I Went to High School with Zach Avery

Zach Avery, circa 2005, when he was known as Zach Horwitz, a senior at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, IN.

Well, of all the news stories I’ve ever seen, this has to be one of the weirdest:

A dude I went to high school with has been arrested for allegedly running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in Hollywood.

It’s fitting that this dude, Zach Avery, was an actor in Los Angeles… because, man, this story sounds like something straight out of a movie. Think “The Wolf of Wall Street. Or “Fyre Festival,” another true story that’s absolutely bonkers.

The world may know this guy as “Zach Avery” — apparently, this was his stage name — but I knew him as Zach Horwitz. He and I attended high school together in the mid-2000s. He was a year older than me, graduating in 2005. Now, he and I weren’t friends or anything; I’m sure that the people he was close with could provide a much better account than I as to what he was like at that point in his life. But my experience with him is representative of what most people’s experience with him was probably like — having a class or two together, passing each other in the hallway, etc.

Ever since this story broke, I’ve been reflecting on the time that I was around Zach.

And there are three things I’d like to share.

1. He didn’t act in high school.

One of the things I enjoyed most about high school was acting. Over the course of my time at Carroll High School, I had roles in several of the productions put on by the drama department. While I worked with countless other students on those productions, there was one student with whom I never worked: Zach Horwitz!

Zach was a jock in high school, through and through; he starred for the football team and, apparently, was talented enough that he ended up playing for Indiana University. But he never acted. (Or, rather, I have no memories of him acting – this was nearly 20 years ago, mind you.) Taking that into account, it’s surreal to consider the following about Zach:

• He starred in a movie as recently as last year with the likes of Brian Cox, a silver screen legend. (And who’s so good as Logan Roy on HBO’s “Succession.”)

• He was directed in a movie by Ralph Fiennes. (Voldemort himself!)

• He played Olivia Munn’s husband in a movie. (Jealous!)

Insane. Now, to be fair, those are probably among the highlights of an acting career that, according to the stories I’ve read, was largely unimpressive. But it’s still astounding to consider that any of that actually happened.

2. I thought he was an idiot.

I haven’t forgotten this moment from one of the classes we were in together.

Zach was asked by our teacher to diagram a football play on the chalkboard. He drew the X’s and O’s, then proceeded to write the names of the positions. When it came time to identify the guards, rather than writing “guards,” he wrote “gourds.”

I remember thinking, “Holy shit! That’s not even close to being spelled right! This dude’s a fucking idiot!”

Honestly, when I read all the stories about Zach being arrested, I was in disbelief that the guy who had made the aforementioned gaffe was the same guy who had allegedly gone on to mastermind a $227 million Ponzi scheme. Either he grew increasingly intelligent in the years after high school… or he was swindling incredibly stupid people.

3. He once told a ridiculous story.

In another one of the classes we were in, Zach regaled the class with the following story.

When he lived down in Florida, he and his older sister were at a shopping mall one day. As they were walking through the mall, a man passed them, then turned around and came back to speak to them.

This man was Derek Jeter. Apparently, Zach’s sister was really attractive and had caught the eye of the New York Yankees’ star shortstop. Jeter proceeded to invite both of them to his mansion for dinner. (Maybe Jeter figured inviting Zach would help him score points with his sister?) The Horwitz siblings accepted the invitation and went on to share a meal with one of the most famous athletes in the world at his Florida estate, which Zach said was every bit as impressive as you might expect.

Zach ended up living in an impressive house himself; at the time of his arrest, he was living in this $6 million Los Angeles abode. Sixteen years after hearing him tell this story, I now realize that it was probably all bullshit. While he may not have been an actor or a scholar in high school, he was at least a storyteller. My classmates and I were captivated by his tale and bought every word of it, completely suspending our disbelief.

It occurs to me that this same scenario probably played out during the countless meetings Zach allegedly took with investors – him filling their heads with anecdotes about his relationship with Netflix and HBO, promising them big returns on their investments, and ultimately coaxing them to surrender their money to him.

Look, I’m sure Zach did change a lot between high school and now. I mean, I think we’d all like to believe that about ourselves. But from my vantage point, as someone who knew Zach Horwitz as a non-actor with a knack for telling tall tales, he doesn’t seem all that different to me.