Kevin Zegers

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Kevin Joseph Zegers (born September 19, 1984 in Woodstock, Ontario) is a Canadian film actor.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Film career 1.3 Personal life 2 Complete biography 3 Filmography 4 Awards 5 References 5.1 Footnotes 5.2 Web sites

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Zegers was born in Woodstock, Ontario to James Zegers (a quarry worker) and Mary Ellen (soon-to-be school teacher). He grew up in Woodstock, Ontario, graduating from St. Mary's High School in 2002. He has two younger sisters: Krista and Katie, who are actresses. Zegers started acting at the age of 6. He has been in over 30 commercials, and also did some modeling in London. Aside from his acting career, Zegers works off-and-on as a model. He is 5' 9" (1.75 m) tall.

[edit] Film career

Zegers began his performing career at an early age, appearing in commercials. His first film role was at the age of 7, in a small role in Michael J. Fox comedy Life With Mikey (1993). Subsequently, he appeared in many supporting roles, including a guest appearance on the TV series, The X-Files, playing a young stigmatic child. He had the starring role in Air Bud (1997), about a basketball-playing dog. In the years following, Zegers appeared in three of the film's sequels, as well as a similar genre film, MVP: Most Valuable Primate, which featured a hockey-playing chimp.

Between 1997 and 2004, Zegers had starring or co-starring roles in many low-budget Canadian and horror films including Komodo (1999). He also appeared in the short-lived American television series, Titans co-starring Yasmine Bleeth, in 2000, for which he was personally chosen by producer Aaron Spelling. Zegers also worked with Bleeth in the 1999 movie It Came From the Sky.

After appearing in the remake of Dawn of the Dead, he had a major role in the Academy Award-nominated independent film, Transamerica (2005), co-starring Felicity Huffman. Zegers's performance as the bisexual street hustling son of a male-to-female transsexual was praised by several critics, and he won the 2006 Cannes Film Festival Chopard Award, which is given to promising young actors^[1]

Zegers' body-swap comedy It's a Boy Girl Thing opened in the UK on December 29, 2006.^[2]

[edit] Personal life

In his acting career, Zegers is often cast as an athlete. This is because he is very active in sports, especially basketball, ice hockey, and golf. In school, he played on the football and basketball teams, and still plays on a local hockey team. He lifted weights through much of his teen years. In February 2002, he played on the Hollywood Knights celebrity basketball team in California.

He became very good friends with Backstreet Boy Nick Carter after meeting him during the filming of The Hollow (2004), in which both starred. Zegers currently resides in Los Angeles. He has dated Kaley Cuoco, Marisa Coughlan. He is currently single after breaking up with ex girlfriend Marisa Coughlan.

[edit] Complete biography

Kevin Zegers – the boy with the dimples - does not fit the mould of young adult actors. Approaching his 23rd birthday (at the time of writing), Kevin is a 17 year veteran of the entertainment industry and has not missed a beat in the difficult transition from child actor to juvenile actor to adult actor.

Kevin Joseph Zegers was born on 19 September 1984 to Jim and Mary Ellen Zegers, the second of three Zegers children. His mom and dad were a hairdresser and quarry worker respectively at the time of Kevin’s birth. He has an older sister Katie, born in 1983, and a younger sister Krista, born in 1986.

Katie had a short and unspectacular two year career as an actress from 1993 to 1995 when she left the business for a career in figure skating. As a 17 year old Katie was a placegetter in the 2001 Great Lakes Winter Skating Festival in Ontario and, a year later competed with partner Matthew Smith in the Canadian Junior National Figure Skating Championships.

The birthplace of Kevin Zegers is the subject of much debate amongst ‘expert’ commentators and websites, with both Ontario townships of St Mary’s and Woodstock being listed as his place of birth. However, Kevin was born in St Mary’s, a rural town nicknamed “The Stonetown”, situated in Oxford County, Ontario. He was brought up as a youngster in Woodstock, a city of over 30,000 inhabitants, just 20 miles from St Mary’s and some 80 miles south-west of Toronto.

However, it was in the ‘Forest City’ of London, just 20 miles south of Woodstock down the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway, that Kevin Zegers gained his first exposure into the entertainment industry. Here he was invited – in 1990 as a 6 year old – to participate in a fashion show as a child model. After treading the catwalks a few more times, young Kevin pestered his parents so much about acting in movies that they hired a Toronto talent agent, more in the hope of dampening their child’s enthusiasm than hopeful of a successful outcome. To their surprise, and Kevin’s delight, he was chosen in just his second audition to act in a television commercial for Cheerios cereals. This led to other commercial work, about 30 in total, and then the inevitable progression into television and film.

In October 1992 a movie was being filmed in Toronto, starring one of the most popular Canadian actors of the day, Michael J Fox. The movie was “Life With Mikey” and tells the story of Michael Chapman, a former child actor now grown up and grown out of popularity. Mikey runs a talent agency with his brother (played by Nathan Lane) and is trying to discover the next big child star. The movie begins with a younger version of Mikey and the casting director John Lyons had to look no further than the local child model and commercial actor Kevin Zegers. The 8 year old Kevin had ‘finally’ realized his ambition – he was acting in movies!

Kevin’s next foray into film was in 1994 though it was not a movie as such, but an animated cartoon series of the “Free Willy” movie a year earlier. Kevin was the voice of Einstein, a dolphin and a new friend of Willy the whale. This series was basically a Canadian production and was shown in the United States on Saturday afternoons. Kevin was one of the younger cast members as Willy was voiced by 31 year old Englishman (but a Toronto resident) Paul Haddad and 13 year old London, Ontario native Zachary Bennett supplied the voice of Jesse.

