Remember when celebrities had to have an actual talent to earn their fame? When they had to be able to sing, dance, or act — sometimes all three at once? There doesn’t seem to be too many multi-talented celebrities anymore. That’s why when Zach Villa enters the room, the energy completely shifts. He is so talented, you won’t be sure what hit you. This energy may initially be attributed to his neon hair— but that’s not the reason his presence is so arresting. Want him to dance? Sure. Want him to sing? Ok. Want him to do a monologue? He’ll likely ask you which one you want to hear. Villa is a genuine triple threat in a sea of reality TV stars and wannabe Instagram influencers.

Most recently, Villa appeared on American Horror Story: 1984, portraying a disturbingly hot version of real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez, which has garnered him acclaim. But contrary to people thinking he just popped up out of nowhere, he’s actually been performing for a very long time.  How did Zach Villa go from zero to 100 in triple threat domination? [more under the read more]

Villa has a pretty significant background in musical theatre, which comes as a surprise considering he mostly plays dark characters on TV and currently fronts the emo punk band, Sorry Kyle. Musicals and tap dancing are the antithesis of his roles as a performer now, but it all began by him playing a gargoyle on stage in a community theatre production. “I couldn’t remember my two lines to save my life. Give me a break, I was a child!” Community theatre subsequently became a big part of his life. “There were so many dance performances to choose from and my mom probably has some adorable (embarrassing) footage of those times… I played Dallas in The Outsiders my last year in public school. That was a turning point when I realized that there must be more training involved in acting…” And training Villa got, at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world—Julliard. And no… it wasn’t just like the ’90s classic, Save the Last Dance, and probably not the kind of training one imagines will prepare an actor to become a serial killer on American Horror Story—but, indeed, it did prepare Villa. “You learn just as much from a good experience as you do a bad experience,” Villa reflects of his time at Julliard. “And that made me strong and skilled, and I am grateful. Also, it’s a conservatory, so there was no way I was going to convince the program to let me take a dance class with Julia down the hall with my course-load… but trust me, I tried.” Though currently Villa spends a lot of his time doing various TV shows like NCIS :LA, Fox’s Bordertown, Honeyglue, and Cardboard Boxer, he also still continues to perform locally in various Los Angeles venues, including having made a guest appearance as the Sexy Oogie Boogie in a Halloween show last October. So which type of performance does Zach Villa like most? “Each provides a different kind of high. There is nothing like hundreds or thousands of people screaming at you while you rip a solo, or the breath being collectively held in a theater as you say the climactic line reveal — but in all performative mediums you are manipulating space and time. As performing artists that is what we do. But in theater or on stage with a band you have a very different set of parameters and violence with which you can paint the picture that you are making for the audience. So basically, I’m greedy. I really like to ‘paint’— and performing in all of these mediums lets me do it in a variety of ways. And at the end of the day,  they all feed each other. I act like I do because I dance, because I sing, because I understand rhythm, because I understand melody, because I understand energy and inflection… you get the idea.”In Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: 1984 series last year, though you won’t see his character busting out a tap solo, there’s no question that Villa’s extensive background and  training helped him to win over fans with his portrayal of Ramirez. “A ton of research went in to it — and then at some point you just have to sail the ship with what you know and riff on it like jazz and make your own original thing. One of my favorite parts as the show developed included finding opportunities to show some humor with this character, who I’m sure for most audience members represented chaotic evil. And learning how to levitate for the role. That was pretty cool… I enjoyed the role of Richard Ramirez less because he was a murderer and more because he was a complex psychological case. Trying to find empathy in that mess was so satisfyingly challenging to me. I think any character that has a wild or complex life — someone that we don’t societally see as being relatable or simple — those characters are interesting to me.” When considering his so-called overnight success, Villa asserts that Lizzo may have said it best: “8 years of touring, giving out free tix to my undersold shows, sleepless nights in my car, losing my dad & giving up on music, playing shows for free beer & food w/ -32$ in my bank account, constantly writing songs, hearing ‘no’ but always saying ‘yes.’ Glad I never gave up. This is what ‘overnight success’ looks like.” Villa adds, “I mean, how do I improve on that explanation? Art is a lifestyle, a developing, ongoing relationship you build with yourself, and like any career there is a grind to get that payoff. I think that through the grind, you come to appreciate what you have when you get it. And some people never get it. I’m very grateful. That being said, I know my gifts and have been shining the light, and I am glad that I have some company nowadays.”In addition to his ongoing acting roles, Villa is increasingly focused on music projects — his aforementioned emo punk band, Sorry Kyle, and a solo project that showcases his darker side. His latest single, “Revolver,” is a mashup of hip hop, Trent Reznor-esque industrial rock, and melodic spoken word. On the other hand, Sorry Kyle is a dream come true for anyone who loves Jimmy Eat World and Green Day. “’I am large, and I contain multitudes.’ Someone brilliant said that and I agree with them. The current projects are fairly representative of some main tenets that are current for me. Sorry Kyle with pop punk and emo vs. my solo project that is darker, moodier and more complex. But does it encapsulate everything? Heck no. Let’s circle back in 40 years or so when I’ve pushed out a few more records.”Villa teases that new music is on the horizon. “I am releasing a ton…records for Sorry Kyle and my solo project respectively, and maybe a couple other surprises. I just want to keep that flowing. I hope to be back for AHS again. Going to make more tap dance videos. Get my pilot’s license and ride my motorcycle a lot more. It’s a very exciting time and this is just the beginning…I’d also love to play an action spy/hero, or a political figure of intrigue. Give me a curveball, I’ll hit it.”

