Steven James Zahn (/zɑːn/; born November 13, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. His films include Reality Bites (1994), That Thing You Do! (1996), SubUrbia (1996), Out of Sight (1998), Happy, Texas (1999), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Shattered Glass (2003), Sahara (2005), Rescue Dawn (2007), the first three Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies, Dallas Buyers Club (2013), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). Zahn has done voice acting in Chicken Little (2005), Escape from Planet Earth (2013), and The Good Dinosaur (2015). He has also worked regularly in television, including the recurring role of Davis McAlary on HBO's Treme (2010 to 2013) and Ronnie LaFontaine on ABC's Modern Family (2014-2015).
Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, the son of Carleton Edward Zahn, a Lutheran minister, and Zelda Clair Zahn, a bookstore clerk and later a YMCA administrator. His father is of German and Swedish descent, and his mother is of German ancestry. Zahn spent part of his childhood in Mankato, Minnesota, attending Kennedy Elementary School, and moved to the suburbs of Minneapolis for high school, where he acted in school plays and became a two-time Minnesota state speech champion. He graduated from Robbinsdale Cooper High School in 1986, planning eventually to join the United States Marine Corps.