Freddie Prinze Jr. extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Prinze in April 2007
Born	Freddie James Prinze, Jr. March 8, 1976 (1976-03-08) (age 34) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Sarah Michelle Gellar (2002-present) 1 child

Freddie James Prinze, Jr. (born March 8, 1976) is an American actor. He rose to fame during the late 1990s and early 2000s, after starring in several Hollywood films aimed at teenage audiences, I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), as well as She's All That (1999), Summer Catch (2001) and Scooby-Doo (2002). Prinze has also made appearances in television sitcoms, including Friends. He is a former member of World Wrestling Entertainment's creative team as the SmackDown brand writer.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 World Wrestling Entertainment (2008-2009) 4 Personal life 5 Filmography 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Early life

Prinze was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Kathy Elaine Cochran (née Barber), a real estate agent, and Freddie Prinze, an actor and comedian¹ who died in 1977. Prinze, Jr.'s father was of Puerto Rican² and Hungarian Jewish³⁴ descent. In a 1999 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Prinze, Jr. stated that his mother is of English, Irish and Native American ancestry (adding that "My grandma and grandpa, who raised me for the first few years, were straight-up English and Irish");⁵ in a 2007 interview, however, Prinze, Jr. described his mother as coming from an Italian American family.⁶ Prinze, Jr. was raised Roman Catholic⁷ and embraces his Puerto Rican heritage.⁶⁸ He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and spent summers in Puerto Rico,⁶ where he learned about Spanish and Puerto Rican culture from his paternal grandmother.⁹ He speaks fluent Spanish and Italian.⁶ He showed an interest in acting from an early age and attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. After graduating in 1994, Prinze moved to Los Angeles to audition for television roles.¹⁰

Career

Prinze was cast in a guest role on the ABC TV series Family Matters in 1995. He then appeared on a few special programs and made-for-TV movies, before making his motion picture debut in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday in 1996. In subsequent years, Prinze experienced success with appearances in youth-oriented movies. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), made him well-known among teenage audiences and his first leading role, the romantic comedy She's All That (1999), was very successful at the box office, grossing $63 million¹¹ in the United States.

Subsequently, he had leading roles in Wing Commander (1999), Down to You (2000), Boys and Girls (2000), Head Over Heels (2001) and Summer Catch (2001), most of which were generally disliked by critics¹² and had moderate box office success.¹³ In 2000, he was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World".

In 2002, he played Fred Jones in the live film version of the popular cartoon, Scooby-Doo and reprised the role in the 2004 sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. He starred in both Scooby-Doo movies alongside his wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar. He guest starred on the popular NBC show, Friends, as a sensitive male nanny named Sandy. He also appeared as Donny Crane, a character believed to be Denny Crane's son in the ABC legal drama-comedy Boston Legal. Prinze starred in his own television sitcom, titled Freddie. The sitcom is said to depict some actual events from his life. The show lasted one season before being canceled in May 2006. He guest starred on George Lopez for a crossover with Freddie. In 2004, the actor accepted a special award from TV Land on behalf of his late father. He thanked his father's former co-star, Della Reese, for her continued advice and support. In 2006, he lent his voice to the character of Pi in the computer-animated film Shark Bait. Also, in 2007, he lent his voice to the character of Rick in Happily N'Ever After along with his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar, Wallace Shawn, Andy Dick and Sigourney Weaver.

In March 2009, it was announced the Prinze had signed on to star as Bradley, aka Ultimatum in the ABC show No Heroics, a US remake of the British show of the same name.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶ The show was not picked up, but shortly after Prinze was cast as a series regular for the eighth season of the megahit television show 24, where he plays a new CTU operative.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2008-2009)

Prinze is a known fan of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was shown on television in attendance at the March 2008 WrestleMania XXIV pay-per-view and its preceding Hall of Fame ceremony. He also made a cameo on an episode of The Dirt Sheet, an online program hosted by wrestlers John Morrison and The Miz, ^view and created an official profile on WWE's "Universe" blog community where he regularly writes his thoughts on the current going-ons in the world of the WWE. His relationship with the company was furthered when he was hired as a member of the creative staff to contributing to weekly television and pay-per-view program¹⁷ for the SmackDown brand.¹⁸ It was later reported on February 22, 2009 that Freddie Prinze Jr and WWE parted ways. On August 17, Prinze appeared on WWE Raw as a Special Guest Host, and in the show, he was assaulted by WWE Champion Randy Orton.¹⁹

Personal life

In the mid-1990s, Prinze dated actress Kimberly McCullough for more than three years.²⁰ He married actress Sarah Michelle Gellar on September 1, 2002, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, in the southwest of Mexico. The couple met several years before, while filming I Know What You Did Last Summer,²¹ started dating in 2000 and were engaged in April 2001. In 2007, for their fifth year of marriage, Gellar legally changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze.²²²³

He also enjoys tap dancing and collecting comic books. He is an avid soccer fan and supports Arsenal F.C.,²⁴ and is a fan of East Asian cinema.

It was reported by People Magazine that Prinze and Gellar welcomed a daughter named Charlotte Grace Prinze, on September 19, 2009.²⁵

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996	To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday	Joey Bost
1997	The House of Yes	Anthony Pascal
	I Know What You Did Last Summer	Ray Bronson
1997	Sparkler26	Brad
1997	Detention: The Siege at Johnson High	Aaron Sullivan	TV movie
1998	I Still Know What You Did Last Summer	Ray Bronson
1999	She's All That	Zach Siler
	Wing Commander	1st Lt. Christopher Blair
2000	Down to You	Alfred 'Al' Connelly
	Boys and Girls	Ryan Walker
2001	Head Over Heels	Jim Winston/Bob Smoot
	Summer Catch	Ryan Dunne
2002	Friends	Sandy	Guest star (1 episode)
	Scooby-Doo	Fred Jones
2004	Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed	Fred Jones
2005	Freddie	Freddie Moreno	2005–2006 (22 episodes)
	Robot Chicken	Fred Jones / Announcer (voice)	Guest star (1 episode)
2006	Shooting Gallery	Jericho
	Shark Bait	Pi	Voice
	George Lopez	Freddie	Guest star (1 episode)
	Boston Legal	Donny Crane	Guest star (3 episodes)
2007	Brooklyn Rules	Michael
	Happily N'Ever After	Rick	Voice
	New York City Serenade	Owen
2008	Delgo	Delgo	Voice
	Jack and Jill vs. the World	Jack
2010	24	CTU Special Agent Cole Ortiz	24 episodes27

See also

• List of Puerto Ricans

References

External links

• Freddie Prinze, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
• Jam! Movies interview (October 5, 2005)
• Hispanic Magazine interview (September, 2005)