Freddie James Prinze Jr. was born in Los Angeles on March 8, 1976, the only child of Katherine Elaine Prinze (née Cochran) and actor and stand-up comedianFreddie Prinze.[2][3]
On January 29, 1977, Freddie Prinze died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, after which Prinze Jr. relocated with his mother to Albuquerque, New Mexico.[2] Prinze was raised Catholic.[4] His paternal grandmother was from Puerto Rico[5][6] and he is fluent in Spanish.[6][7] Prinze had enjoyed acting in school productions as a child and participated in Albuquerque Children's Theatre, though he originally planned to become a civil engineer before getting roles on Family Matters and The Watcher.[8] Soon after that he saw Neil Patrick Harris at his high school getting kids excited about getting into acting, and he decided to do that.[9] After graduating from La Cueva High School in 1994, Prinze moved to Los Angeles to audition for television roles.[10][11][12]
Career
Television and film
Prinze was cast in a guest role on the ABC TV series Family Matters in 1995. He then appeared in a few programs and made-for-TV movies, before making his motion picture debut in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday in 1996. In subsequent years, Prinze appeared in youth-oriented movies I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and its sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), made him known to teenage audiences. His first leading role, the romantic comedy She's All That (1999), grossed $63 million in the United States.[13]
In March 2009, it was announced that Prinze had signed on to star as Bradley, aka Ultimatum, in the ABC show No Heroics, a U.S. remake of the British show of the same name.[20][21][22] The show was not picked up, but Prinze was cast as a series regular for the eighth season of the television show 24; he played Cole Ortiz, a new CTU operative.[23]
Prinze is a WWE fan and was seen on television in attendance at the March 2008 WrestleMania XXIVpay-per-view and its preceding Hall of Fame ceremony. He also made a cameo on an episode of The Dirt Sheet, an online program hosted by wrestlers John Morrison and The Miz.[30] He had created an official profile on WWE's "Universe" blog community where he would regularly write his thoughts about the current goings-on in the world of the WWE. His relationship with the company was furthered when he was hired as a member of the creative staff to contribute to weekly television and pay-per-view programming for the SmackDown brand.[31][32] It was reported on February 22, 2009 that Prinze and WWE had parted ways, but in January 2021, Prinze explained that he had actually chosen to leave the company at that time.[33][34]
Prinze returned to WWE on October 1, 2010 in a role as a producer and director.[35] On the November 1, 2010 episode of Monday Night Raw, Prinze made an on-screen appearance as Vince McMahon's doctor, a dream sequence scene that coincided with Linda McMahon's attempt to win a seat in the Senate for the state of Connecticut.[36][37] Prinze left WWE for a second time due to a comment made by Stone Cold Steve Austin to a contestant while taping an episode of the fifth season of WWE Tough Enough.[38]
Podcast (since 2021)
In November 2021, Prinze started his own podcast Wrestling With Freddie with cohost Jeff Dye.[39]
Premier Streaming Network
In April 2023, Freddie Prinze Jr. joined the ownership team of Premier Streaming Network, a streaming platform focused on wrestling, sports, and entertainment content.[40]
MyFandom Sports App
In June 2024, Freddie Prinze Jr. was announced as part of the ownership team behind MyFandom, an iOS app co-founded by brothers Fred and Josh Shernoff. MyFandom allows sports fans to contribute personal media to a collective archive of sporting events, creating a user-generated historical record while enabling individuals to curate their own attendance history.[41]
He married actress Sarah Michelle Gellar on September 1, 2002, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. The couple met several years before, while filming I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997),[43] started dating in 2000 and were engaged in April 2001. They co-starred in Scooby-Doo (2002), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Happily N'Ever After (2006), and Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018). Gellar made a non-speaking cameo in Prinze's film She's All That (1999). They have two children together: a daughter born September 2009, and a son born September 2012,[44][45] and live in Los Angeles.[46]
Prinze is an avid practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and has reached the rank of purple belt in the sport, having been promoted under Jean Jacques Machado.[47]
^Hochman, David (September 9, 2013). "Still Crazy: Years after Mork and Buffy, Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar hope to rope us in with a new sitcom". TV Guide. pp.16 – 19.
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