Gosselaar was born in Panorama City, Los Angeles, the son of Paula (née van den Brink), a homemaker and hostess for KLM, and Hans Gosselaar, a plant supervisor for Anheuser-Busch.[3][4] He is the youngest of his parents' four children, and was the only one not born in the Netherlands.[4][5]
Gosselaar has described himself as "half-Asian,” and mentioned collecting things from Indonesia.[10][11][12][13][14]
Gosselaar speaks Dutch,[4][5] and was fluent for a time, at home.[10] His parents later separated.[3]
Gosselaar's mother was his manager.[12] He began modeling at the age of five,[3] and as a child, he also appeared in commercials for Cookie Crisp cereal and Smurf merchandise, later winning guest spots on television series.[15] He spent his teenage years in the Santa Clarita Valley in Southern California, where he attended Hart High School.
Gosselaar has said that his natural hair color is brown, but he was "blondish" as a kid.[16][17] His hair was dyed blond throughout his run on Saved by the Bell.[18]
In 1996, he appeared in the TV-film She Cried No, as a college student who date-rapes his best friend's sister at a fraternity party. In 1998, he starred in the feature film Dead Man on Campus. Later that same year, Gosselaar played the central character in the TV drama Hyperion Bay, which lasted 17 episodes. In 2001, he starred in the movie The Princess and the Marine, with Marisol Nichols. He also starred in the short-lived WB series D.C. From 2001 to 2005, he played Detective John Clark on ABC's NYPD Blue. During his time on the show, he appeared in Atomic Twister in which he played Jake Hannah, a deputy who is traumatized over his mother's death and must help after a series of tornadoes hits a nuclear power plant in a small Tennessee town; the movie also stars fellow NYPD Blue alum Sharon Lawrence, who plays Corrine Maguire. After the series ended, he joined the cast of ABC's Commander in Chief, which lasted only one season. He appeared on the HBO series John from Cincinnati. He then gained the starring role of defense attorney Jerry Kellerman in the Steven Bochco-produced Raising the Bar, which debuted on September 1, 2008, on TNT, then it was canceled in November 2009 after two seasons.[19]
Gosselaar (pictured) in 2008 at the Malibu Triathlon
In October 2009, he made his off-Broadway stage debut in Theresa Rebeck's play The Understudy with The Roundabout Theatre Company. The show extended its limited New York run until January 17, 2010.[24]
Gosselaar began filming the TNT series Franklin & Bash on March 28, 2010. The series premiered on June 1, 2011. On November 11, 2014, it was announced that the series was canceled, after four seasons.[25] The FOX series Pitch cast Gosselaar in the main role of Mike Lawson, star catcher and team captain, in February 2016, and premiered on September 22, 2016. On May 1, 2017, it was announced that the series was canceled, after one season.[26] He appeared in two episodes of Tiffani Thiessen's cooking show, Dinner at Tiffani's.
In 2019, Gosselaar began playing the lead role of Paul Jackson (Rainbow's father) in ABC comedy series Mixed-ish (spin-off and prequel series of Black-ish). He took over the role from Anders Holm, who played the character in the pilot episode.[27] Gosselaar also reprised his role as Zack Morris in the 2020 sequel series Saved by the Bell.[28]
In 1996, Gosselaar married former model Lisa Ann Russell.[3] Together, they have two children: a son (b. 2004), and daughter (b. 2006).[31] After 14 years of marriage, Gosselaar and Russell announced their separation in early June 2010.[32] Gosselaar filed for divorce June 18, 2010,[33] and it became final in May 2011.[34]
Gosselaar was engaged to advertising executive Catriona McGinn in August 2011.[34] They married July 28, 2012, at the Sunstone winery in Santa Ynez, California.[35] They have a son (b. 2013),[36] and a daughter (b. 2015).[37]
^ abcdScott-Gregory, Sophronia; Rizzo, Monica (October 12, 1998). "To Bell and Back". People. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
^Parenteel van Nathan Godslaars (Gosselaar family genealogy); Gosselaar's paternal grandfather, Aron (Arie) Gosselaar, was a Dutch Jew, and Gosselaar's paternal grandmother, Ida Ferdinanda "Itty" Kosel, was German.
