Date of Birth: 6 April 1975, Braff was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. His parents, Hal Braff, a trial attorney and professor, and Anne Brodzinsky, a clinical psychologist, divorced and re-married others during Braff's childhood. One of his siblings, Joshua, is an author. Braff has wanted to be a filmmaker since his early childhood, and has described it as his "life dream." Braff was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder at age 10.

He graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, where he worked in the school's television station. Braff graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in film where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

Braff began his career in stage productions of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Macbeth at New York City's Public Theater, and also appeared in Woody Allen's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery. Braff was briefly on the Disney program The Baby-sitters Club in an episode entitled "Dawn Saves the Trees."

Braff has played the role of protagonist John "J.D." Dorian on the sitcom Scrubs since the show's debut in 2001. Braff has been nominated for three Golden Globes and an Emmy for his role as the offbeat doctor. In addition to directing several episodes of Scrubs, Braff wrote, directed, and starred in 2004's Garden State, which was filmed in his home state of New Jersey, in various towns such as South Orange, Maplewood and Tenafly. Producers were initially reluctant to finance the film, which Braff wrote in six months. After its success, he was sent a large number of scripts that he rejected because they were the kinds of films that he "would never go see or have any interest in being in." In February 2005, he won a Grammy Award for "Best Compilation Soundtrack For A Motion Picture" for the Garden State soundtrack, on which he also served as the compilation producer. He has also done voice-acting, having voiced the title character for the Disney animated film Chicken Little (2005) and the video game Kingdom Hearts II. In 2005, Braff was featured on Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd when he was tricked into chasing a supposed vandal who appeared to be spray-painting his brand new Porsche. The episode aired March 20, 2005. Braff has directed several music videos: Gavin DeGraw's "Chariot", Joshua Radin's "Closer", Cary Brothers' "Ride", and Lazlo Bane's "Superman", the theme song from Scrubs. Despite winning a Grammy Award, choosing music for Scrubs, and directing three music videos, Braff has said that he knows nothing about music.

In March 2007, Braff signed a one-year deal with NBC for a seventh and final season of Scrubs. He will reportedly earn $350,000 per episode, making him one of the most highly paid actors on television, alongside House's Hugh Laurie and Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen. However, Braff claims that these reports "have not been very accurate."

Braff recently starred in the romantic drama The Last Kiss, which opened on September 15, 2006. Braff, who tweaked several parts of Paul Haggis' script for the film, noted that he could relate to his character, and wanted the script to be as "real as possible" and "really courageous" regarding its subject matter. The film's director, Tony Goldwyn, compared Braff to a younger version of Tom Hanks, describing Braff as "incredibly accessible to an audience... a real guy, an everyman." As with Garden State, Braff was involved with the film's soundtrack; he served as executive producer and selected lesser known artists such as Imogen Heap, Joshua Radin, Schuyler Fisk, and Rachael Yamagata, as well as Remy Zero, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Turin Brakes and Aimee Mann, to appear on the track. The Last Kiss grossed approximately $11 million at the North American box office, and was considered a commercial disappointment, however, worldwide box office receipts and DVD rentals added $35 million to the take, bringing in nearly twice the production cost of $20 million for the film.

In 2007, Braff starred in the film The Ex, which he has described as a "silly comedy," and which was released on May 11, 2007 and also starred Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin and Jason Bateman. Braff said on his blog that the movie didn't do as well as he expected. On May 19, 2007, he hosted the 31st season finale of Saturday Night Live, where in one sketch, he plays a high schooler who tries to explain to the two snobby heads of the prom committee (Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph) how Garden State is an important film to his peers.

Braff was in talks to star in the film Fletch Won and had signed on to play the role eventually played by Dane Cook in Mr. Brooks, but dropped out of both roles to work on Open Hearts, which he will direct and adapt based on a Danish film. He has also co-written a film version of Andrew Henry's Meadow, a children's book, with his brother, and is scheduled to direct one of the segments for the film New York, Je T'Aime.

Scrubs (2001 - 2007) as Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian Garden State (2004) as Andrew Largeman Chicken Little (2005) voice of Chicken Little The Last Kiss (2006) as Michael The Ex (2006) as Tom Reilly