Milo Manheim

Milo Jacob Manheim (born March 6, 2001) is an American actor who spent seven years being underestimated as a Disney Channel heartthrob and then quietly assembled one of the more interesting résumés of his generation. He is best known as Zed Necrodopolis, the football-playing zombie at the centre of Disney’s Zombies musical franchise, and as Wally Clark, the 1983 ghost who has anchored three seasons of the Paramount+ series School Spirits. Neither role fully explains him. The through-line is musical theatre, and it has been there since he was a child doing community productions in Culver City.

The career splits cleanly in two. On screen, Manheim built a durable television business: four Zombies films across seven years, an executive producer credit on the last two installments, a recurring arc on American Housewife, and a series regular slot on a show that has now outlasted most streaming originals. Off screen, he kept going back to the stage, and the stage kept giving him harder work. He won a leading-actor prize at the New York Musical Festival at sixteen. He played Johnny in Deaf West’s bilingual American Idiot at the Mark Taper Forum. In 2025 he made his Off-Broadway debut as Seymour in the long-running Little Shop of Horrors revival, then spent three August nights at the Hollywood Bowl playing Peter opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Jesus.

That combination is what got him the biggest job of his life. In January 2026, Disney cast him as Flynn Rider in Michael Gracey’s live-action Tangled, a musical tentpole that had been shelved, revived, and picked over by fan-casting discourse for two years before it found its leads. Manheim spent the summer of 2026 filming it in Alicante. The role will either confirm him as a studio leading man or become the most scrutinised misfire of the current remake cycle, and the honest answer is that nobody knows yet.

People also read: Meg Donnelly (Zombies), Peyton List (School Spirits), Kathryn Hahn (Agatha All Along), Zachary Levi (Tangled)

Quick Facts

Featured Video

Video courtesy of Disney Channel Music.

Early Life & Education

Manheim grew up in Venice, on the western edge of Los Angeles, the only child of actress Camryn Manheim and former model Jeffrey Brezovar. His mother won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for The Practice, and Manheim spent a good share of his childhood on that set and later on Ghost Whisperer. It is the kind of upbringing that either inoculates a kid against the industry or hands him a working vocabulary before he can drive. In his case it did the second thing. The family runs to teachers and academics rather than performers: his grandfather Jerome was a mathematician, his grandmother Sylvia a schoolteacher and health advocate, with doctors, lawyers, and educators filling out the branches.

There is one detail in his mother’s history that reads differently now than it did then. While earning her MFA at New York University, Camryn Manheim learned American Sign Language and worked as an interpreter and job coach to fund her acting career. Decades later, her son would take a lead role in a Deaf West production performed simultaneously in ASL and spoken English. She also worked in her early New York years with director Michael Mayer, who would go on to direct the Little Shop of Horrors revival her son led Off-Broadway in 2025. Some inheritances are not money.

The acting started in a Culver City after-school program, though sources disagree on whether he was six or seven when it began. Reputable references split roughly evenly, and the discrepancy has never been resolved publicly. What is not in dispute is what came next: from 2008 he worked steadily with Liza Monjauze Productions, a Los Angeles company that stages full musicals with young performers, racking up credits in Rent, Footloose, Tommy, A Chorus Line, Gypsy, and Spring Awakening. Agency biographies put the total at fifteen productions; other records say twenty. Either number is a serious apprenticeship. It was his Roger in Rent that casting director Amber Horn saw, and that performance sent him into the room for a new Disney Channel musical about zombies. He was raised Jewish and had his bar mitzvah with the Sholem Community, a secular Jewish Sunday school in Los Angeles, choosing “Activism at Any Age” as his theme. He plays guitar, drums, piano, ukulele, and assorted wind instruments.