“American Horror Story: 1984” ended Wednesday night with a finale that closed the story of Camp Redwood and left the dream of the ’80s to live on forever. If you liked the ninth and final episode of Season 9 (and even if you didn’t ) we have a fun fact for you about its making: “AHS” star Zach Villa, who played the Night Stalker a.k.a. Richard Ramirez, says he didn’t get the finalized script for the episode until two weeks before it aired on FX.

“I know that the creators knew [how it was ending], I knew we were in good hands,” Villa, who was a newcomer to the franchise this season, told TheWrap. “But I didn’t see the final, final script until, I’m gonna say, like– we wrapped a week and four days before the episode aired and I remember that we shot it in basically a week — I’d say like two weeks and a couple days, maybe, before the episode actually aired, I saw the full script.”

Villa starred along “AHS” alums like Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Leslie Grossman and John Carroll Lynch on “1984,” as well as other newbies like Gus Kenworthy, DeRon Horton, Matthew Morrison and Angelica Ross. And being one of the freshman on this year of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s FX anthology series meant Villa learned firsthand how secretive the show is and how quickly they turn things around.

“Part of it is, I think, they’re trying to get the right sauce from the writers’ room, as they should,” he said. “They have that privilege to really analyze, ‘Oh, eight episodes have been out so far, how do we put a really good nail in the coffin, so to speak, and bring it home? I think as a writer you have to reserve your right to change your mind up until the last second, especially if it’s not the right choice. So luckily there are enough people that it goes through before you’re like, ‘Oh OK, this is the thing we’re gonna do,’ and everybody decides. So I think it was in their best interest, ultimately, to hold it.”

“But, yeah, I was a bit panicky and I think the rest of the cast were definitely like, ‘Oh my gosh, how do we do this?’ Like, we’re getting lines and scenes the day before we shoot them and sometimes day of, if there were any major revisions, which did happen a couple times,” he continued. “In fact, I remember the first draft of the finale only came in two parts and there were four acts. And so we didn’t even get– like, we started getting half scripts because they knew that we needed to start working on something. But I think that’s just par for the course for ‘American Horror Story’ and I think there is spontaneity that happens in that pressured timetable. So all the performers are used to it by Episode 9 of the season and we just kind of roll with the punches and make brilliance on the fly. You do what you have to.”

As for the actual finale and how it turned out, Villa says he thought it was fitting.