Actress Kate Jackson, who was a megastar in the 1970’s as Sabrina Duncan in the TV series “Charlie’s Angels”, was so impressed with the young Kevin Zegers that she literally took him under her wing and substantially helped to kickstart his career. She became friendly with the whole Zegers family, even to the extent of having them live at her home for a short while. Jackson was instrumental in getting Kevin cast in two movies, the first of which was “Thicker Than Blood: The Larry McLinden Story”.

This film centres around Larry McLinden, played by Peter Strauss, who fights for custody of his young son Larry jnr (Jacob Penn). Even after McLinden discovers the boy isn’t really his son he continues the custody battle, resulting in one very confused little boy. The part played by Kevin Zegers is Larry McLinden when he was a young boy back in the 1950’s.

Kevin made use of the proliferation of movies being made in Toronto (as “Thicker Than Blood” was) when he scored a bit part in the 1994 classic “In The Mouth Of Madness”, directed by John Carpenter. Parts of the film were shot in Toronto and the rest in other Ontario locations of Markham and West Montrose. One group scene has eight children in it and all of the youngsters came from the Toronto area. Kevin Zegers was one of the eight and his sister Katie was another.

“In The Mouth Of Madness” featured Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow and Charlton Heston in lead roles but two other Canadian child actors made appearances. Hayden Christensen, in his second movie, had a small part and Toronto born Sean Roberge (then 21) was the desk clerk in this, his last movie before his untimely death in a vehicle accident in 1996.

The Toronto movie business was still operative in 1995 and filming began early in the year of a drama titled “The Silence Of Adultery”. The lead character of Dr Rachel Lindsey, a doctor in an unconventional therapy centre, was played by Kate Jackson and, again, she obtained a part for Kevin Zegers in the film. He was Steven Harvett, an autistic child, whose father (Robert Desiderio) takes him to the therapy centre for treatment. Also in this movie was a 10 year old Corey Servier in one of his earlier roles.

Kevin was indeed very fortunate on two counts early in his career when he was trying to establish himself in the entertainment industry. Firstly, he received a helping hand from a proven performer in Kate Jackson an, also, he was able to act in movies that were filmed literally on his doorstep. This meant that he and his family did not have to re-locate and that he was able to keep attending his local school on (mostly) a full-time basis. Since he was very young, Kevin had attended St Rita’s Holy Family French immersion school in Woodstock. He was the captain of his school’s hockey team and, on the rare occasions he took time off school, missing his team’s hockey tournaments was his greatest disappointment. Throughout his schooling, Kevin was a straight A student, excelling in maths and science subjects and was also proficient in both French and English languages. As Kevin had attended the same school from a very young age, his celebrity status was accepted by his classmates more readily than is normally the case.

Still, Kevin Zegers had not obtained his ‘big break’ in the business, though that was to come in 1995 when he ventured into television roles.

His first such role was playing Gordon Bradley in an episode titled ‘A Time To Every Purpose’ of the TV series “Road To Avonlea” in March 1995. This was a popular series on Canadian television, a period costume drama set in the early 1900’s and based around the King family living in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. Some filming was done in Ontario but most on Prince Edward Island, just off the Nova Scotia coast.

It was later in 1995 that Kevin received, via another Canadian television series, the boost to his career that he so desired and it was a huge boost. On 15 December 1995 an episode of the top rating “X-Files” first went to air. The episode was called ‘Revelations’ and Kevin played the character Kevin Kryder, who is a stigmatic, i.e. a person having the wounds of Christ on his hands. Kevin is pursued in this episode by a man who is killing priests who claim to be stigmatics and is intent on also killing the young Kryder. FBI agents Mulder and Scully are assigned to protect the young boy. Kevin’s father in this episode is played by a former child actor Sam Bottoms.

The reason this “X-Files” episode was so important to the career of Kevin Zegers was that it gave him the exposure in the USA that he so desperately wanted. The fact that the ‘Revelations’ episode is re-played by television networks every Christmas hasn’t hurt either!

The year 1996 brought more job offers for the pre-teen – a couple of films, a TV guest spot and, for the first time, a recurring role in a weekly television series. Kevin’s mentor Kate Jackson would undoubtedly have had a hand in obtaining him his first role that year. Jackson played the lead character Jessie Arnold, a competitor in the world famous Iditarod, in the made-for-TV film “The Cold Heart Of A Killer” (aka “Murder On The Iditarod Trail”) and Kevin played the part of Matthew Arnold. Ms Jackson had long admired Sue Henry’s book “Murder On The Iditarod Trail” and was keen on bringing it onto the screen. As an executive producer of the film, she also would have been responsible for getting her young protégé into the movie.

“Specimen”, another locally produced film coming out of Toronto, was Kevin’s next project although his character Bart was a very low-key part. The movie, a sci-fi thriller, starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar and was one of the first films for 7 year old Marc Donato.

Kevin had a guest spot late in 1996 in an episode of the second season of “Goosebumps”, the television adaptation of the R.L. Stine ‘horror’ books for kids. It appeared almost obligatory for any young aspiring Canadian actor to have a role in this series as a stepping stone in their careers. Other Canadian youngsters to have trodden this path before Kevin included Cody Jones, John White, Kay-Erik Eriksen, Andrew Sardella, Ryan Gosling, Christian Tessier, Corey Sevier, Brendan Fletcher, Kenny Vadas and Dov Tiefenbach, most of whom have continued to have relatively successful acting careers.

Although he had only a minor role as Noah Thompson in the episode ‘Let’s Get Invisible’ and played a ‘baddie’, Kevin received top billing in the credits.