Career Highlights and Milestones

Zombies premiered on Disney Channel in February 2018 and did what a well-built Disney Channel Original Movie still does: it created a fan base overnight. Manheim, seventeen at the time, played Zed as an earnest jock with a rotting-flesh problem, and the film’s central conceit, that monsters stand in for whichever minority group the audience needs them to, gave the franchise a moral engine that carried it through three sequels. The formula is unapologetically corny. It is also durable in a way that should not be dismissed: Disney reported that Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires drew 9.3 million global Disney+ views in its first ten days in July 2025 and 43 million within six months. The property spun off an animated series, Zombies: The Re-Animated Series, which ran on Disney Channel from 2023 with Manheim voicing Zed. By the fourth installment, Manheim and co-star Meg Donnelly had moved into the producing chairs as executive producers, a rare arrangement for actors who were teenagers when the franchise started.

He capitalised on the first film immediately, and in the most Disney Channel way available. In September 2018 he joined season 27 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Witney Carson and finished second to radio host Bobby Bones that November. The dancing was not a stunt. It was a musical theatre kid demonstrating the one skill his day job did not fully use, and it converted a DCOM audience into something broader. Around the same stretch he took a recurring arc on ABC’s American Housewife as Pierce, a boyfriend for Donnelly’s Taylor, in a run of season three episodes that included a Little Shop of Horrors performance. He would play Seymour for real six years later.

2023 was the year the career widened, though not every widening landed. He starred in the Disney+ original movie Prom Pact, recurred on Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., took the male lead of Wally in School Spirits, appeared in Eli Roth’s slasher Thanksgiving, and carried the theatrical musical Journey to Bethlehem as Joseph opposite Fiona Palomo’s Mary and Antonio Banderas’s King Herod. Journey to Bethlehem was made for roughly six million dollars and grossed about $7.9 million worldwide, opening seventh on a weekend it shared with The Marvels. Critics were polite rather than enthusiastic: Variety judged it one of the mildest tellings of the nativity available, though audiences graded it an A minus on CinemaScore. In Thanksgiving, meanwhile, he was handed little to do. That is the fair reading of the credit, and the film did not need him to work.

School Spirits has been the steadier investment. The Paramount+ series, adapted by Megan and Nate Trinrud from their own graphic novel, gave Manheim a character with a genuine dramatic problem: Wally is a football player who died in 1983 and has been eighteen years old ever since, which is a comic premise and a tragic one depending on the scene. Season two averaged 3.9 million viewers over 28 days, up roughly 94 percent on season one, helped by a secondary Netflix window that ran the show to a new audience months after its Paramount+ premiere. Season three premiered January 28, 2026 and closed on March 4 with a 100 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes; Paramount+ renewed it for a fourth season three weeks later. Then, in March 2026, Disney greenlit Zombies 5 and confirmed that Manheim and Donnelly would not return as Zed and Addison. They stayed on as executive producers. After seven years and four films, he handed the franchise to Malachi Barton and Freya Skye and walked. The same month, CAA signed him.

Selected film and TV highlights

• Generation Me (2017)
• Zombies (2018)
• Dancing with the Stars, season 27 (2018)
• American Housewife (2018–2019)
• Zombies 2 (2020)
• Zombies 3 (2022)
• School Spirits (2023 to present)
• Prom Pact (2023)
• Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. (2023)
• Thanksgiving (2023)
• Journey to Bethlehem (2023)
• American Idiot (2024)
• Little Shop of Horrors (2025)
• Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires (2025)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (2025)

Major recognition

• New York Musical Festival Award for Best Leading Actor, for Generation Me (2017), won at sixteen
• Runner-up, Dancing with the Stars season 27, with professional partner Witney Carson (2018)
• Executive producer credit on Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires (2025) and Zombies 5 (in production), a producing role earned inside a franchise he had led since seventeen
• Lead in Deaf West Theatre’s American Idiot, which became the highest-selling production in the history of Los Angeles’s Mark Taper Forum
• Off-Broadway debut as Seymour in the Little Shop of Horrors revival at the Westside Theatre (2025), a run extended past its original closing date
• Cast as Flynn Rider in Disney’s live-action Tangled (2026), the first studio tentpole lead of his career

