Steve Zahn Career

Steve Zahn

Steve Zahn's early roles were split between movies, touring companies of Broadway shows, and TV shows. In 1992-1993, he toured as Hugo with the Barry Weissler production of Bye Bye Birdie with Tommy Tune, Ann Reinking, and Marc Kudisch. He played Phoebe Buffay's husband Duncan in a 1995 episode of Friends. Steve Zahn appeared in several films in the mid-1990s, including Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do! These films garnered him enough respect that he was offered the starring role in the critically acclaimed indie film Happy, Texas (1999). Some of Steve Zahn's most popular movies have been his later ones, including National Security (2003), Daddy Day Care (2003) and Sahara (2005). Steve Zahn received his strongest critical acclaim for his performance in Riding in Cars with Boys, in which he co-starred with Drew Barrymore as her dim-witted, drug addicted husband. Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper and the BBC stated that the performance was deserving of an Oscar nomination. He also voiced Runt of the Litter in Chicken Little. He also gave dramatic performances in Rescue Dawn and the television mini-series Comanche Moon.

Typically typecast into comic relief sidekick roles, Steve Zahn was asked if he minded, his reply was that it was a "pleasure" and a "privilege", saying, "... to be typecast and make money and make people happy and people dig what you do, what a great thing, man."

Steve Zahn also plays the character of Davis McAlary in HBO's Treme. Davis is a New Orleans native, and local music lover, as well as one of Treme's biggest partiers, and advocates. Steve Zahn also recorded a song for the show, and is featured on the show's soundtrack. The track, "Shame, Shame, Shame", criticizes George W. Bush and the American government's response to the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the city of New Orleans.