Zachary John Quinto (; born June 2, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Sylar, the primary antagonist from the science fiction drama series Heroes (2006–2010); Spock in the film Star Trek (2009) and its sequels Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016); Charlie Manx in the AMC series NOS4A2, and Dr. Oliver Thredson in American Horror Story: Asylum, for which he received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
He starred in and produced Brilliant Minds from 2024 until 2026, a medical drama on NBC. His other starring film roles include Margin Call (2011), Hitman: Agent 47 (2015), Snowden (2016), and Hotel Artemis (2018). He also appeared in smaller roles on television series, such as So Notorious, The Slap, and 24, and on stage in Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie, and Smokefall.
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Early life and education
Zachary John Quinto was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Margaret "Margo" (née McArdle), who worked at an investment firm and later at a magistrate's office, and Joseph John "Joe" Quinto, a barber. He was raised in the suburb of Green Tree, Pennsylvania, and attended Saints Simon and Jude Catholic School (closed 2010). His father died of cancer when Quinto was seven years old, and Quinto and his brother, Joe, were subsequently raised by their mother. Quinto's maternal great-grandfather was the labor activist and Republican Pittsburgh City Councilman Peter J. McArdle, whom Pittsburgh's P.J. McArdle Roadway is named after. His maternal grandfather was Joseph A. McArdle, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Quinto was raised Catholic. His father was of Italian descent, while his mother was of Irish ancestry. Quinto graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1995, where he participated in its musicals and won the Gene Kelly Award for Best Supporting Actor, and then attended Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama, from which he graduated in 1999.
Career
Quinto first appeared on television in the short-lived television series The Others, and appeared as a guest star on shows including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Touched by an Angel, Charmed, Six Feet Under, Lizzie McGuire, and Dragnet. In 2003, during the theatrical run of Endgame by Samuel Beckett, directed by Kristina Lloyd at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles playing the role of Clov, he landed a recurring role as computer expert Adam Kaufman on the Fox series 24; Quinto appeared in 23 episodes of the third season.
In 2006, Quinto played the role of Sasan, the haughty, bisexual Iranian-American best friend of Tori Spelling on her VH1 series So Notorious. Later that year, he joined the cast of Heroes as Gabriel Gray, better known as the serial killer Sylar. He worked on the series until its cancellation in 2010 after four seasons.
His casting as a young Spock in the J. J. Abrams–directed reboot of the Star Trek film franchise was officially announced at the 2007 Comic-Con. Speaking alongside Leonard Nimoy at a press conference to promote the first new Star Trek film, Quinto revealed that Nimoy had been given casting approval over who would play the role of the young Spock. "For me Leonard's involvement was only liberating, frankly," says Quinto. "I knew that he had approval over the actor that would play young Spock, so when I got the role I knew from the beginning it was with his blessing."
In a September 2008 interview, Abrams said of Quinto's performance as Spock: "Zachary brought a gravity and an incredible sense of humor, which is a wonderful combination because Spock's character is deceivingly complicated. The revelation for me watching the movie, when I finally got to watch the whole thing after working on sequences, was that he is extraordinary. He was doing things I didn't even realize while we were shooting – these amazing things to track his story." After Star Trek, he appeared in the comedy short Boutonniere (2009). It "...was a movie written and directed by my former landlady and friend, [actress Coley Sohn]. She called up and said, 'Would you do me a favor and be in my short film?'"
In 2008, Quinto joined with Corey Moosa and Neal Dodson to form Before the Door Pictures. The company produced projects in film, television, new media, and published two graphic novels in a deal with comic book publisher Archaia Entertainment: they published a graphic novel called Mr. Murder is Dead, created by writer Victor Quinaz, closely followed by LUCID: A Matthew Dee Adventure written by writer/actor Michael McMillian.
Personal life
Quinto publicly came out as gay in October 2011. He explained that, after the suicide of bisexual teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, he felt that "living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality." Prior to his coming out, Quinto had long been an active supporter of gay rights and organizations, including The Trevor Project. In 2009, he appeared in the one-night production Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, a benefit stage reading in response to the passing of Proposition 8, as well as in the play The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. In 2010, Quinto contributed a video to the It Gets Better Project, an Internet-based campaign that aims to prevent suicide among LGBTQAI+ youth. In 2012, Quinto campaigned on behalf of Barack Obama, including appearing in the video Obama Pride: LGBT Americans For Obama.
From 2010 to 2013, Quinto was in a relationship with actor Jonathan Groff. Quinto began dating model and musician Miles McMillan in the summer of 2013. In early 2015, the couple moved into a NoHo apartment they purchased together. In November 2015, Vogue called them "a power couple whose domain extends across the film, fashion, and art scene." The two ended their relationship in early 2019.
In 2017, Quinto criticized the timing of actor Kevin Spacey's decision to coming out as part of his response to allegations of sexual advances towards then-14-year-old actor Anthony Rapp. He called the manner of Spacey's announcement "deeply sad and troubling", feeling he had not stood up "as a point of pride—in the light of all his many awards and accomplishments—thus inspiring tens of thousands of struggling LGBTQ kids around the world", but instead as "a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusation that he attempted to molest one".
