Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Early life

Gosselaar was born in Panorama City, Los Angeles, the son of Paula Gosselaar, a flight attendant for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines – and Hans Gosselaar – a plant supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. He is the youngest of four children, and was the only one not born in the Netherlands.

His Netherlands-born father is of German and Dutch Jewish ancestry. His Jewish paternal great-grandparents Hartog and Hester Gosselaar were killed during WWII. His Dutch-Indonesian mother was born in Bali. He has described himself as "half-Asian”. He speaks Dutch, and was fluent for a time, at home. His parents later separated.

Gosselaar's mother was his manager. He began modeling at the age of five, and appeared in commercials for Cookie Crisp cereal and Smurf merchandise, later being cast in guest spots on television series. 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. His hair was bleached blond throughout his run on Saved by the Bell.

Career

Gosselaar first came to public notice as the star of the hit television comedy series Saved by the Bell, which aired on NBC from 1989 to 1993. His character, Zack Morris, was adapted from the short-lived Disney Channel sitcom Good Morning, Miss Bliss; although that show was cancelled after one season, NBC executives believed that a similar show, with Zack Morris as the lead, had potential for success. He reprised the role in two TV movies and a less-successful spin-off, Saved by the Bell: The College Years. In 1994, he appeared as Zack Morris in a second spin-off series Saved by the Bell: The New Class in the episode "Goodbye, Bayside – Part 2", along with Mario López as A.C. Slater and Lark Voorhies as Lisa Turtle.

In 1996, he appeared in the TV-film She Cried No, as a college student who date-rapes his best friend's sister at a fraternity party. In 1998, he starred in the feature film Dead Man on Campus. Later that same year, Gosselaar played the central character in the TV drama Hyperion Bay, which lasted 17 episodes. In 2001, he starred in the movie The Princess and the Marine, with Marisol Nichols. He also starred in the short-lived WB series D.C. From 2001 to 2005, he played Detective John Clark on ABC's NYPD Blue. During his time on the show, he appeared in Atomic Twister in which he played Jake Hannah, a deputy who is traumatized over his mother's death and must help after a series of tornadoes hits a nuclear power plant in a small Tennessee town; the movie also stars fellow NYPD Blue alum Sharon Lawrence, who plays Corrine Maguire. After the series ended, he joined the cast of ABC's Commander in Chief, which lasted only one season. He appeared on the HBO series John from Cincinnati. He then gained the starring role of defense attorney Jerry Kellerman in the Steven Bochco-produced Raising the Bar, which debuted on September 1, 2008, on TNT, then it was canceled in November 2009 after two seasons.

On June 8, 2009, Gosselaar appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in character as Zack Morris to promote his show Raising the Bar, indicating that the name Mark-Paul Gosselaar is his stage name and declaring, as Zack, that he would participate in a Saved by the Bell "Class" reunion that is being spearheaded by Fallon. On February 4, 2015, Gosselaar reunited with Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley, Dennis Haskins and Tiffani Thiessen on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they appeared in a Saved by the Bell sketch with Fallon.

In October 2009, he made his off-Broadway stage debut in Theresa Rebeck's play The Understudy with The Roundabout Theatre Company. The show extended its limited New York run until January 17, 2010.

Personal life

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, and Elizabeth Berkley. He remains friends with his Saved by the Bell castmates.

In 1996, Gosselaar married former model Lisa Ann Russell. Together, they have two children: a son (b. 2004) and a daughter (b. 2006). After 14 years of marriage, Gosselaar and Russell announced their separation in early June 2010. Gosselaar filed for divorce June 18, 2010, and it became final in May 2011.

Gosselaar was engaged to advertising executive Catriona McGinn in August 2011. They married July 28, 2012, at the Sunstone winery in Santa Ynez, California. They have a son (b. 2013) and a daughter (b. 2015).

Gosselaar is a sports car enthusiast, race car driver, track cyclist, dirt biker, and pilot. 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.

Gosselaar is friends with Greg White, the voice and play-by-play announcer for the MotoAmerica Championship. The two toured the West Coast of California on Honda motorcycles in 2010.

Among his many sports and athletic accomplishments, Gosselaar is also a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu brown belt, having trained under Rafael Ramos and Nelson Montiero.

Gosselaar sold his Sherman Oaks home in February 2022 and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Young Artist Award

1989: Nominated, Best Young Actor in a Cable Family Series – Good Morning, Miss Bliss

1990: Nominated, Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast – Saved by the Bell

1991: Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Saved by the Bell

1992: Nominated, Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Saved by the Bell

1993: Nominated, Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Saved by the Bell