Zachary Quinto

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Zachary Quinto

Zachary John Quinto (born 2 June 1977; age 46) is the actor who portrays Spock, the role originated by Leonard Nimoy, in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. First acquiring recognition as Counter Terrorist Unit analyst Adam Kaufman during the third season of the FOX series 24, he is also known for his role as the superpowered serial killer Gabriel "Sylar" Gray on the NBC series Heroes. Quinto also voiced the Emergency Medical Hologram Mark VI for the computer game Star Trek Online and voiced Spock in the 2013 Star Trek video game.

Early and personal life

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, the half-Italian, half-Irish Quinto began acting as a member of the Pittsburgh CLO-Mini Stars at the age of eleven. While attending Central Catholic High School, Quinto was honored with Pittsburgh CLO's Gene Kelly Award for his performance as Major-General in a production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance. After graduating from Central Catholic in 1995, he attended Carnegie Mellon University's Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, from which he graduated in 1999.

In October 2011, Quinto came out publicly as gay, stating that following the suicide of gay teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, he realized "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." He continued "I believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society -- and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action." [1]. Before coming out, Quinto had long been an advocate for gay rights and of organizations advocating gay rights. Quinto now stands side by side with TOS star George Takei who himself has long been a self-outed gay man.

Early career

Quinto moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Carnegie Mellon in 1999; the following year, he made his television debut on the short-lived NBC series The Others, which starred Star Trek: Enterprise performers John Billingsley and Bill Cobbs. This was followed by guest appearances on such shows as Touched by an Angel (in an episode with John Savage), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Agency (with Daniel Benzali, David Clennon, and John Rubinstein), Charmed (also with John Rubinstein), and Crossing Jordan (directed by and co-starring Miguel Ferrer). He also starred in an unsold TV pilot for FOX Television called An American Town, working with Jennifer Hetrick.

He made his film debut with a small, uncredited role in the direct-to-video independent thriller Psychic Murders, starring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' Terry Farrell. He then appeared as an angry beatnik in the 2003 romantic comedy Down with Love, which also featured Star Trek: Voyager actress Jeri Ryan. [2] [3]

On 24, Quinto appeared in all but one episode of the show's third season. During his time on this series, he worked with fellow Star Trek alumni Michael Cavanaugh, J.D. Cullum, Alan Dale, Colby French, Jenette Goldstein, Albert Hall, Penny Johnson, Jack Kehler, John Meier, Henry Kingi, Sr., Ben Bray, Daniel Dae Kim, Henry Kingi, Jr., Alexandra Lydon, Glenn Morshower, Mark Rolston, and Tony Todd. Following the third season, however, his character was written out of the series without explanation, though he did return to provide the voice of Adam in the 24 video game, which was set between the show's second and third seasons.

In 2006, he starred as Tori Spelling's Persian-American best friend, Sasan, on the comic VH1 series, So NoTORIous. Guest performers on this series included Jeanetta Arnette, Whoopi Goldberg, and Natalia Nogulich. The series ended after ten episodes.

Quinto joined the cast of Heroes in 2006, making his debut as Sylar in the eighth episode, "Seven Minutes to Midnight". Including this episode, Quinto appeared in sixty episodes of Heroes through February 2010, when the series ended. Star Trek alumni he has worked with on this series are Erick Avari, K Callan, Joanna Cassidy, Josh Clark, Thomas Dekker, Louise Fletcher, Colby French, Brad Greenquist, Greg Grunberg, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Robert Knepper, Bart McCarthy, Malcolm McDowell, Brian Morri, Christine Rose, Raphael Sbarge, Todd Stashwick, Kate Vernon, Dan Warner, Clay Wilcox, D. Elliot Woods, Rick Worthy, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Michael Dorn, Star Trek: Enterprise's Dominic Keating, and Star Trek: The Original Series stars George Takei and Nichelle Nichols. Two of Quinto's episodes were directed by Star Trek: Voyager actress Roxann Dawson.

Star Trek

Leonard Nimoy gives his "#1 Vulcan" T-shirt to Quinto at Creation Grand Slam XVI

Quinto admitted that he had only seen "a smattering" of Star Trek episodes and only some of the films, since he was not as interested in science fiction when growing up as he is now. [4] He describes himself as a "fan" of Star Trek, though not "fanatical." [5]

Quinto first expressed public interest in portraying Spock in December 2006. [6] Describing this interest, Quinto explained:

"It comes from the complexity of the character and the experiences that I have had personally and professionally[...]I feel like I identify with a lot of aspects of what this character is going through in terms of the structure of the movie and the story structure [as created by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci]."

