Zach Braff
AGE 29
HOMETOWN South Orange, N.J.
HIS BREAKOUT MOMENT Proving he's more than just a sitcom goofball, the Scrubs star wowed critics and moviegoers alike with his quirky but pensive writing and directing debut, Garden State, about a depressive New Jersey-born actor. To date, the $2.5 million flick has grossed $26.5 million and sold more than 300,000 copies of its angsty soundtrack.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM TOILING IN OBSCURITY Not all advice is good advice. ''A lot of people said [Garden State] was a mistake because it was too much to put on the line my first time, but I felt like, 'Go for it.' It was scary but worth it.''
SPEAKING OF FEAR...PART 1 ''[Director] Peter Weir once told me, 'I never do a movie that doesn't scare me,' and I thought that was really cool.''
SPEAKING OF FEAR...PART 2 ''[Manhattan Murder Mystery] was my first movie, and I was in over my head,'' says the Woody Allen fan. ''When I watch the movie now, I see a kid who's wide-eyed with terror.''
WHAT'S NEXT More Scrubs on NBC; romancing Rachel McAdams in Tony Goldwyn's remake of The Last Kiss; and voicing the title role of Disney's Chicken Little, due out this summer.