In late 1995 Kevin scored a recurring role in a television series called “Traders”. This was a drama/soap, set in a Toronto investment bank called Gardner-Ross. With almost a dozen lead characters, this was a very expensive show to make but it was bankrolled by a combination of CBC and Can West-Global, a fact which allowed the show to be seen twice each week on each of the networks! Despite it not being a ratings success, it ran for five seasons after debuting in February 1996. Kevin’s character Sean Blake, the son of Cathy (one of the traders at the bank), was a constant for those five years. As with the roles of most child actors in a TV series, Kevin’s role was a minor one but exposure on television on a weekly basis can do nothing but good for a young actor’s career.

The career of the teenaged Kevin Zegers took off in a big way in 1996 with a starring role in the film “Air Bud”. Prior to that was the made-for-TV “Rose Hill”, in which he was one of four young actors who played the younger versions of the main characters later in the film. Kevin’s Cole Clayborne was the ‘leader’ of the youngsters, who were orphans on the run from the police when they picked up a baby that had fallen from a carriage. The boys made their way west and set up a ranch they named Rose Hill and, from there, their lives developed. Canadian Blair Slater, and Americans David Klein and Michael Alexander Jackson were the other boys.

Like virtually all Kevin Zegers’ early projects, this was another Canadian project with a lot of the filming done around Calgary in Alberta.

When “Rose Hill” was completed in mid-1996, it was a matter of Kevin skipping west to the neighbouring province of British Columbia to commence filming “Air Bud”. This was the movie which was to launch Kevin Zegers into international stardom as Josh Framm, the human companion of the movie star, the basketball playing golden retriever Buddy.

There were four sequels which were spawned by Air Bud over a period of seven years and there is also a movie in production (“Air Buddies”) in which Buddy finally gets his ‘voice’! By the time the fourth film was made in 2002 – entitled “Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch” – Kevin had outgrown his ‘kiddie’ image and his character Josh had gone to college, so he was not even considered for a role in “Air Bud: Spikes Back” in 2003. The sequels were obviously borne out of the box office success of the first film as “Air Bud” grossed over $25 million in the first six months after it’s release in August 1997.

“Air Bud” was a typical children’s flick which revolved around a 12 year old boy who had moved into a new town in Washington and forged a friendship with a stray dog. Their love of basketball and the dog’s ‘ability’ in the sport cements their friendship, but they are dogged by the animal’s former owner who seeks to cash in on the newly found celebrity status of the dog.

One sad postnote to the first “Air Bud” film was that Buddy the dog died of cancer just over a year after the movie was completed.

Kevin’s next job was another stay-at-home project, with filming also taking place in British Columbia. “A Call To Remember” had Kevin as Ben Tobias, the youngest son (David Lascher was the older son) of two holocaust survivors and the family relationships as they tried to rebuild their lives following their horrific past. His performance as Ben Tobias earned Kevin his third Young Artist Award nomination in his last three films as Best Performance in a TV movie or feature film. The other nominations were for his work in “Rose Hill” and “Air Bud” and he actually won the award for his performance as Josh Framm.

“A Call To Remember” had an ensemble of young Canadian actors in the cast. Christian Tessier, Bill Switzer, Neil Denis, Ben Eberhard and Kevin McNulty all had parts in the movie.

“Air Bud” and “A Call To Remember” were both released in August 1997, so it is unclear which movie was filmed first.

Another Canadian venture (what else!) in 1998 had Kevin Zegers in another starring role and with a plot reminiscent of “Air Bud”. The film was called “Nico The Unicorn” and dealt with a young boy (Kevin’s Billy Hastings) who moves to a new town after a car crash which killed his father and left him with a permanent disability, i.e. a shattered leg. Young Billy visits a circus and take possession of a neglected horse which soon gives birth to – a unicorn! The unicorn (naturally) has magic powers and the lives of Billy and his mother subsequently take a turn for the better as a result.

Kevin Zegers’ star was certainly on the rise and it was to receive another boost with the mid-1998 release of a movie which was to become a horror genre classic, “Shadow Builder” (aka “Bram Stoker’s Shadow Builder”). Irishman Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker (1847 – 1912) wrote the original 1897 Dracula novel, which spawned innumerable Dracula movies. Stoker also wrote 18 novels and several short stories, of which one – ‘The Shadow Builder’ -, was published in 1881 in a short story collection titled “Under The Sunset”. Stoker’s short story and his references to a ‘sailor boy’ bear little resemblance to the film made in 1998 but it is the basis of the movie.

Kevin’s character in “Shadow Builder” was Chris Hatcher, a 12 year old boy who is thought to be a saint, due to the stigmata on his hands he had at birth. A demon who has been released by an evil priest hunts for young Chris, captures him and is about to sacrifice him in a church in the film’s climax.

The success of “Air Bud” just a year earlier spawned a sequel of sorts, released in August 1998 as “Air Bud: Golden Retriever”. Though “Golden Retriever” was a follow-up there were very few similarities between the two films. In fact, Kevin Zegers (as Josh Framm) was one of only two actors who reprised their roles – fellow Canadian Shayne Solberg (as Josh’s buddy Tom) was the other. Both movies took place in the fictional Washington town of Fernfield but even the basketball playing Buddy (who died after the making of the first film) was replaced by another golden retriever dog that could play gridiron football. Another constant was that both movies were filmed in the Canadian province of British Columbia, seemingly a pre-requisite of any Kevin Zegers film.

