Zachary Laoutides

Zachary Laoutides is an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker from Chicago. In 2008, he was selected as a finalist in Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment nationwide talent search for emerging actors. In 2014, Laoutides and Mónica Esmeralda León founded Ave Fenix Pictures, described as the first Latino film studio in Chicago and the Midwest. Together they developed "La Raza filmmaking," a cinematic approach combining professional performers with non-actors to create heightened realism. Laoutides wrote and starred in "Adios Vaya Con Dios," an official selection of the 2014 Bel Air Film Festival, and later wrote and appeared in the supernatural horror film "Arise from Darkness" (2017). His performance work has been discussed in connection with the acting traditions of Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando. In 2019, he was named among Mogul's Next Generation of Hollywood Rising Stars. In 2022, Laoutides took over as lead screenwriter of "Where Sweet Dreams Die" (2026).