“Well, there’s obviously tragedy along the way,” he said. “But Bobby [played by Finn Wittrock] does live and I guess that is happy. There’s just a lot of violence and murderous intrigue leading up to that. I was really happy and very surprised that they actually went [the happy ending] route. And seeing it on screen, as Finn — the actor who plays Bobby — was running away from the camp is empathetic. And set to the ’80s soundtrack I was like, ‘Oh, I understand why they did this.’ Like, this feels like the end of a very twisted, f–ked up ‘Breakfast Club.’ It was the right balance of nostalgia and drudgery that I think the season needed.”

As of right now, “American Horror Story” has been renewed through Season 10 by FX and Villa says he’s told Murphy he’s “happy and available to come back” and just “waiting for the phone call.”

“It’s blocked off in my schedule,” he said. “I’m there’s if they want me and I’m just waiting for their confirmation. I’d love to come back and have a different relationship with the cast and crew. And obviously the creators know my work in a different way now, so it will be a different kind of party on Season 10, for sure.”

The eighties' serial killer Richard Ramirez became infamous as the Night Stalker. A Satanist to the core, who had admitted to channeling his inherent evil in a way most humans wouldn't, Ramirez can be seen now haunting the fictional Camp Redwood, on Ryan Murphy's 'American Horror Story' season 9: '1984'. Of course, the real-life Ramirez died back in 2013 from liver failure, so donning his depraved and deplorable aura on the show is actor and musician Zach Villa, who still hasn't entirely grasped the concept of how popular someone as twisted as Ramirez can be with women. It is no secret that society adores serial killers for some odd reason and implausible as the idea might seem to most, for Villa it was a job he needed to do well. And so he did.

"When I found out that I was playing Ramirez, I just had a gut-check moment: am I glorifying serial killers? Am I glorifying violence? What is the tone of this project?" Villa said in a candid chat with MEA World Wide (MEAWW.) The 33-year-old has just released his debut solo 'Revolver' and is still basking in the glory of how well-received it has been. Luckily for him, his version of the Night Stalker has been received with a lot of warmth from female fans as well. "I think that humans just have a complete fascination with true crime and that manifests in a very lighthearted sort of way this season. So for me, it wasn't an issue; it was basically me doing a job that required all of my faculties and skills as an actor and that's about where it stops emotionally for me," he shares about playing the man who is believed to have raped and murdered at least 13 people before he was arrested and put away.

There's a certain downside to playing such a depraved character too, Villa claims, and most of that is "Balancing the schedule and balancing the kind of emotional stress that it takes. It's really difficult to be up all night, in a headspace where Richard is having evil thoughts and fantasies that aren't societally acceptable. That takes a toll, and when I have to come home, it's definitely a purge process. I have to let go but I can't completely drop it all off because of another shooting."

Day after day, as Villa put on the Night Stalker's persona on screen, what he also does is make an army of avid fans drool as they simply can't get enough of his bad-boy charm and all-black leather outfits. Thanks to his portrayal, fans all over social media have also gushed about what an absolute 'snack' the real-life Ramirez was. And while Villa doesn't necessarily get this strange fondness for the monster, he does have some insights into what gets the fans going.

"Society, in general, tends to get obsessed, especially when someone's playing a real character, with how close they are to the actual person," he said about the constant comparisons drawn between him and the Satanic murderer whose beliefs and supernatural prowess is being tackled in the series. "Physically, I do see a similarity (between Villa and Ramirez) and that was jarring at first because I think it's dangerous for an audience member to expect someone to be and act like what they imagined a serial killer will be in real life, specifically Richard."

He clarifies where the lines are drawn, saying: "I'm playing a character that was shaped for the show, because of the world that they've set it in. Maybe his satanic beliefs were a certain way in real life, but I also don't know that many people who knew Richard personally and on every level, or what his real-life beliefs were. My job is to take the information that is present and then make a decision about how I'm going to play it to make him interesting and entertaining. I think I've done a good job, but I understand there are purists out there talking about him as an evil Satanist or chaotic in a certain way, and that's not necessarily your goal when you start to act."

