Zach Villa
Zach Villa is an actor and musician from Clinton, Iowa. Before either job title stuck, he was a dancer.
Villa spent roughly two decades training in movement, becoming a nationally recognized rhythm-tap dancer and choreographer before studying at Interlochen and The Juilliard School. He went directly into professional theatre, making his Broadway debut in the original company of Lincoln Center Theater’s War Horse.
On screen, Villa is best known for portraying Richard Ramirez in American Horror Story: 1984 and returns to the anthology in AHS: 13. His work includes leading roles in Hypochondriac and Honeyglue, alongside Vengeance, Destroyer, The Expanse, Shameless and more. In 2026, he returned to new-play development as part of the professional company at the Ojai Playwrights Conference.
Music was never the hobby after the acting work. Villa is a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bass, violin, drums and piano. He co-founded Rebel and a Basketcase with Evan Rachel Wood as a songwriter, vocalist, musician and producer. The project made its television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon within seven months of forming and received coverage from Rolling Stone, Billboard, MTV and NYLON.
Villa now writes, records and performs under his own name. His forthcoming EP, The Insurmountable Cost of Mediocre Success, was produced by Matt Bernstein and leads into a completed sixteen-song record made with producer Courtney Ballard. “(Not) The Best I Ever Had,” “Xaos,” “Last Thing You’ll See,” “Blacked Out” and “Feedback” are already out; more music is forthcoming.
Voice work is not the miscellaneous section. Villa is the long-running voice of the Necromancer in Diablo Immortal, with performances across Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy, Batman and Diablo. His audiobook work has received multiple Audie Award nominations, a 2021 Mystery win for Fair Warning, and multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards.
The remaining credits — directing, production and one circus he choreographed — belong to the same practice: performance, storytelling and making things from scratch.