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Saved By the Bell
Background:
“The people who recognize me fall into two categories. If
they remember when $5 would pretty much fill a gas tank, they’re
fans of 'NYPD Blue.' If, however, they consider $5 fair payment for a
gallon of gas and a latte, they know me from 'Saved By the Bell.'”
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
American actor of Dutch and Indonesian extraction who began as a
child model when he was still five years old Mark-Paul Gosselaar
attained teen idol status thanks to his portrayal of the adorable
troublemaker Zack Morris on the popular NBC Saturday series “Saved
By the Bell” (1989-1993). He won a Young Artist Award for his
work on the show, and reprised the role in the spin-off series “Saved
by the Bell: The College Years” (1993-1994) and the TV movies
“Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style” (1992) and “Saved
by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas” (1994). Despite his TV
success, Gosselaar had troubles finding work after the demise of the
show. Stints as both a host and creative consultant on the
brief-lived game show “Brains and Brawn” (1993) and
performances in such B-movies as “Twisted Love” (1995)
and “Kounterfeit” (1996) failed to relaunch his declining
career. Eventually, after earning some notice in the 1998 comedy film
“Dead Man on Campus” and starring in two short-lived
series, Gosselaar bounced back as tempered detective John Clark on
the wildly popular and long-running ABC police drama “NYPD
Blue” (2001-2005). He stated, “This is a dream role for
me. This is more close to who I really am than the characters I
played in 'Dead Man On Campus' or 'Saved By the Bell.' There are
parts of this character that are certainly different as well. But,
this is me. This is what I think I am good at. In the industry,
nobody saw that. It was tough for me to get to this point.”
Gosselaar can currently be seen as Jerry Kellerman on the drama
series “Raising the Bar” (TNT, 2008).
Off camera, Gosselaar is a fan of sports car, track cyclist, pilot
and race car driver. In 2005, he participated in the Far West
Championships for track cycling. He became the winner of the Category
4/5 Sprint Championship event at the Encino Velodrome. He also enjoys
weight lifting, skiing, surfing, football and tai kwon do. Gosselaar
is a fluent Dutch speaker. He has two dogs, Tala and Fleur, and a
horse named Verano. His favorite actors are Robert DeNiro, Alan Arkin
and Jack Nicholson.
Gosselaar has been married to screen beauty Lisa Ann Russell
since 1996. They have two young children: Michael Charles and Ava
Lorenn. From 1989 to 1992, while working on “Saved By the
Bell,” Gosselaar was romantically linked to co-star Lark
Voorhies. He also dated Tiffani Thiessen, who played his girlfriend
and wife Kelly Kapowski on the series. On one occasion, Thiessen
stated, “I learned how to smoke from Mark-Paul Gosselaar on
'Saved by the Bell.' He's the one who taught me, and we smoked
together. I think my mom knew we were smoking together when we were
working, so I knew I couldn't really lie myself out of it.”
Koo Coo
Childhood and Family:
Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar was born on March 1, 1974, in Panorama
City, California, to a Dutch father, Hans, and an Indonesian mother,
Paula. He has an older brother named Mike and two older sisters,
Sylvia and Linda. His parents and siblings were all born in the
Netherlands. His family moved to the Santa Clarita Valley in Southern
California when Mark-Paul was a teenager. There he attended Hart
High School.
On August 26, 1996, Mark-Paul was married to actress Lisa Ann
Russell (born on March 21, 1972) in Maui, Hawaii. The couple met on
the set of “Saved by the Bell.” Their first child, son
Michael Charles, was born on January 31, 2004, and their daughter,
Ava Lorenn, was born two years later on May 7, 2006.
Mark-Paul is known by the nickname M-P. His father, however,
prefers to call him “Koo Coo.” He has also been dubbed
“Humpy.”
NYPD Blue
Career:
Mark-Paul Gosselaar started modeling when he was five years old.
After appearing in TV commercials, the 12-year-old whose first dream
was to be an architect made the switch to acting with guest spots in
the series “Highway to Heaven,” “The Twilight Zone”
and Stingray” (all 1986), which were soon followed by
appearances in “Charles in Charge,” “The Wonder
Years” and “Punky Brewster” (1988). The same year,
he also made his TV movie bow in “Necessary Parties,” a
family/drama where he starred as a teenager who goes to court to
preclude his parents from ending their marriage.