Though he was the star of the movie, Kevin Zegers had less screen time in “Air Bud 2” than the original, mainly due to several sub-plots throughout the film. Josh’s mother started dating the local vet, an issue Josh had to come to terms with, and two Russian dognappers spent some time trying to snatch Buddy. Also, Buddy had progressed from basketball (with some clips from the first film at the start) to football and his tricks on the football field (performed by no less than six golden retrievers) were shown frequently.

In general, the movie received only a lukewarm response from the critics, but it did not dampen the studio’s enthusiasm to produce more sequels in years to come.

The next project undertaken by Kevin Zegers marked a significant departure from his usual practice as it involved filming in a location not on Canadian soil.

“Treasure Island” is listed as a 1999 movie, but was actually shot on the Isle of Man (a small island in the Irish Sea and equidistant from the Scottish, English and Northern Ireland coastlines) in early 1998. For some reason the film was not released in the USA until mid 2001.

This is about the 20th or 21st version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic novel though this version takes great liberties with the original story. Kevin Zegers played the part of young Jim Hawkins but the cast was headed by the 80 year old veteran Jack Palance as Long John Silver. It also included a number of UK character actors such as Walter Sparrow, Anthony Booth, Malcolm Stoddard, Patrick Bergin, Al Ashton, Dermot Keaney and Jake Fry. Two of the actors succumbed to cancer not long after filming was completed – Sparrow in May 200 and Cody Palance (Jack’s son) in July 1998.

Kevin had significant screen time in “Treasure Island” and the project would have been an excellent life experience for the teenager, being in the company of many experienced actors and on foreign soil for the first time.

There was a much smaller cast list in the 1999 indie flick “It Came From The Sky” in which Kevin Zegers was the central – but not main – character. This was a reasonably challenging role for the youngster in which, amongst a rather improbable storyline, he plays a young boy, Andy Bridges, who is physically and mentally disabled. His parents (John Ritter and JoBeth Williams) constantly bicker about whose fault it was who caused the accident to their son. The family’s life is changed when a plane crashes into their house and the occupants (Christopher Lloyd and Yasmine Bleeth) solve the Bridges’ marriage problems and also assists their son in his quest for normality. Kevin Zegers’ character makes contact with Lloyd’s eccentric character through his artwork, ‘asking’ to be sent to a special school for children with disorders.

Kevin spent a considerable portion of his onscreen time in bed, in the bath or in the pool either shirtless or fully naked. It was an experience he would, unashamedly, repeat in several of his films from this point on.

Based loosely on the 1962 crime novel “Four Days” by Canadian writer John Buell, the 1999 film of the same name produced arguably one of Kevin Zegers’ finest acting performances in his short career. The film is essentially about the strong bond between a son (Zegers) and his father (William Forsythe), regardless of the wrongdoings of the father. It was a closely cropped and much more physically developed Kevin Zegers, who seems to have misplaced his shirt for most of the movie, who hit the screens in this one.

The movie starts with Forsythe’s Milton arranging to transfer the loot from a bank robbery to Zegers’ skateboarding Simon and for his son to then bring the money to him near a lake on northern Quebec. Unbeknown to Simon, his father is killed during the robbery, but he begins his four day adventure to the designated meeting place. Milton’s partner Fury (Colm Meaney) and his former girlfriend Feather (Anne-Marie Cadieux) pursue the hitchhiking Simon, who is picked up by an over-sexed Chrystal (Lolita Davidovich) who takes a sexual interest in the boy. At the end of the ‘four days’ all characters meet at the lake to sort out the distribution of the money and their various relationships.

Kevin Zegers had a bit of a makeover for his next 1999 movie “Komodo”. Sporting a short ‘frizzie’ crewcut type haircut, Kevin travelled to the state of Queensland in Australia where the film was shot in the Wynnum/Manly area just north of Brisbane and on Moreton Island, just off the Queensland coast.

Reminiscent of “Jurassic Park” and “Anaconda” this scif-fi story has Kevin Zegers portraying Patrick Connally who spends most of the movie fighting komodo dragons. Whilst the film’s plot and actors did not win too many plaudits, the special effects team was nominated for awards for the digital dragons.

Patrick was traumatised as a very young boy by seeing his parents and his dog killed by komodo dragons but his sub-conscious has blocked out the event. Nineteen years later, his psychiatrist Victoria (Jill Hennessy) believes the only way for the young man to confront his fears is to visit the place where the attack happened, i.e. Emerald Island, North Carolina. Victoria does not know of the circumstances of Patrick’s condition, and also does not believe in the existence of the dragons, but she and her patient spend the remainder of the movie fighting the creatures. Despite being the prime character, Patrick evaporates into the background for a large slice of the film, though he does reappear towards the end. He turns into a vengeful hunter, hell-bent on destroying the monsters that killed his family.

In his busy schedule for 1999, Kevin squeezed in a couple of guest appearances on TV shows at the end of the year. “Twice In A Lifetime”, a Canadian sci-fi series, and “So Weird”, a long running (62 episodes) teen sitcom, were both graced by his presence in October.

The premise of “Twice In A Lifetime” is that a deceased person, after passing over to ‘the other side’ gets a second chance to return to the land of the living and redeem themself by correcting the mistakes that led to their death. Kevin Zegers plays an unnamed part – so obviously a very minor role – in the seventh episode of season one titled “Blood Brothers”.

“So Weird” could also be loosely termed a sci-fi program, as it involves a girl traveling around the country and facing supernatural occurrences. Regular stars of the show were (in 1999) 17 year olds Erik von Detten and Patrick Levis. In episode nine (“Second Generation”) of season two Kevin played Ryan Ollman , who is actually the clone of the genius scientific father of Fiona Phillips, one of the series regulars.

