Zach Braff Recalls Growing Up with Lauryn Hill: 'She Was at My Bar Mitzvah!'
Zach Braff Recalls Growing Up with Lauryn Hill: 'She Was at My Bar Mitzvah!'
Joyann JeffreyTue, March 3, 2026 at 9:32 PM UTC
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Zach Braff (left); Lauryn Hill (right)Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Sarah Morris/Getty -
Zach Braff and Lauryn Hill attended Columbia High School together in New Jersey
Braff spoke about their friendship during a March 3 appearance on The View
He also revealed that Hill was present for a milestone event for him
Zach Braff and Lauryn Hill go way, way back.
During a Tuesday, March 3 appearance on The View, Braff, 50, recalled attending high school with Hill in Maplewood, New Jersey.
"Lauryn Hill and I, we were the two actors at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, who were commuting into the city to audition when we were both young," Braff said. "And Lauryn started on a soap opera and Whoopi [Goldberg] cast her in Sister Act 2. And then I got a couple of things, so I've known Lauryn forever."
The Scrubs actor revealed that Hill, 50, was even present for a milestone event for him when he was 13 years old: "She was at my Bar Mitzvah!"
"It's a very, very random fact," he said as Goldberg and the rest of the co-hosts on The View gasped.
Goldberg, 70, then chimed into the conversation and said she was "shocked" that none of her co-hosts asked Braff if the Grammy-winner sang at his party.
"I was going to say that," View co-host Sunny Hostin, 57, said with a smile, before prodding Braff.
Unfortunately, Braff said it didn't happen.
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"No, not yet," he said. "But she was on Apollo."
"For people who know, like that was her first thing. She was on 'Late Night at the Apollo,' " he said while referencing the famous weekly show at the Apollo Theater in New York, known as "Amateur Night at the Apollo."
Braff is known for playing Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian in the Emmy-winning series Scrubs. The series, which ran from 2001 to 2010, returned for a reboot in February 2026.
Hostin said that she believes Braff's friendship with his Scrubs co-star Donald Faison is the reason the show returned. When asked what it was like to film the series years ago, Braff said that he learned a lot from Faison — including how to let loose at a club.
"Well, Donald was already famous. He had been on Clueless and he was on Remember the Titans. I was waiting tables. So I had no idea. Donald was like at the club, you know. I couldn't get into the club at all. He was sort of showing me the ropes of how to be in the nightlife. Because I certainly was just — I'd never been exposed to anything like that. And he was sort of my sensei, showing me how to have fun out on the town," he said.
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While thinking about how far he's come in his career, Braff said he credits his father, Harold, for giving him "a lot of drive."
"My father, I think, instilled it in me. And I just always, I just dreamed big, and I just never stopped."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
