Zinn was a stand-in and photo double for John Travolta in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, featured in the iconic opening sequence underscored by the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive".

During this period he directed the second play written by his father, Daughter of Venus, at Theater for the New City which was picked up by Lucille Lortel for her White Barn Theatre in Westport, CT.

In 2006, having raised over seven million dollars in a capital campaign, WHAT broke ground on a new 220-seat theater[5] which opened in 2007 with Zinn's production of The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl featuring Jessica Pimentel in the role of Mathilde.

His last production at WHAT came in 2011 with Bakersfield Mist, an NNPN Rolling World Premiere,[6] which transferred to the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA, winning the Elliot Norton Award that year for Best New Play.

[7] He is the author of The Existential Actor: Life and Death, Onstage and Off (Smith & Kraus, 2015)[8] and the creator of the podcast, Gurus: The Story of Acting from Stanislavsky to Succession Zinn earned a B.A.