Returning to comedy in 2000, Kevin Zegers signed up for Part 3 of the “Air Bud” saga entitled “Air Bud: World Pup”. Shayn Solberg returned also in his character Tom, whilst Buddy the dog turned his attention from basketball and gridiron to soccer. The sport and the soccer-playing Buddy were incidental to the film as the storyline revolved around Kevin’s Josh Framm and his attempts to court Emma (Brittany Paige Bouck), who mastered soccer much better than Buddy could ever hope to. The pairing of these two actors was not the best choice as, although both were 15 (born one month apart) in real life, Kevin still looked 14 and Brittany could pass for 21.

This lightweight fare was probably not a good career choice for Kevin Zegers after his previous two films, though it is possible he originally signed up for three “Air Bud” films back in 1996 and was just fulfilling his contract. The fact that the movie went straight to video indicated what the distribution company thought of its success on the open market.

“The Acting Class” in 2000 was a project unlike anything Kevin Zegers had done before, although his ‘part’ as Lou Carpman was not large. The film was more of a documentary and the brainchild of Jill Hennessy who was the star, the producer, director, writer and even camera operator, and her twin sister Jacqueline also had a singing part! Zegers’ appearance in this project was possibly the result of an agreement made with Hennessy during the shooting of “Komodo” a year earlier.

At age 15, Kevin was the youngest of the cast which included performances by Alec Baldwin, Jerry Orbach, Benjamin Bratt and other “Law & Order” actors, along with former child actor Holter Graham. These actors, including Kevin Zegers, were former students of an acting teacher and Hennessy’s character and her cohort are interviewed about their experiences in the acting school. This comedy feature was very much in thee vein of the heralded “Spinal Tap” in the 1980’s.

Still on the comedy theme, Kevin travelled to Malibu in California and Munich in Germany to co-star in “Time Share” (also known as “Bitter Suite”), which was released in the USA mid-2000. The storyline of the film was an oft used premise of the children of two families – in this case it was two single parents (Timothy Dalton and Nastassja Kinski) – coming together in the same Californian holiday house and the resultant mayhem. The two families, which were opposite in just about every aspect of their lives, were forced to share a house during the holidays, thus creating the recipe for absolute mayhem. Kevin Zegers was one of five teenagers in the forefront of this comedy, the others being Cameron Finley, Billy Kay, Natalie Marston and Kelli Garner.

This was another example of Kevin parading his now well-developed (shirtless) torso, a common feature of his recent films – almost as if he had written a clause in his contract that he had to be shirtless for the majority of the movie!

If Kevin Zegers had heard of the well known actors’ adage of ‘never work with animals or children’, he paid no heed to it. First it was dogs in the “Air Bud” series, then a horse (unicorn), komodo dragons and, in 2000, a three year old chimpanzee named Jack in “MVP: Most Valuable Primate”. Still, the combination of children and animals usually works well together and it again found success in this lightweight fare.

“MVP” had the same elements and a similar storyline to “Air Bud” in many ways. It had an animal that escaped from adversity, a baddie who is intent on capturing the animal, and the animal that is adept at a particular sport, bringing success to it’s adopted teenage friend.

Jack the chimp was the subject of a language study at a San Diego university but, when he performed poorly in the tests, arrangements were made for him to be sent back to a simian research centre. His well-meaning handler hijacks those plans by sending Jack on a train to Canada but he mistakenly ends up in British Columbia (where the film was shot on location). There he meets up with two Californian teenagers Steven and Tara Westover (Kevin Zegers and Jamie Renee Smith) who are having trouble adapting to their new surroundings. Tara is deaf but forms a bond with the chimp through sign language. Steven is an average ice-hockey player who joins the Nuggets, a team that habitually loses their games. When Jack shows some talent on the ice, he joins the team and sets them on the way to success.

“MVP” showcased the talents of several young Canadian actors, one of whom was the late Myles Ferguson in a cameo role as a waterboy. It was Ferguson’s second last screen appearance as he was to die in a car accident just a few weeks after the movie was released in August 2000.

Some actors have very successful careers in television sitcoms or soap/dramas, others supplement their main careers with guest appearances, whilst others use this medium as a stepping stone to the larger field of films. The one and only venture into this area of entertainment by Kevin Zegers came in the Aaron Spelling production “Titans”, which ran for 15 episodes from October 2000 to April 2001. He was cast in a minor role as the street-smart Ethan Benchley, an abused boy whose mother was killed in a car accident and he spent the time on the show dealing with this and other problems from his past.

With it’s principal actors Yasmine Bleeth, Casper Van Dien and Victoria Principal (who played the aunt of Kevin’s character), “Titans” opened in a blaze of fanfare and good ratings. However, it did not turn out to be one of Spelling’s success stories and it was axed by NBC and Spelling after three months when the ratings fell to just 3.3.

The series was shot in Los Angeles, California and, if it did nothing else for Zegers’ career, it did mark a turning point in his lifestyle. Since “Titans”, Kevin has adopted LA as his second home, splitting his time between that city and his beloved Toronto.

At the age of 16/17, Kevin Zegers was ready for the transition from kiddie flicks and juvenile roles into more ‘meaty’ character roles of a young adult. His first such venture was the aptly named “Sex, Lies & Obsession” which was released in May 2001. A bonus for Kevin was that he was back on home soil again, with filming being done in Toronto.

The film stars real-life married couple Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna as Cameron and Joanna Thomas, with Kevin Zegers as their only child Josh. They are, prima facie, a devoted husband and wife and a loving family but Cameron has one major problem – he’s a sex addict! He frequents strip club and solicits prostitutes and his secret obsession is soon uncovered by his wife and son. To his credit, he does seek help for his addiction though his treatment is not immediately successful. In this made-for-TV movie, the performances of all three leads – Kevin is excellent as the traumatized son – is quite outstanding.

