Ross Fleming Butler (born May 17, 1990) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Zach Dempsey in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series ''

13 Reasons Why ''13 Reasons Why'' is an American teen drama television series developed for Netflix by Brian Yorkey and based on the 2007 novel ''Thirteen Reasons Why'' by author Jay Asher. The series revolves around high school student Clay Jensen (Dylan Mi ...

'' and as Brett Willis on ''

K.C. Undercover ''K.C. Undercover'' is an American Television comedy, comedy television series created by Corinne Marshall that aired on Disney Channel from January 18, 2015 to February 2, 2018. The series stars Zendaya, Veronica Dunne, Kamil McFadden, Trinitee ...

''.

Early life

Butler was born in Singapore to a

Chinese-Malaysian Malaysian Chinese (; Malay language, Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysians, Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay Malaysian, Malay majo ...

mother and an English-Dutch father. He lived in Jakarta, Indonesia before moving to the United States when he was four and was raised by his mother in

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

, a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

outside

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

He studied

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

and

biomolecular engineering Biomolecular engineering is the application of engineering principles and practices to the purposeful manipulation of molecules of biological origin. Biomolecular engineers integrate knowledge of biological processes with the core knowledge of chemi ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. He dropped out after a year and later moved back to Virginia, where he took courses at a community college. He then moved to Los Angeles at the age of 20.

Career

Butler took his first acting class at age 21. He got his start with roles in student films and low budget projects. He landed his breakthrough recurring role on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

series ''

.'' He had roles in the Disney Channel films '' Teen Beach 2'' and ''

Perfect High Perfect High is a 2015 drama film produced by Lifetime and starring Bella Thorne, Israel Broussard, Daniela Bobadilla and Ross Butler. The film premiered June 27, 2015 on Lifetime. Plot A teenager named Amanda is obsessed with dance. She dislo ...

''. In 2017, he was cast as

Reggie Mantle Reginald "Reggie" Mantle is a fictional teenager in stories published by Archie Comics; he is introduced by writer-artist Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in ''Jackpot Comics'' #5 (cover-dated Spring 1942). He also appears in CW's '' Riverdale' ...

in '' Riverdale''. He was later cast as Zach Dempsey in ''

'', and left ''Riverdale'' due to his commitment to ''13 Reasons Why''. He would reprise Mantle in ''Riverdales 100th episode "The Jughead Paradox" in a scene alongside his successor Charles Melton's portrayal. In 2019, he played Adult Eugene Choi in the superhero film '' Shazam!''. He also played Trevor, Peter Kavinsky's best friend, in '' To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You'', released in 2020 by

. In 2020, it was announced that Butler would star alongside

Kiernan Shipka Kiernan Brennan Shipka (born November 10, 1999) is an American actress, best-known for her roles as Sally Draper in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), Sabrina Spellman in the Netflix series ''Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'' (2018– ...

in the

Quibi Quibi ( ) was a short-lived American short-form streaming platform that generated content for viewing on mobile devices. It was founded in Los Angeles in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg and was led by Meg Whitman, its CEO. The servic ...

series ''

Swimming with Sharks ''Swimming with Sharks'' (also known as ''The Boss'' and ''Buddy Factor'') is a 1994 American black comedy / thriller drama film written and directed by George Huang and starring Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley and Michelle Forbes. Plot Buddy Acker ...

''. The project remained unreleased after the demise of Quibi's platform, but was released by

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

in the spring of 2022. Butler has roles in two upcoming film adaptions: Claudia Tan's ''Perfect Addiction'' alongside

Kiana Madeira Kiana Madeira is a Canadian actress. She starred as Moe in the Netflix television series '' Trinkets''. Madeira played Deena in the 2021 Netflix horror film trilogy '' Fear Street''. Early life Madeira was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew u ...

and Matthew Notzka and Abigail Hing Wen's ''Loveboat, Taipei'' opposite

Ashley Liao Ashley Liao (born October 21, 2001) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the series '' Fuller House'' and ''The Kicks''. She has since appeared in the Disney+ film ''Secret Society of Second-Born Royals'' and the Ap ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Music video

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Ross 1990 births Living people People from McLean, Virginia American male television actors American male film actors American male voice actors Male actors from Los Angeles Ohio State University College of Engineering alumni 21st-century American male actors Male actors from Virginia Singaporean emigrants to the United States Singaporean people of Dutch descent

Early life

Career

Filmography

Film

Television

Music video

References

Further reading

External links