Even when it comes to the frantic frenzy that arose when Villa's first look as Ramirez was revealed, the actor believes none of it was far from what happened in real life. Disturbing as it might be to be told that they are pretending to be a monster exceedingly well, Villa believes, "The flip side of being as close to the real-life Richard as possible is that when he was captured, he had hundreds of love letters that were written to him in prison - something that, for whatever reason, the public, especially women, at the time, found fascinating and alluring."

Sure, Villa might not exactly know the root of this fascination, but he does remark that "We as humans are just obsessed and confused about people who are that depraved, and that makes us want to investigate further, for better or for worse. We want to understand our own human nature and I think that's where attraction comes from. Sexual attraction definitely crosses over into that realm a little bit so it's a confusing topic and I'm still trying to figure it out."

As a striver to be a “master of all,” Zach Villa is a skilled singer, actor, dancer, and instrumentalist who has been a part of various projects and has worked with world renowned talent. Zach has performed in the theater production of “Twelfth Night” alongside Anne Hathaway, has choreographed for Diane Paulus, performed on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” acted alongside Nicole Kidman, and played with the LA Philharmonic, among many more credits.

Currently, Zach can be found playing the infamous, terrifying, and gripping serial killer, Richard Ramirez aka the “Night Stalker,” in American Horror Story: 1984. Viewing the art of playing different roles as “puzzle pieces,” he strives to find empathy within every character he is given and with a commitment to give reality and a personal adaptation to his roles, Zach is hard-working and enjoys roles that do not resemble him in real life. As well, he is an everyday guy, enjoying fast cars and playing poker, but adores the arts and having a creative bone in his body.

With a great sense of humor answering questions and having patience while I figured out GarageBand, please enjoy the interview below with Zach:

Sorry! I forgot to press record. I have the questions here.

That’s ok. I will delay and deem technology hard cause it’s 2019. Let’s do it.

As this season of American Horror Story is coming to an end, what has your experience been like? Was it different or similar to what you expected?

That is a wide ranging question and hopefully it’s some kind of answer. I think when I booked the show, I mean, look, everybody has an idea of what being a serial killer on a show like AHS as I think you take for granted you’re gonna be busy, you take for granted that it’s gonna be a challenge at some point and you know I kinda took all of that with a grain of salt and just put my best foot forward. I don’t think I was thrown by the intensity of it, but I do know that by the end of the season I checked in with myself and realized I’m much more battle worn than I thought and that wasn’t necessarily like any particular aging quality of the show that tears down actors or anything, but I do think that it’s unique. We spent a lot of late nights out in the woods and doing a lot of very intense, dark, emotional work and even when the tone was light I think that that’s still a part of the world of AHS, so that definitely took a toll on me in a way that was subconscious and so these last few weeks here filming I’ve definitely become aware of that and was like, “Oh I’m looking forward to some rest.”

That’s actually perfect cause that kind of goes into my next question. I saw that your role in AHS is playing the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, what was that like and did you have to do anything to prepare for that specific role?

I get this question a lot and not to err on the side of mysterious mystery or anything. I definitely kept some of the prep that I’ve done to myself only because it’s just really difficult to understand when you’re handed a role like Richard Ramirez, even if there’s a campy nature or a light-hearted nature to some of the material that we get into later in the season. There’s no manual like no one says, “Ok you have to play someone who has brutally killed at least thirteen people and that’s a really terrible thing, but society wouldn’t accept.” The most simple answer is I used the tools I use for every role. I do all the research that I possibly can and if I’m playing a real person, which I am, I compared a lot of physical traits in particular, how he sounds, how he walked, how he presented himself physically in the world. I took a lot of that stuff from the plethora of material available and then injected it into the show and the material that was in the script because there’s always a marriage that happens between the material and what an actor’s performance is going to be. It’s not like they give you the script and “oh you’re just you” or “oh you’re just this perfect character that they’ve written.” There’s always some kind of negotiation when you’re playing a biographical role. That was the biggest thing for me. That I had to kind of edit and be like “oh this is how he sounds, this is how he walks and that still works in the world of AHS: 1984.” Is it funny or is it cool, is it scary, like I had to kind of look outside myself every time to make sure that the role was working from an audience point of view. The scary answer is that I walked around downtown very very late at night just thinking dark things while listening to scary music, but no one wants to hear about that. 