Though he was still in his mid-teens, so begins Kevin Zegers’ progression into more mature roles.

Kevin was back in 2002 as the headliner, along with an up-and-coming 12 year old called Jesse James, in a straight-to-video horror flick “Fear Of The Dark”. Jesse’s Ryan Billings had a pathological fear of the dark but his older brother Dale (Kevin Zegers) believed that his sibling’s ‘fear’ was all a sham. However, on a night when their parents were out and the power failed, plunging the house into total darkness, Dale realized that the evil things that Ryan feared in the darkness were all too real!

Though filmed in Montreal in late 2001, USA audiences had to wait more than two years to view the film as it was not released in video form in the US until March 2004.

The next movie listed in Kevin Zegers’ resume is “Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch”, which came out in early 2002. Fortunately for Kevin he had only a cameo role, being written out of the movie in the first segment, on the premise that he was sent off to college. With the storyline becoming even more ludicrous as the “Air Bud” series continued into it’s fourth film, it became apparent that either Miramax Films and Keystone Pictures were anxious to squeeze the last dollar out of the Air Bud concept, or that an agreement was made after the first “Air Bud” that a certain number of sequels were to be made.

In “Seventh Innings Fetch” Kevin Zegers’ Josh Framm’s younger sister Andrea (Caitlin Wachs) became the central character and the dog Buddy mastered yet another sport – this time it was baseball. There were also the obligatory dognappers and the ‘dog-comes-through’ scenario where Buddy helps his struggling baseball team win glory.

This was the last “Air Bud” film involving Kevin Zegers though, remarkably, another two have been produced. Miramax and Keystone came out with “Air Bud: Spikes Back” in 2003 where Buddy is a volleyball star and the Walt Disney Company will release “Air Buddies” in 2006 where the dogs actually speak!

Filmed in Nova Scotia in 2001/2002, “Virginia’s Run” gave Kevin Zegers an opportunity to expand his acting abilities by playing a villainous character.

This film could best be described as a modernized version of “National Velvet” with the ‘girl loves horse’ theme prevalent. The young heroine Virginia Lofton (Lindze Letherman) assists in the birth of a colt, Stormy, which is owned by the local rich kid Darrow Raines (Kevin Zegers), and falls in love it. The colt is sold upstate but is eventually reunited with Virginia. However, after her mother dies as a result of a horse fall, she is forbidden by her father to ride horses.

The father relents and permits Virginia to enter the annual horse race in the town which is, of course, won every year by Darrow Raines, who just happens to be dating Virginia’s sister and is a prize jerk and a cheat to boot. Kevin’s filmstar good looks make his character a trifle unbelievable but it did, however, give Kevin an opportunity to broaden his range of character roles.

“Wrong Turn”, released in mid 2003, was Kevin Zeger’s next project though his contribution to the overall story is negligible. (SPOILER alert!!)

The movie is a classic horror flick in the vein of ‘if you don’t run, you get killed’. It centres on six teenagers – three males and three females - whose van breaks down in the woods of West Virginia, even though it was shot in Ontario. The group of teens encounter a trio of disfigured cannibalistic backwoodsmen and are hunted down for their next meal!

Evan (Kevin Zegers) and his female companion Francine (Lindy Booth) are left to guard the vehicle but they are the first to meet up with the ‘cannibals’. Evan is a smokin’, cussin’ know-it-all teen whose main priority is to have sex with Francine, regardless of the apparent danger that might befall them. Unfortunately, their sexual liaison is interrupted by the backwoodsmen and the teens come to a quick and grisly end (thankfully off-screen). This was the first movie in which Kevin Zegers ‘died’.

The remainder of the movie involves the other four teens trying to evade the ‘cannibals’ and meeting a similar fate although, in the best traditions of a Hollywood horror flick, not all of the main cast make it out alive. Lots of blood and gore are on show throughout the movie, somewhat reminiscent of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.

Still on home turf (this time in Alberta, Canada), Kevin Zegers again plays a ‘baddie’ in the family oriented movie “The Incredible Mrs Ritchie”. The film was released through Showtime in the US, going straight to DVD in March 2004, though it did have a showing at the Cannes Film Festival nearly a year earlier.

Kevin’s young female fans may be mildly shocked by the image that he portrays as Charlie in this film. From his clothes sense, through his profanity, drinking, smoking and fighting, Charlie is the typical teen rebel, his behaviour borne out of a troubled past involving his abusive father and an alcoholic mother. Even his drowning of a puppy (forced upon him by his father) early in the movie is hard to bear, for all viewers.

Still, Kevin Zegers is the co-star of this film, along with a strong performance by Gena Rowlands as Evelyn Ritchie.

Because of his delinquent behaviour, Charlie is kicked out of school and ordered to work for Mrs Ritchie, who spends her time tending her magnificent garden and also caring for her two handicapped sons who have Down’s syndrome. As a result of the positive influences surrounding him, Charlie gradually turns his life around and the movie has a feel-good ending, albeit with one twist.

The film itself won a Daytime Emmy for Gena Rowlands, Paul Johansson (the writer and producer) and as the Outstanding Children/Youth/Family Special in 2004 and was also nominated for Gemini and AMPIA Awards. Whilst not in the awards category, Kevin Zegers’ performance as Charlie also won high praise from most reputable critics. For his role in this movie, Kevin was required to bulk up from his normal 145 lbs to 160 lbs.

