Zach made his debut in the MGM film Nothing Lasts Forever (1984). Zach’s second film, Gremlins (1984), finished as the third highest grossing film of the year.

In 1985, he played the doomed teenager Rick Brogan in Surviving.

Other credits include the inevitable Gremlins 2 (1990), Tales from the Crypt, Melrose Place, and Waxwork (1988).

He has played a Brooklyn sleazoid on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a hack playwright in Let Them Chirp Awhile (2008), and a New Orleans sheriff in Hatchet 3 (2013).