Wait is that actually true?? Was that one of your ways to prepare for the role or are you completely joking?

I don’t want to go into too much more detail, but ya I mean the thing is that like because he was a real person that was LA based a lot of the locations that are mentioned in the material you can go visit. You can go see a lot of the hotels that he crashed at and yeah I wanted to see what that felt like. I wanted to see how it affects the body and the mind being in his place at night, as you know everyone knows that he did. That was definitely an element and what I did on the streets I’m not gonna talk about cause who knows. I didn’t kill anybody if that’s what you’re asking. You dress a certain way it makes you feel a certain way. A lot of these things, you know you don’t have to go downtown and murder 13 people to be able to figure out how somene’s psychology works, but you can get close like if you start to mimic. I think it’s like trying on a different pair of pants or a different mask or costume. It affects you and I took that energy and I took how that made me feel and just kind of amped it up and developed it with my own psychology.

What has being a part of AHS taught you, if anything? Personal wise or career wise.

That’s a very good question. I think that we’re always learning, especially artists that’s kind of our job. Well we have multiple jobs, our first job is getting work, and then our career is doing the acting and being on camera and trying to be brilliant in a very small high pressure situation, but I think that as an artist really what makes you move forward is learning and so I think that I’m always learning. I think that everyone is learning just as much from a good experience as they would a bad experience and AHS was a career highlight, is a career highlight for sure and I want it to continue being a career highlight. I think that it kind of just taught me that you have to stick with it even when things are confusing or hectic or the work seems like it doesn’t make any sense because you’re trying to play a historical person, but then you realize that you’re working on campy comedy that also explores really dark, scary, gore and those are certain things you don’t see in the script at the very beginning and so I think maybe if I were to take something away professionally acting wise it’s that you have to be ok with surprise, you have to learn to adapt to whatever the process asks of you and I knew that, but I think AHS, this particular show, really demanded it of me in a different way and usually it demanded it of me when I only had four and a half hours of sleep after a night shoot, so I think that I learned something about myself. I learned that I have the stamina to really take roles like this and go the distance and just be adaptable and be ready for surprise.

What has been the most challenging character to play, so far in your career?

Man, you’re pulling no punches. I don’t know, I mean I kind of feel like I get more excited and more success in payoff when I’m playing characters that are challenging, that aren’t like me at all, so I would say like “oh ya like Richard Ramirez or Richard III oddly, you know, or something of that nature,” but I don’t really see it as a challenge, I think it’s just kind of a puzzle piece, so sorry that’s not really the answer to your question. I just try not to judge the roles that I do. I mean, sure there are some that I’ve felt better about or less successful about, but I think a lot of those happened in acting school for me, like a lot of it was stuff that I clearly wouldn’t have been casted for in the real world, but it still taught me something, so I guess challenging or most difficult character I’ve had to play was... I don’t know. I don’t really have a problem with getting behind really, pardon my French, but fucked up psychology like I think that’s something that I enjoy delving into because you learn about humanity and look, humans are complicated, confused animals and we’re all just trying to do our best and when we’re being cordial and we got our shit together I think that can be a really beautiful thing, but we’re also capable of some really terrible evil and I think that for me I’ve become more comfortable clearly with that side of my psychology and humanity and I think that you have to as an actor, so it’s hard for me to answer that because I try to find empathy in every character that I take on even if it’s quote on quote challenging for me on a personal level.

I know you act, sing, dance, and play instruments, but if you had to choose just one of those things, which one is your favorite?