Gosselaar's career gained significant boost when he was cast in
the costarring role of the cunning preppy blond Zachary “Zack”
Morris on the NBC well-liked teen series “Saved by the Bell.”
During his four-year tenure on the show (from 1989 to 1993), he
became a favorite among young viewers and received several Young
Artist nominations and won one in 1991 in the category of Best Young
Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series. He recreated the coveted
role for the less successful spin-off “Saved by the Bell: The
College Years” (1993-1994) and in the TV films based on the
show like “Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style” (1992) and
“Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas” (1994).
“We had a great time; it was six years. It was at a really
fun part of your life. And I was a lucky kid, I'll tell you that
much.” Mark-Paul Gosselaar (on his “Saved by the Bell”
experience)
The Californian native tried his hand in hosting with the
short-lived NBC game show “Brains and Brawn”(1993), in
which he also served as creative consultant, and then set his
attention to break into the cinematic industry. After roles in the
sequel “White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II “ (1993) and
the sport-themed “The St. Tammany Miracle” (1994), both
of which he made while still in “Saved by the Bell,”
Gosselaar managed to get roles in more movies, but most of his
projects were in low-budget genre fare that went straight to video
release. Among them were “Twisted Love” (1995), “Sticks
& Stones” (1996) and “Kounterfeit” (1996). He
fared better on the small screen playing a college date assailant on
“She Cried No” (1996), a drama-made-for-TV film
costarring Candace Cameron Bure, and as Steven Tyler in anther drama,
“Dying to Belong” (1997), opposite Hilary Swank.
After starring as Gina Phillips' boyfriend in the telepic “Born
Into Exile” (1997), Gosselaar was brought back in the limelight
thanks to his costarring role opposite Tom Everett Scott in the
comedy “Dead Man on Campus” (1998), directed by Alan
Cohn. He portrayed sympathetic troublemaker Cooper Frederickson.
Shortly thereafter, the handsome actor returned to series TV as a
regular on the “Hyperion Bay” (1998-1999), starring as
Dennis Sweeny. The WB show, however, lasted only one season. He moved
on to star in the youth-oriented political drama “D.C”
(2000), as Pete Komisky, but the series, unfortunately, also had a
short life.
In the following year, Gosselaar starred with Marisol Nichols in
the drama/romance film “The Princess & the Marine”
(NBC), where he portrayed Jason Johnson, a US soldier who falls for a
member of the Bahraini royal family, and opposite Mercedes McNab in
the comedy movie “Beer Money” (USA Network). Also having
a guest role in a 2001 episode of NBC's “Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit,” the hard worker, however, did not enjoy
resurgence until 2001, when he joined the cast of the ABC drama
series “NYPD Blue,” replacing Rick Schroeder. As
Detective John Clark, Jr., a new partner of Det. Sipowicz (played by
Dennis Franz), he quickly won the heart of audiences and stayed with
the show until it came to an end in 2005.
Despite his hectic schedule, Gosselaar still found time working in
other projects. He teamed up with Lisa Robin Kelly, Leigh Anne
Robertson and Alexandra Adi for the TV film “Alikes”
(2002), costarred opposite Sharon Lawrence in “Atomic Twister”
(2002), an action/thriller telepic directed by Bill Corcoran and
penned by Ron McGee, and had a supporting role in the Leslie Bibb
starring vehicle “Hitched” (Fox, 2005). After the demise
of “NYPD Blue,” he snatched a recurring role on the
Steven Bochco series “Over There” (2005), playing John
Moffet, before joining Geena Davis as one of the regular players on
the Rod Lurie-created drama “Commander in Chief” (2005),
which lasted 19 episodes. The actor played the role of a glossy,
discernment media planner named Richard 'Dickie' McDonald.
Next up for Gosselaar, he was featured along side Lara Flynn
Boyle, Colin Ferguson and Julie Stewart on the TV film “The
House Next Door” (2006), adapted by Jeff Woolnough from the
Anne Rivers Siddons novel, and supported Cassie Benavidez and Ramon
Camacho in “Law Dogs” (2007), a CBS drama film helmed by
Adam Bernstein. He revisited series TV as Jake Ferris on the now
defunct HBO show “John From Cincinnati” (2007), starring
Rebecca De Mornay.
Currently, the 34-year-old actor portrays Jerry Kellerman on the
TNT series “Raising the Bar.” Among his costars in the
show are Teddy Sears, Paul Joyner, Melissa Sagemiller and Stacy
Hall.
Awards:
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