A guest spot on the hit television series “Smallville”, which chronicles the early life of Clark Kent/Superman, was next on Kevin Zegers’ agenda. Here he was Seth Nelson in “Magnetic”, episode seven of the third season of the show. Seth possesses magnetic powers that can move objects and alter human emotions which causes Lana Lang, who has fallen for him, to exhibit unusual and paranormal behaviour. Lana behaves so erratically that she ends up in jail, but she also tries to kill Seth, requiring a hospital visit for him.

Several of the ventures undertaken by Kevin Zegers to this point in his career were of the horror or sci-fi genre and his next project, “Dawn Of The Dead”, was another such film. This was a re-make of the classic 1978 zombie film of the same name. In fact, a number of references, various props and some of the actors from the original film make an appearance in the 2004 version.

The storyline pretty much follows the original, with a disease or virus, spread by human bites, kills its victims and resurrects them as zombies. The ghouls then attack healthy people and turn them into zombies, with the solution to stopping them is to shoot them in the head.

A group of healthy people take refuge in a shopping mall where they are protected by a group of security guards (of which Kevin Zegers’ Terry is one), led by the imposing Ving Rhames. Kevin’s character does not have a prominent role in this film but at least he is on the right side of the good versus evil battle.

Again, Kevin was on familiar territory with most of the movie shot in Ontario, Canada, although some scenes were filmed on Santa Catalina Island just off the Californian coast, and at Universal studios in California. The film was nominated for several awards in 2004/2005 (one, ironically, was the Bram Stoker Award) and won the Golden Trailer Award for the Best Horror/Thriller at the 2005 ceremony.

Sticking with the horror theme, Kevin Zegers scored the lead role in “The Hollow”, released in the US in October 2004, just a few months after “Dawn Of The Dead”. There have been innumerable “Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” movies over the years, but this version could best be described as a sequel to Tim Burton’s 1999 film “Sleepy Hollow”.

Making an appearance in a leading role as Brody is 24 year old Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter and his performance received plaudits from the critics. Also in the cast is a former teen idol, 21 year old Joseph Mazzello in a minor role.

Kevin Zegers plays the main character of Ian Cranston who, upon arriving in Sleepy Hollow, is informed that he is the great-great-grandson of Constable Ichabod Crane. He also learns about the legend of the Headless Horseman and how his ancestor had encountered the ghost in years gone by. Brody, who is an arrogant high school jock, is dating cheerleader Karen (who Ian has the hots for!) but, when they and the other townspeople are terrorized by the Headless Horseman on Halloween, it is up to Ian to save them all. Kevin’s character has chase the horseman back to the grave from whence he came and also to deal with plenty of gory situations such as decapitated people running aimlessly about, although most of the violence takes place offscreen.

The movie itself falls into the category of a very typical, and low budget, teen horror film with few outstanding qualities. Once again though, Kevin Zegers was given positive reviews for his performances. It was a Californian shoot and was released in the US in October 2004.

“Some Things That Stay” is a vehicle for young Canadian actress Katie Boland and her director mother Gail Harvey. It is, at times, a saccharin sweet adaptation of a Sarah Wills novel set in the 1950’s about the coming of age of conservative teenage girl and all the teenage angst that comes with her formative years. Moving into the Canadian countryside (the movie was filmed in Ontario) Tamara Anderson (Katie Boland) finds her first love interest in Rusty Murphy (Kevin Zegers). The family film deals with the complexities of the pair’s relationship and the young girl’s upbringing in a sensitive manner. Boland was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 2005 as Best Performance (Leading Young Performance) in an International Feature Film for her role, whilst Kevin Zegers’ efforts also drew general applause.

The film appears to have been released, in November 2004, only in Canada. It also includes two young aspiring Canadian actors, Jack Knight and Patrick Salvagna, in the beginnings of their careers.

In November 2004, Kevin Zegers made a rare foray into the world of television with a guest appearance in the new medical mystery series “House, M.D.”. It features as three of it’s leading men, former child actors Robert Sean Leonard, Omar Epps and Australian Jesse Spencer – as grown-up doctors.

If ever Kevin Zegers had not shed his Air Bud/family film image before now, he certainly did in “House”. As college student Brandon Merrell, Kevin has a rough and explicit sex scene at the beginning of the program (along with the obligatory parental warning) but, unfortunately, passes out as a result. He then spends the rest of the episode in bed where his condition worsens and his symptoms multiply, making diagnosis difficult. As part of his treatment, Kevin was required to do a nude scene standing up (body double??) when he was decontaminated. Dialogue was minimal whilst the doctors prodded and poked him.

The episode title “Occam’s Razor” literally means that, if there are multiple theories or answers to a dilemma, the simplest one is usually the best.

Kevin Zegers’ recent jobs had involved adult roles as the film’s star or co-star and his next project, the low budget “Transamerica”, continued that pattern. This movie was the brainchild of writer and director Duncan Tucker and is the story of Sabrina ‘Bree’ Osbourne (played by Felicity Huffman) who is a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual and is to have an operation that will finally make her a woman. Complications arise when she discovers she has a son Toby Osbourne (Kevin Zegers) as a result of a union when she was a man. Toby is a street hustler with yearnings to become a porn star. Bree, who poses as a Christian caseworker specializing in converting sex workers to Christianity, bails Toby out of jail (Toby is unaware that Bree is his mother/father), with plans to drop him at his step-father’s house en route from the east coast to the west coast of America. Toby accepts Bree’s assistance, mainly because he wants a ride. Hence the plot for Transamerica.

Because of the obvious sexual connotations of the characters in the movie, “Transamerica” was one of the main attractions at it’s June 2005 viewing at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Felicity Huffman has also received a swathe of Best Actress nominations for her performance as Bree. Huffman won the 2006 Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the 2006 Oscars. Being a co-star with Huffman in such a project will do no harm to Kevin Zegers’ career.

