Background and career
Zachary Wolfe Galligan (born February 14, 1964) is an American actor. He is best known for starring as Billy Peltzer in the comedy-horror films Gremlins (1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).
Galligan was born on February 14, 1964, in New York City, the son of Carol Jean (née Wolfe), a psychologist, and Arthur John Galligan, a lawyer who was a founding partner of the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro. He is mostly of Irish descent, although he also has some English and Jewish ancestry (from Austria) on his mother’s side. He graduated from Columbia University.
Galligan's most prominent role was as Billy Peltzer in the 1984 film Gremlins. Prior to being cast in Gremlins, he filmed Nothing Lasts Forever, which had its theatrical release cancelled and went unreleased in any form for years. In 1988, he starred as Mark Loftmore in the horror comedy Waxwork. He reprised his role as Billy in the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and returned to the role of Mark for Waxwork II: Lost in Time in 1992. In 2016, UK progressive rock band Gandalf's Fist announced that Galligan would voice a character on their album The Clockwork Fable. In early 2021, Galligan appeared in a Mountain Dew commercial in which his Gremlins character, Billy, gives Gizmo a drink of his Mountain Dew. Galligan returned to the Gremlins franchise again in 2022, in the animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.
In 2025 Zach Galligan married Alison Marie Rieger in a private ceremony.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
