About Zach Woods: Zach Woods is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his portrayal as Gabe Lewis on the NBC sitcom The Office. He currently stars as Donald "Jared" Dunn in HBO sitcom Silicon Valley.
By the end of high school, I would do shows at the theater at night and then take the train home and go to school the next morning.
I think that if you're improvising on TV, it's a great way to help the dialogue between actors and writers.
When I was a kid, I wanted desperately to be a jazz musician. I would practice the trumpet for hours, but when I got braces, that messed up my ability to play, so all of a sudden I had all this free time.
If I'm doing comedy, I try to improvise a lot. Even if they don't use it, it helps me loosen up and figure out the character.
Sometimes you'll see people give performances in comedy with an ironic detachment where they'll sort of be remarking on the character from outside of it. They're sort of commenting as they're playing the character. I think it's hard not to do that. I...
Sometimes you read pilots and, understandably, they're doing such a frantic tap dance for approval. I get why - it's such an incredibly competitive market.
I've played a lot of characters who are creeps or weirdos, with a deep darkness underneath the surface.
When improv is bad, it's excruciating to watch, and to be involved with it is a unique type of torture.
I'm a very anxious person, and it's hard for me to be in the moment. Improv demands that you be in the moment.
