
27. Lawson, Richard (March 2019). "Good Girls Is the Best Crime Show You're Not Watching". HWD. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
28. Andreeva, Nellie (February 16, 2018). "Zach Gilford & Duane Martin To Co-Star In Gabrielle Union's 'Bad Boys' Offshoot NBC Pilot". Deadline. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
29. Petski, Denise (September 9, 2022). "'Criminal Minds' Revival Gets Title; Zach Gilford to Recur in Paramount+ Series". Deadline. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
30. Ray, Alyssa (November 24, 2022). "When Zach Gilford Learned About His Wife's Criminal Minds Role". E! Online. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
31. MacKenzie, Carina Adly (November 30, 2011). "Friday Night Lights' Zach Gilford engaged to Kiele Sanchez". zap2it. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
32. Messer, Lesley (December 1, 2011). "Friday Night Lights Star Zach Gilford Engaged". People. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
33. "Zach Gilford Married: 'Friday Night Lights' Star Weds Kiele Sanchez". HuffPost. December 30, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
34. "Friday Night Lights' Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez Tie the Knot!". E Online. December 29, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
35. usmagazine.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015
36. Green, Mary (October 9, 2015). "Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez Lose Their Baby Boy". People. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
37. Green, Mary (December 22, 2017). "Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez Welcome Daughter Zeppelin Adele". People. Retrieved June 8, 2020.

External links

• Zach Gilford at IMDb