Mark-Paul Gosselaar was born March 1, 1974 in Panorama City, California. His father, Hans Gosselaar, who is from the Netherlands, is of Dutch Jewish and German descent, and was a plant supervisor at Anheuser-Busch. His mother, Paula (van den Brink), was born in Indonesia, of Dutch and Indonesian descent; she worked as an airline hostess. His parents are divorced. He has an older brother, Mike, and two older sisters, Linda and Sylvia. In 1989, after a career with small movies and commercials, Gosselaar started in the teen hit Sauvés par le gong (1989), co-starring Tiffani Thiessen who played his girlfriend, Kelly Kapowski, throughout the show's run. The characters eventually married each other after the show and its spin-off, Sauvés par le gong: au lycée (1993) , ended production. It was there he met his future real-life wife, Lisa Ann Russell, whom he married in 1996 in Maui, Hawaii.
Most recently, he starred with Geena Davis in Commander in Chief (2005) for executive producer Steven Bochco, with whom he also worked when he starred as detective John Clark in Bochco's critically-acclaimed drama New York Police Blues (1993)
Gosselaar's other television credits include TV movies Alerte maximum (2002), La princesse et le marine (2001), La détresse invisible (1994), Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas (1994), L'innocence perdue (1996), Dying to Belong (1997) and Born Into Exile (1997).
On the big screen, Gosselaar appeared in Un cadavre sur le campus (1998), as well as the independent films Beer Money (2001) and Sticks and Stones (2008).
Gosselaar's sporting interests include cycling, motocross and auto racing. He is also an avid pilot. Gosselaar lives outside of Los Angeles. He was married to model Lisa Ann Russell from 1996 to 2011, and the couple have two children. He married advertising executive Catriona McGinn in 2012, and the couple has one child.
