Date of Birth

9 December 1985, Warren, Ohio, USA

Birth Name

Christopher Michael Settlemire

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography

Chris Zylka was born on May 9, 1985 in Ohio, U.S. as Christopher Michael Settlemire, but later took his mother's maiden name, "Zylka". He attended Howland High School and graduated in 2003. His hobbies have included guitar, painting, association football, basketball, baseball and reading. He studied Art at The University of Toledo in Ohio for two years, but dropped out and moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting.

Zylka began his career with a guest appearance on 90210 in 2008. He was soon cast in a recurring role in Everybody Hates Chris before also having guest appearances on the shows Hannah Montana, Cougar Town and Zeke and Luther. Zylka would then land another recurring role as Joey Donner, for 16 episodes, in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Zylka began to move into films around this time, starring as Brigg in the Made-for-TV horror My Super Psycho Sweet 16 (2009) and My Super Psycho Sweet 16: Part 2 (2010). Zylka also appeared in Kaboom (2010).

Zylka is known for his role as Jake Armstrong in the CW series The Secret Circle (2011), and for his roles in the movies Shark Night (2011), Piranha 3DD (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), and Tom Garvey in the HBO series The Leftovers (2014).

Trivia

• Chris's father's family, surnamed Settlemire, has been in the United States for many generations, and has German, as well as smaller amounts of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, ancestry. Chris's maternal grandfather, William Zylka, was the son of immigrants of Polish and Ukrainian descent, Michael Zylka and Anastasia Kozarewski. Chris's maternal grandmother, Patricia Rosko, was born to a family of Slovak and Ruthenian/Rusyn ancestry.
• [2017] Engaged to Paris Hilton.
• [2018] Zylka and Paris Hilton later called off their engagement.

Quotes

• My mentor Jon Simmons introduced me to the Stanislavski system, which is so heavy on back-story. So you write and write and write these back stories about a character and then you throw it away. So then on set, if it doesn't come, then you didn't do your work.
• My greatest fear is failure.
• It's good to have butterflies. And they always go away. The camera starts rolling and they go away and it's all good.
• I was always a fan of Spider-Man and most superheroes. There aren't a whole lot of little boys out there that aren't.
• It's just so much more fun to play bad than good. Plus it's just good to get that out of your system so it doesn't show up in your personal life.
• I'm an artist; I love everyone.
• My favorite scary movie was always 'Halloween.' I love that there's hidden emotion underneath Michael Myers' psychotic behavior. Plus, he has the best mask, hands-down.
• The difference between a regular camera and a 3D camera, for an actor, is really no different except that the turn-arounds are longer. It takes a lot longer to set up a shot because the cinematographer is really trying to set up a whole world, so it can't be more intricate and more beautiful to the viewers, in 3D.
• Going from 'Shark Night' to 'Piranha,' a guy holding a fish on a stick in front of you that they're going to replace in post-production, it's a lot different than seeing this animatronic shark that, if you get caught up in the moment, looks, acts and you sometimes think could be real.
• In a film you only get two hours to do this big arc and so you have to pick and choose your moments carefully, but with television you get to take your time and just take it episode by episode and discover new things.