I will not choose. There, I refuse to, in fact I got so much slack when I was in high school in particular, instructors who were very wise and 99% of the time this might be true for students that they were working with, they would always try to make me choose, they’re like “stop playing the guitar, why are you writing songs, you’re 17 and why are you just picking this up now like you have a dance career and you’re really good at singing and acting” and I’m like “well those are three things you already listed that are different from each other, so why are you telling me to choose one thing now?” I just kind of felt like that was only the lie and something I’ve been fighting for a very long time and a lot of great artists throughout history have been, dare I say well-rounded, and that’s not to say that I want to be a master of none, I think that I’d like to be a master of all and trying to use all these different gifts and mediums to inform one another. I mean that’s a huge part of my process. I wouldn’t be able to fight or move physically like Richard if I didn’t have an extensive dance background, if I didn’t have a dance background I wouldn’t know the first thing about programming drums and music in the studio, so it’s just like for me it’s just all part of the same suit and they’re all different highs. I mean, selfishly it’s pretty cool that I get to be on the set of AHS and then go play a rock show the next week you know like that’s really fun for me and in a very very different experience cause you can’t replicate on a set.

What inspired you to get into the arts?

I feel like maybe I had no choice. My mom was a dance teacher, she’s retired now, and I had a dance studio attached to my house growing up, so I kind of feel at a certain age it was like “well we can do daycare and never spend time with our son or we can put him in dance class and my mom could teach me something useful” and that’s what ended up happening. I was just injected with it at a very early age and as I grew older the truth changes all the time. Like I'm sure at one point I was like “oh yay, fame and glory” and then I learned more about storytelling and I learned how cathartic that was for me. I’ve definitely gone through periods where the arts were like therapy for me, but I think at the end of the day, it’s in my blood and I can’t imagine doing anything else and I don’t think I even have to know why. I think that I have some things to offer that society likes to call “expert communication” on some level and I think that it would be a waste if I wasn’t doing that because that’s what I’ve always done and I think that’s probably what I'll always do and I don’t really have a logical reason as to why that’s necessary.

What hobbies do you have when you’re not working?

I love playing poker. I love motorcycles and I love fast cars. It’s so stereotypical it hurts, but it’s true. Because when I'm riding a motorcycle it honestly feels like one of my best acting moments, I feel like it’s the perfect balance of risk, danger and control and that’s what being alive is. I took up film photography about three years ago. I needed something that didn’t have the pressure of success, so I get a lot of satisfaction from being the guy at a party or at an event that has a camera and is looking for a candid moment. So that brings me some joy and I haven’t tried to make money from it yet, so everything is going well with that.

You’ve worked with a lot of other big names like Anne Hathaway and Nicole Kidman. Have you learned anything from working with them?

Absolutely! When I worked with Anne, I was fresh out of school and it was one of my first gigs and I think every actor, big or small, has a different process and I can’t tell you how many different ways there are to do this job. There’s no right way, there’s no manual. You can go to school for 8 years and be the worst actor or you can just come out of the womb and just have it. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing big names and small names be incredible on stage, or horrible. I think it’s paramount to understand that everybody has a different way of working and as soon as you start to judge that it’s really dangerous territory because you have to have freedom and you have to feel safe in order to do good work. I’ve seen it done every single way and what I’ve learned about the ones that are good actors, but also good at their jobs, is that they’re just so graceful, open, and vulnerable on set. I think that good manners and being gracious towards your fellow actors, crew mates and everybody who works on the project to make it happen is one of the most admirable qualities. Nicole, when I worked with her, I was blown away. It was a childhood dream to act with her because I watched her in Moulin Rouge and was obsessed with that as a kid. I mean growing up as a triple threat - dancer, actor, singer - and then Moulin Rouge comes out, I was just enamored. When I got to work with her, it was such a weird out of body experience because I had been on the grind for a long time and then I looked around one day and was like, “Oh my god, I’m on Nicole Kidman’s lap sitting on a couch, doing a scene with her. What is this life?” What was so cool is that she was gracious and caring to me and everyone that she worked with and as far as I was concerned, it felt like we were just two peers working on a scene. There was no ego involved and when I got to see that from someone that high up in their career it was extremely admirable. Taking away from that experience, I think it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together, it’s a hard gig and we’ve got to support each other.