Read More Celebrities Biographies

• Camryn Manheim Net Worth, Life Story, & Facts
• Elizabeth Gillies Net Worth, Life Story, & Facts
• Antonio Banderas Net Worth, Life Story, & Facts
• Cynthia Erivo Net Worth, Life Story, & Facts

Awards and Accolades

Note on the record: Manheim’s competitive-award history is short. Two verified entries, one of them a reality-competition placement rather than a juried prize, is unusual for an actor with four franchise films, three seasons of a renewed streaming series, and an Off-Broadway lead behind him. That gap is a real feature of the career rather than a research shortfall. He has worked almost entirely in categories that major bodies do not reward: Disney Channel Original Movies, a young-adult streaming drama, and replacement casting in a long-running Off-Broadway revival, none of which are eligible for or competitive at the Emmys, the Tonys, or the film guilds. Whether that changes depends substantially on Tangled.

Filmography / Notable Works

Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle

Social Media & Online Presence

Fan communities on social media (unofficial)

NOTE: In addition to any official accounts listed above, many fan-run pages and clip accounts exist across platforms. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Milo Manheim. Links and usernames can change at any time.

Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts

• Both actors to play Flynn Rider have played Joseph in a nativity film. Zachary Levi voiced Joseph in The Star (2017); Manheim played him in Journey to Bethlehem (2023). Neither actor appears to have planned this.
• He played Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors on television years before he played Seymour on a stage. In a 2018 American Housewife episode, his character performed the show with Meg Donnelly as his Audrey. He took the role for real at the Westside Theatre in 2025.
• In a BuzzFeed interview filmed in early 2025, well before any casting news, he was asked about a hypothetical live-action Flynn Rider and said he loved the character and trusted whoever the production chose. The clip resurfaced and went viral the week he was announced.
• His mother learned American Sign Language while studying at New York University and worked as an interpreter. He later played Johnny in Deaf West Theatre’s bilingual American Idiot, a production performed in ASL and spoken English at the same time.
• He plays guitar, drums, piano, ukulele, and a range of wind instruments, a habit that started with the Los Angeles youth-theatre company where he did roughly fifteen to twenty musicals before his sixteenth birthday.
• He learned he had booked Tangled about ten minutes before Disney announced it publicly, which he has pointed out repeatedly because fans assumed he had been sitting on the secret for months.

Quotes

“I found out 10 minutes before the news was released.”

– Milo Manheim, Entertainment Weekly (January 2026), on learning he had been cast as Flynn Rider

“I really respect Flynn and this movie. It’s one of my favorites.”

– Milo Manheim, Entertainment Tonight (January 2026)

“It needs to be a perfect storm of timing, of people rooting for you.”

– Milo Manheim, VMAN (2026), on how roles actually get cast

“The beauty of these characters is that you get to bring yourself to them.”

– Milo Manheim, Broadway.com (March 2025), on taking over Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors

“I have pretty bad anxiety.”

– Milo Manheim, speaking on the podcast “I’ve Never Said This Before with Tommy DiDario” (March 2025), reported by BroadwayWorld. He went on to say that the industry’s habit of showing only polished versions of people can be harmful

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How old is Milo Manheim?
A: He was born March 6, 2001, which makes him 25 in 2026.

Q: What is Milo Manheim best known for?
A: Playing Zed in Disney’s four Zombies films and Wally Clark in the Paramount+ series School Spirits. From 2026 he is also known as Flynn Rider in Disney’s live-action Tangled.

Q: Has Milo Manheim won any major awards?
A: He won Best Leading Actor at the 2017 New York Musical Festival for Generation Me at age sixteen. He has not been nominated for an Emmy, a Tony, or an Academy Award. He finished second on season 27 of Dancing with the Stars in 2018.

