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Breaking Down Brilliant Minds Star Zachary Quinto's Movie & TV Career
Zachary Quinto is returning to NBC as gifted neurologist Dr. Oliver Wolf in the new medical drama Brilliant Minds.
Actor Zachary Quinto will soon grace TV screens as the lead character in NBC’s new medical drama Brilliant Minds. But before studying minds as gifted neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, Quinto was eating them when he played the supervillain Sylar in his breakout role on Heroes. In between these two NBC powerhouse series, Quinto portrayed plenty of other characters who aren't obsessed with brains ... so let's take a closer look.
Ahead of the premiere of Brilliant Minds, which is based on the works of the famed neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks and debuts on NBC on September 23, here’s what you need to know about Zachary Quinto.
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Zachary's Quinto's Personal Life
Quinto was born on June 2, 1977, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where his family has deep roots. His great-grandfather was a notable labor activist and his maternal grandfather, Joseph A. McArdle, was a member of Congress. Quinto’s father, Joseph John "Joe" Quinto, was a barber who died when Quinto was only 7 years old, leaving his mother, Margo, to raise him and his brother, also named Joe.
After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama in 1999, Quinto began acting, making his screen debut in an episode of the one-season NBC sci-fi series The Others in 2000. It wouldn’t be many years before he had his first major role.
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Quinto is gay, having publically come out in 2011. He is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ people, especially youths.
He was in a romantic relationship with actor Jonathan Groff for a year from 2012-2013. In 2013, Quinto began dating musician and model Miles McMillan. The pair were together for nearly six years before calling it off in 2019.
Quinto has over 900,000 followers on Instagram and, while he hasn't posted about a romantic relationship in some time, he does post about his adorable dogs Skunk and River, who he's often seen out and about with on walks.
What TV Shows Has Zachary Quinto Been In?
The Others marked Quinto’s first on-screen role, and he would make a few more small, one-off appearances in shows like Touched By an Angel, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Lizzie McGuire, and Six Feet Under. His first major role came in the third season of 24, in which he played CTU analyst Adam Kaufman, assisting Jack Bauer in his fight against terrorism.
His next notable role was in So NotTORIous, a short-lived VH1 sitcom starring Tori Spelling that only ran for one 10-episode season.
Arguably his most famous role came in 2006 when he began playing Gabriel Gray, aka "Sylar," the main villain of the NBC series Heroes (available to stream on Peacock). He played Sylar — a serial killer with the ability to steal the powers of other superhumans after examining their brains — for 60 episodes.
Quinto has also been a regular on American Horror Story, having had big roles in Murder House, Asylum, NYC, and Delicate. He received his only Emmy nomination (so far) for his part in Asylum. Some of Quinto’s other notable roles include The Slap, the reboot of In Search of…, and NOS4A2. He’s done some voice acting, too, in shows like Big Mouth, Invincible, and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.
What Movies Has Zachary Quinto Been In?
With the success of Heroes, Quinto had become a well-known TV presence, especially among genre fans. So, it made sense that he would take an iconic science fiction role in his big-screen debut, playing Spock in the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. Quinto admirably lived up to Leonard Nimoy’s legendary performance as the half-Vulcan science officer aboard the starship Enterprise. He would reprise the role in Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013 and Star Trek Beyond in 2016.
RELATED: Zachary Quinto's Dr. Wolf Has a Unique Skill in Medical Drama Brilliant Minds
It’s fair to say that, Star Trek aside, Quinto is primarily a TV actor, but he’s had plenty of other film roles as well. His filmography includes parts in the finance thriller Margin Call, the video game adaptation Hitman: Agent 47, Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden biopic, and Stephen Soderberg’s High Flying Bird.
Quinto has also played another supervillain in addition to his tenure on Heroes. He voiced Superman’s archnemesis Lex Luthor in the animated films Superman: Man of Tomorrow and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths — Part One.
Quinto will next appear in Brilliant Minds when the medical drama premieres on NBC on September 23 at 10 p.m.
Brilliant Minds will be preceded by the premiere of Season 26 of The Voice with new Coaches Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé at 8 p.m.