For his next job Kevin moved across the border from New York back to Ontario in Canada to film the costume drama “Felicity: An American Girl Adventure”. This was a follow-up to the 2004 movie “Samantha: An American Girl Holiday”.

Despite approaching his 21st birthday, Kevin’s ever youthful looks allowed him to pass for the 15 year old Ben Davidson in “Felicity”, a movie set in the time of the American Revolution. Ben, an apprentice working in Mr Merriman’s general store, befriends the 10 year old Felicity Merriman.

Just a month after the “Felicity” shoot was finished in June 2005, Kevin moved onto the set of “The Return Of Zoom”, conveniently also shot in Toronto. Legendary comedians Tim Allen and Chevy Chase were amongst the cast, along with headliners Courtney Cox and veteran Rip Torn. “Zoom” had remarkable similarities to other films such as “X-Men”, “Spy Kids”, “Agent Cody Banks”, etc. in that a group of young kids are being turned into superhero spy kids. In fact, the similarities were so great that the films makers, Sony Pictures, were sued by 20th Century Fox which made “X-Men 3”.

Amongst the child stars in “Zoom” are Kate Mara and Spencer Breslin, along with newcomers Ryan Newman and Nic Catalano. Kevin Zegers’ unnamed role appears to be minor though he does not seem to be one of the superhero kids.

“Zoom” is set for a US release in August 2006.

Kevin’s most recent offering is “It’s A Boy Girl Thing”, a movie about characters switching bodies. Woody Deane (Kevin) and Nell Bedworth (Samaire Armstrong), who are next-door neighbours but lifelong sworn enemies, wake up one day to find themselves in a very strange place: each other's bodies. In their switched identities, each sets out to destroy the other's high school reputation.

This movie was shot in the Ontarion towns of Hamilton and Toronto in October 2005, with filming being completed in the UK in November.

Kevin Zegers’ star has been on the rise and rise since he was 8 years old and, with publicity generated through his screen persona, magazine articles and the like (Kevin is the ‘Hottest Bachelor in 2006’!!), he probably has not yet reached the zenith of his career. The future looks promising for Kevin Zegers.

[edit] Filmography

• Caitlin (scheduled for 2008 release)
• The Jane Austen Book Club (scheduled for 2007 release)
• The Lighthouse (filmed late 2006)
• The Stone Angel (scheduled for 2007 release)
• Gardens of the Night (scheduled for 2007 release)
• Zoom (2006)
• It's a Boy Girl Thing (2006) - Woody
• Felicity: An American Girl Adventure (2005) (TV)
• Transamerica (2005) - Toby
• House, M.D. (2004) "Occam's Razor" episode (Season 1, episode 3) TV Series
• Some Things That Stay (2004)
• The Hollow (2004)
• Dawn of the Dead (2004)
• Smallville (2003) "Magnetic" episode (Season 3, episode 7) TV Series
• The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie (2003) (TV)
• Wrong Turn (2003/I)
• Virginia's Run (2002)
• Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch (2002) (V)
• Fear of the Dark (2002)
• Sex, Lies & Obsession (2001) (TV)
• Titans (2000) TV Series
• MVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000)
• Time Share (2000)
• The Acting Class (2000)
• Air Bud: World Pup (2000) (V)
• So Weird (1999) "Second Generation" episode (Season 2, episode 9) TV Series
• Twice in a Lifetime (1999) "Blood Brothers" episode (Season 1, episode 7) TV Series
• Komodo (1999)
• Four Days (1999)
• It Came From the Sky (1999) (TV)
• Treasure Island (1999/I)
• Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)
• Shadow Builder (1998)
• Nico the Unicorn (1998)
• A Call to Remember (1997) (TV)
• Air Bud (1997)
• Rose Hill (1997) (TV)
• Goosebumps (1996) "Let's get invisible !" episode 'Season 2, episode 13) TV Series
• Murder on the Iditarod Trail (1996) (TV)
• Specimen (1996)
• Traders(1996) (6 episodes) TV Series
• The X Files (1995) "Revelations" episode (Season 3, episode 11) TV Series
• The Silence of Adultery (1995) (TV)
• Road to Avonlea (1995) "A time to every purpose" episode (Season 6, episode 12) TV Series
• In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
• Thicker Than Blood : The Larry McLinden Story (1994) (TV)
• Free Willy (1994) TV Series
• Life with Mikey (1993)
• Street Legal (1992) "It's a wise child" episode (Season 7, episode 5) TV Series

[edit] Awards

• 1998 : Young Star Awards (Nominated for "Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy Film" for Air Bud)
• 1998 : Young Artist Awards (Nominated for "Best Performance in a TV Movie/Pilot/Mini-Series - Supporting Young Actor" for A Call to Remember)
• 1998 : Young Artist Awards (Nominated for "Best Performance in a TV Movie or Feature Film - Young Ensemble" for Rose Hill - Shared with David Klein, Blair Slater and Michael Alexander Jackson)
• 1998 : Young Artist Awards (Won "Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor" for Air Bud)
• 1999 : Young Artist Awards (Nominated for "Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor" for Air Bud: Golden Receiver)
• 2000 : Young Artist Awards (Nominated for "Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor" for MVP: Most Valuable Primate)
• 2006 : Chopard Trophy at Cannes Film Festival for "Male revelation".

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Web sites

• Kevin Zegers at the Internet Movie Database
• Kevin Zegers forum
• Zegers interviews, 1997
• Kevin Zegers Gallery, unofficial website
• Out.com interview