Favorite Birthday Boy #2 for March 1st

Mark Paul Gosselaar
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things

 Mark Paul Gosselaar turns 40 today. (See previous posts on Mark here)

 Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar (born March 1, 1974) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Zack Morris in NBC's Saved by the Bell, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years; Detective John Clark in ABC's NYPD Blue, Jerry Kellerman in TNT's Raising the Bar, and Peter Bash in the TNT series Franklin & Bash.

 Gosselaar was born in Panorama City, California, the son of Pauline (van den Brink), a homemaker and hostess for KLM, and Hans Gosselaar, a plant supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. His father, who is from the Netherlands, is of Dutch Jewish and German descent. Gosselaar's paternal great-grandparents, Hertog and Hester Gosselaar, were killed at the Sobibor extermination camp during the Holocaust. His mother, who is of Dutch-Indonesian descent, is from Bali in Indonesia. At one point, Gosselaar was fluent in Dutch (his older siblings were born in the Netherlands). Gosselaar's parents later separated.

 Gosselaar's mother worked as his manager. He began modeling at the age of 5. As a child, he appeared in commercials for Oreo cookies and Smurf merchandise, and later won guest spots on television series. He spent his teenage years in the Santa Clarita Valley in Southern California, where he attended Hart High School.

In a July 2009 interview with People magazine, Gosselaar revealed that when Saved By the Bell was in production, he dated, at different times, his three female co-stars: Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Thiessen, and Elizabeth Berkley. He remains friends with his Saved by the Bell cast mates.

In 1996, Gosselaar married former model Lisa Ann Russell. Together they have two children: son Michael Charles (born in 2004), named after Mark-Paul's elder brother; and daughter Ava Lorenn (born in 2006). After 14 years of marriage, Gosselaar and Russell announced their separation in early June 2010. Gosselaar filed for divorce on June 18, 2010, and it became final in May 2011. Russell has since remarried, to Survivor host Jeff Probst.

Gosselaar became engaged to advertising executive Catriona McGinn in August 2011. They married on July 28, 2012 at the Sunstone winery in Santa Ynez, California. They have one son, Dekker Edward (born in September 2013).

Gosselaar is a sports car enthusiast, race car driver, track cyclist, dirt biker, and pilot. In 2005, he competed in the Far West Championships for track cycling. He won the Category 4/5 Sprint Championship event at the Encino Velodrome.