Steve Zahn

Steven James Zahn ( ; born November 13, 1967) is an American actor and comedian.

In film, Zahn is best known for his lead roles in That Thing You Do! (1996), Safe Men (1998), Happy, Texas (1999), Joy Ride (2001), National Security (2003), A Perfect Getaway (2009), the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series (2010–2012), Cowboys (2020), and LaRoy, Texas (2023). His notable supporting roles in films include Reality Bites (1994), Out of Sight (1998), Forces of Nature (1999), Employee of the Month (2004), the Stuart Little film series (1999–2002), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Chicken Little (2005), Sahara (2005), Sunshine Cleaning (2008), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Captain Fantastic (2016), War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) and Anaconda (2025).

In television, Zahn is best known for his main cast credits as Davis McAlary in the HBO series Treme (2010–2013), Cobi in the Amazon Prime Video series Mad Dogs (2015–2016), Jude Ellis in the ABC science fiction series The Crossing (2018), and Mark Mossbacher in season 1 of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus (2021).

Zahn received an Independent Spirit Award, a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for The White Lotus, as well as two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Early life and education Steven James Zahn was born on November 13, 1967,

Zahn spent part of his childhood in Mankato, Minnesota, attending Kennedy Elementary School, and moved to the suburbs of Minneapolis for high school, where he acted in school plays and became a two-time Minnesota state speech champion. Zahn graduated from Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope in 1986, planning to eventually join the United States Marine Corps. Zahn later enrolled in the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, earning a Master of Fine Arts.

Career In 1991, Zahn made his professional stage debut in a Minnesota production of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues after falsely claiming to be a member of Actors' Equity. At A.R.T., Zahn worked with the stage director Andrei Șerban.

In 1991, Zahn formed the Malaparte theater company with a group of actor friends, including Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard. From 1991 to 1992, Zahn played Hugo Peabody in a national tour of Bye Bye Birdie starring Tommy Tune. He subsequently appeared in two Off-Broadway plays, Sophistry and Eric Bogosian's Suburbia.

After his breakout film role in 1994's Reality Bites, Zahn quickly gained a reputation for playing amiable stoners, slackers, and sidekicks in films such as That Thing You Do! (1996), You've Got Mail (1998), and Out of Sight (1998). In the 1990s, Zahn was often approached by fans who assumed he was an archetypal Generation X slacker, which was not the case. Zahn has said, "I'm the guy who gets up at six without an alarm clock. I was always that guy." After that, he began playing darker, more nuanced characters. He received Oscar buzz for his role as Drew Barrymore's deadbeat ex in Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and played investigative journalist Adam Penenberg in Shattered Glass (2003), which starred Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, and Chloë Sevigny. A longtime Werner Herzog fan, Zahn campaigned for the role of Vietnam prisoner of war Duane W. Martin in Herzog's 2007 film Rescue Dawn; to prepare for the role, he lost by eating mostly raw food.

In 2024, Zahn portrayed Jimmy Conroy / "Solo" in the second season of the Apple TV+ series Silo.

Awards

Personal life Zahn met author and theater artist Robyn Peterman, the daughter of clothier J. Peterman, while they were performing in a national tour of Bye Bye Birdie in 1991. In the 1990s, they bought a cabin in Pennsylvania and then a farm in New Jersey, near the Delaware Water Gap. They next moved to a 36-acre horse farm outside Lexington, Kentucky, where Zahn gardens and raises horses, goats, and sheep. He and his wife also run a local community theater, in which Zahn occasionally performs. where he enjoys tubing and fishing with his children. Zahn is a Lutheran.

Zahn is a lifelong military history buff and has said that one of his biggest regrets was having turned down a role in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Northern Kentucky University. A University of Kentucky sports fan, Zahn is often seen at games and events.

Filmography +Key Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Television

Video games Year Title Role Notes 2005 Chicken Little Runt of the Litter

Theatre Year Title Role Notes 1990 Bye Bye Birdie Hugo Peabody 1991 Biloxi Blues Performer