Q: Where is Milo Manheim from?
A: Venice, in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Emmy-winning actress Camryn Manheim and former model Jeffrey Brezovar.

Q: Is Milo Manheim married?
A: No. He has not publicly confirmed a relationship and keeps his personal life private. Claims circulating online about named partners are unsourced.

Q: Is Milo Manheim in Zombies 5?
A: Not as Zed. Disney confirmed in March 2026 that he and Meg Donnelly would not reprise their roles, with Malachi Barton and Freya Skye leading instead. Manheim remains attached as an executive producer.

Upcoming Projects

• Tangled (reported 2028, no official date) – Michael Gracey’s live-action musical remake for Walt Disney Pictures, with Manheim as Flynn Rider opposite Teagan Croft’s Rapunzel, Kathryn Hahn as Mother Gothel, and Diego Luna in a character created for the adaptation. Filming took place in Spain, principally at the Ciudad de la Luz studios in Alicante, and was reported to be wrapping in August 2026. Release timing is unconfirmed and should be treated as subject to change.
• School Spirits, season four (in development) – Paramount+ renewed the series in March 2026, weeks after the season three finale. Manheim is expected to return as Wally Clark, though casting and production timing have not been formally announced. Treat as subject to change until officially confirmed.
• Zombies 5 (in production) – Manheim serves as executive producer alongside Meg Donnelly. He is not reprising Zed. The film began production in New Zealand in spring 2026; no title or premiere date has been announced.
• Further stage work (unannounced) – Manheim has returned to the theatre roughly annually since 2024 and has spoken about wanting more dramatic and transformative roles. No production has been announced. Treat any reported casting as unconfirmed until a producer states it.

Interviews & Features

• Deadline, “‘Tangled’ Star Milo Manheim Signs With CAA” (2026), the trade story marking his move to a major agency, and a useful snapshot of how the industry now reads his credits.
• Variety, “‘Zombies 5’ Set at Disney+, Milo Manheim & Meg Donnelly Not Returning” (2026), the clearest account of his exit from the franchise he had led since he was seventeen.
• Broadway.com, “Little Shop of Horrors Stars Milo Manheim and Elizabeth Gillies on Being a Seymour and Audrey” (2025), a joint interview recorded the day after their first performance, and the best available material on how he approaches stage work.
• Playbill, “Elizabeth Gillies and Milo Manheim Will Be Audrey and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors Off-Broadway” (2025), which places his Off-Broadway debut in the context of the revival’s long list of previous Seymours.
• BroadwayWorld, “Milo Manheim Opens Up About Living with Anxiety, Performing for New York Audiences” (2025), a candid conversation about the distance between a public performer’s online image and the person doing the eight shows a week.

Public Appearances & Festivals

• Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl (August 1 to 3, 2025): Manheim performed as Peter in Los Angeles in Sergio Trujillo’s concert staging of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock opera, sharing the stage with Cynthia Erivo as Jesus, Adam Lambert as Judas, and Raúl Esparza as Pontius Pilate. His “Peter’s Denial” drew particular attention on social platforms.
• Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires premiere (July 8, 2025): Manheim walked the carpet at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles two days before the film’s Disney Channel debut, in what turned out to be his last premiere as Zed.
• Chess opening night (November 16, 2025): Manheim attended the Broadway opening at the Imperial Theatre in New York, part of a pattern of showing up for theatre openings during and after his own Off-Broadway run.
• 98th Academy Awards (March 15, 2026): Manheim attended the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, his first Oscars, in a custom GapStudio tailcoat developed with creative director Zac Posen. Coverage treated the appearance as the public introduction of the live-action Flynn Rider rather than a fashion story alone.
• Tangled production, Alicante (summer 2026): Manheim was photographed repeatedly on location in Alicante, Spain, in full Flynn Rider costume during filming at the Ciudad de la Luz studios, generating the first widely circulated images of the character.