He first auditioned for the role on the morning of 15 April 2007 – less than a day after the original Spock actor, Leonard Nimoy, presented Quinto and his Heroes castmates with the Future Classic Award at the TV Land Awards. Incidentally, Abrams was not initially convinced that Quinto was right for the role of Spock after seeing the tape of Quinto's work session with the film's casting directors, April Webster and Alyssa Weisberg. After meeting with Quinto on 5 June, however, Abrams was convinced otherwise and the actor was offered the role two days later. Quinto was the first actor cast in the new film. [7] [8]

Rumors that he was in talks for the role persisted throughout July 2007, and on 23 July, E! Online reported that he was indeed cast in the role, pending finalization of a deal with Paramount Pictures. [9] [10] An official announcement was made at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, on 26 July. [11]

Regarding his approach to playing Spock, Quinto has stated he may not spend much time analyzing episodes of the series or the movies for perspective on the character. Instead, he believes "the key to the success of this character is probably going to be reestablishing a perspective on this character with gratitude and respect for what's come before." He has, however, been spending time with original Spock performer Leonard Nimoy in preparation for the role, although Quinto is most interested in getting to know Nimoy "as a man" and "as an artist" and not just to acquire perspective on playing Spock. [12] According to Quinto, his Spock will be more emotional as the character is "more charged" with his struggle between his Human and Vulcan natures. [13]

Spock is Quinto's first major feature film role and his first credited film work. He also signed up to play Spock in at least two sequels to that film. [14] The first of those sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness, was released in May of 2013.

Quinto and Nimoy parodied their involvement in Star Trek in a 2013 commercial for the Audi S7 titled "The Challenge." In the advertisement, Quinto and Nimoy play a game of three-dimensional chess over a computer tablet. After Quinto loses the game, he suggests a new challenge to Nimoy: a round of golf at the club, but the last to arrive at the club has to buy lunch. Quinto drives an Audi 57 to the club, while Nimoy takes his Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class sedan. Quinto arrives at the club first and is waiting outside when Nimoy arrives. Quinto tells Nimoy he will be buying lunch, only to have Nimoy nerve pinch him before entering the club. [15]

Beyond Star Trek

In addition to acting, Quinto has been delving into the production side of film making. In 2008, Quinto and his longtime friends and collaborators, Corey Moosa and Neal Dodson, started their own media production company, [Beyond The Door Pictures. Quinto has starred in several short films produced by his company, including Hostage: A Love Story (2009) and Dog Eat Dog (2013). One of their earliest shorts, 2008's Bordeaux, starred Quinto and several of his Heroes castmates, including the aforementioned Greg Grunberg. Quinto later co-starred with Willie Garson in the comedy short Periods., which played at the HollyShorts Film Festival in 2012. Garson also starred in the short Fops, which, like Periods., was executive-produced by Quinto.

The most high-profile projects to come from Before The Door are two acclaimed feature films from writer-director J.C. Chandor: the 2011 financial drama Margin Call, in which Quinto himself co-starred, and the 2013 survival drama All Is Lost, which features only one cast member, Academy Award winner Robert Redford. Quinto is credited as a producer on the former film and an executive producer on the latter. Upcoming features which Quinto is producing include the horror film The Banshee Chapter and the comedy Breakup at a Wedding.

Outside of projects for Behind The Door, Quinto was seen in the 2011 comedy films Girl Walks Into a Bar and What's Your Number?, the latter of which co-starred Ed Begley, Jr. Also in 2011, Quinto portrayed the role of Chad Warwick in four episodes of the first season FX series American Horror Story. He returned to the series as a regular the following year, this time in the role of Dr. Oliver Thredson for the show's second season, titled American Horror Story: Asylum. Fellow Star Trek alum James Cromwell also starred in Asylum, portraying Quinto's character's colleague, the sadistic Dr. Arthur Arden. Others who made appearances in Asylum include Barbara Tarbuck and Gwynyth Walsh.

Quinto recently shot an independent ensemble comedy titled Growing Up (and Other Lies).[16] He is currently slated to co-star in a thriller film titled The Invitation alongside Topher Grace, Luke Wilson, and The Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki.[17]

In addition, Quinto starred in The American Repertory Theater's recent stage production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.[18] He will make his Broadway debut with this production when it transfers to New York's Booth Theatre in September 2013.[19][20]

Credits

• Star Trek
• Star Trek Into Darkness

Other media

• Narrated Star Trek audio book
• Star Trek Online
• Star Trek video game

External links

• ZacharyQuinto.com - official site
• Zachary Quinto at Wikipedia
• Template:IMDb-link
• Zachary Quinto at Twitter.com
• Zachary Quinto at Wiki 24
• Zachary Quinto at the Heroes Wiki
• Template:NowCasting