Zachary Levi

Zachary Levi Pugh, born September 29, 1980, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is an American actor whose career spans television, film, and Broadway. Of English, Welsh, and German descent, Levi grew up moving between several states before his family settled in Ventura, California, where he attended Buena High School. He began performing on stage at age six, taking on lead roles in regional productions including Grease, The Outsiders, Oklahoma!, Oliver!, The Wizard of Oz, and Big River at the Ojai Art Center in Ojai, California.

Levi's early screen work included the Showtime series Whatever, in which he was credited as Zachary Pugh, and the FX television film Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie. He played Kipp Steadman on the ABC sitcom Less than Perfect and appeared in the ABC Family film See Jane Date. His career gained significant momentum when he landed the starring role of Chuck Bartowski in the NBC action comedy series Chuck, which ran from 2007 to 2012. He and co-star Yvonne Strahovski both won Teen Choice Awards for Best Action Actor and Actress in 2010, and in 2008 Entertainment Weekly named him one of its Top Thirty People Under Thirty.

In 2010, Levi voiced Flynn Rider in the Disney animated film Tangled, based on the fairy tale Rapunzel. He performed the song "I See the Light" alongside co-star Mandy Moore for the film's soundtrack, and the two performed it together at the 83rd Academy Awards following the song's Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The song subsequently won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Levi reprised the voice role in the 2012 short film Tangled Ever After and in the television series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, which premiered March 24, 2017, and concluded March 1, 2020, running for three seasons.

Levi made his Broadway debut in August 2013 in the musical comedy First Date, for which he received a Theatre World Award in 2014. He returned to Broadway in 2016 in the revival of She Loves Me, taking on the lead role of Georg Nowack opposite Laura Benanti as Amalia. The production opened at Studio 54 on March 17, 2016, following previews that began February 19, and ran through July 10 after an initial limited engagement was extended. The revival received five stars from The Guardian and was named a Critics' Pick by The New York Times. Levi received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his portrayal of Georg. The production also made Broadway history on June 30, 2016, when it became the first Broadway show to be livestreamed, with Levi and the full cast participating.

On screen, Levi appeared as Fandral in the Marvel films Thor: The Dark World in 2013 and Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, having originally been cast in the role for the first Thor film before scheduling conflicts with Chuck prevented him from appearing. In 2015, he joined the cast of NBC's Heroes Reborn as Luke Collins, a role in the 13-episode miniseries. In 2018, he appeared as Dr. Benjamin Ettenberg in the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and shared in the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the show's principal cast at the January 2019 ceremony.

Levi starred as the titular character in the 2019 Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema superhero film Shazam!, playing the superpowered alter-ego of teenager Billy Batson within the DC Extended Universe, and reprised the role in the 2023 sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Additional film credits include a supporting role in the 2021 legal drama The Mauritanian, the biographical sports drama American Underdog, in which he played quarterback Kurt Warner, and the 2024 film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon. In 2023, he also voiced Rocky in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and played Terrence Tango-Torrez in Spy Kids: Armageddon. In 2025, he portrayed author Scott LeRette in The Unbreakable Boy and appeared as wildcatter Bert Smith in Sarah's Oil.