Tyler Zacharia is the husband of White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia. They have been married since 2011 and have four children.
He is a Hollywood film producer and the chief operating officer of 2521 Entertainment, the production company behind Angel Studios hits like “David” and “Young Washington,” according to his LinkedIn profile.
President Donald Trump named Katie Zacharia as Karoline Leavitt’s replacement on October 9, 2026. She held her first press briefing on October 13 and told reporters that her husband and kids were with her in Washington for her first week on the job.
Here’s what you need to know about Katie Zacharia’s husband, Tyler Zacharia:
1. 1. Tyler Zacharia Is a Georgetown Grad Who Learned Mandarin & Spent 6 Years in Private Equity in Beijing
Tyler Zacharia graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he studied international politics and military security, according to a Pepperdine University alumni profile. He studied abroad in Beijing while at Georgetown and went back to China after graduating to study Chinese.
“After graduation, I traveled back to China and met a guy who was starting a private equity fund and needed someone who spoke Chinese,” Zacharia told Pepperdine. “I knew nothing about finance, but he hired me and I learned on the job.”
That firm was Schulze Global Investments, later known as SGI Frontier Capital, which was acquired by Cerberus Capital Management. Zacharia worked there as a vice president from August 2007 to July 2013, overseeing investments in China, Mongolia and Brazil and helping launch funds and local teams in Ethiopia and Mongolia, according to his LinkedIn profile. He says on LinkedIn that he is fluent in Mandarin.
He told Pepperdine the company grew from four people to 40 employees in six countries while he was there, and that he learned deals in China come down to people skills more than numbers. “That excites me way more than sitting down in front of a spreadsheet,” he said.
Before moving to Beijing, Zacharia spent nine months as a research analyst at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, D.C., from 2005 to 2006, according to his LinkedIn page.
2. Katie & Tyler Zacharia Were Married in 2011 & Moved to Beijing Together, Where She Worked for a Chinese Law Firm
Katie and Tyler Zacharia were married in 2011, according to Newsweek. Katie Zacharia, who was born Katie Black, graduated from Pepperdine University in 2007 and from the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in 2011, the same year she married Tyler and moved with him to Beijing.
She worked as an associate on the international practice team at the Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013 while also managing fundraising and communications for Compassion for Migrant Children, a nonprofit that supports the children of rural migrant workers in China, Newsweek reported. Tyler Zacharia was still working for SGI Frontier Capital in Beijing at the time.
Katie Zacharia said her career did not follow the path she expected when she was in law school. “I did not know I would end up in Beijing, China. I did not know I would end up having four kids in six years,” she said in an interview with the LA Mom Magazine podcast. “And what I perceived was a career break was actually such a gift and motivated me even more.”
Tyler Zacharia followed his wife to Pepperdine after the couple returned to California, earning his MBA from the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School in 2016. He told the school that Katie’s time there was a big part of why he chose it.
“The values orientation of Pepperdine is ultimately what drove me to differentiate it from other schools,” Zacharia said. “Also, my wife went to undergrad and law school at Pepperdine, so I got a lot of time to learn about how special of a place it is.”
The couple was expecting their second child when the profile was published, according to Pepperdine.
3. Tyler Zacharia Has Produced or Executive Produced More Than 20 Films, Including Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ & ‘The Irishman’
After leaving China, Tyler Zacharia co-founded Moriah Media/SharpSword Films in April 2014, a film and media investment group focused on direct film production financing and private equity investments in media companies, according to his LinkedIn profile. He served as the group’s managing director.
His first major credit came as an executive producer on Scorsese’s 2016 historical drama “Silence,” starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. He was also an executive producer on Scorsese’s 2019 Netflix crime epic “The Irishman,” which starred Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, according to IMDb.
“I’ve produced or executive produced 20+ films, including Martin Scorsese’s Silence and The Irishman,” Zacharia writes on LinkedIn.
His other executive producer credits include the 2019 horror film “Countdown,” Netflix’s “The Babysitter: Killer Queen” (2020), “The Starling” (2021) with Melissa McCarthy, Angel Studios’ “Homestead” (2024), “The Last Rodeo” (2025) with Neal McDonough and “Roofman,” the 2025 Channing Tatum film, according to IMDb. He is also listed as a producer or executive producer on several upcoming projects, including “Runner” with Owen Wilson and Alan Ritchson.
Zacharia has also held business roles on the corporate side of the industry, serving as head of business operations at Boies Schiller Entertainment and CenterStage Technologies and as chief operating officer at Limelight Productions and Fabrica de Cine, Newsweek reported, citing his LinkedIn profile.
4. He Is the COO of 2521 Entertainment, the Company Behind Angel Studios’ ‘David,’ ‘Young Washington’ & ‘The Brink of War’
Tyler Zacharia is the chief operating officer of 2521 Entertainment, where he says he leads “finance, operations, and deal-making across the company’s film and television slate,” according to his LinkedIn profile. 2521 Entertainment describes itself as a film production and finance company founded in 2023, and its credits include “Sound of Freedom,” “The King of Kings” and the Amazon Prime series “House of David,” according to Angel Studios.
2521 partnered with Angel on “David,” the animated musical about the biblical king that opened to an estimated $22 million in December 2025, the best theatrical opening in Angel’s history, the studio said. Katie and Tyler Zacharia walked the red carpet together at the film’s premiere in Franklin, Tennessee, on December 14, 2025.
Zacharia is credited as a producer on “Young Washington,” the Jon Erwin-directed drama about George Washington’s early years that premiered at the Tribeca Festival and opened in theaters on July 3, 2026, timed to the country’s 250th birthday. The film finished No. 2 at the domestic box office over Fourth of July weekend, and Angel has said a sequel is in development. Angel announced the project with “2521 Entertainment, led by Tyler Zacharia” joining Wonder Project and 10 Ton Productions on the production side, according to a press release.
2521 also co-produced “The Brink of War” with SK Global. The Cold War drama, which stars Jeff Daniels as Ronald Reagan and Jared Harris as Mikhail Gorbachev at the 1986 Reykjavik summit, hit theaters on August 14, 2026.
Katie Zacharia gave her husband a rare public shoutout in a September 2026 Instagram post, writing that she tries to keep her family “away from the flame” of politics. “However, this year I’m particularly proud of my husband, who made David, Brink of War, Young Washington and many other great movies for @angel,” she wrote. “Our four kids get to be front and center of the family-friendly films and they are our WHY. Different lanes, but God, Country, Family, and as our kids know, in CA, we proudly support President Trump.”
5. Tyler Zacharia Brought Their 4 Kids to Washington for Katie’s First Week on the Job & She Says ‘Teamwork Is So Essential’
The Zacharias have four children, three boys and one girl, ages 12, 10, 8 and 6, Katie Zacharia said during her first White House press briefing on October 13, 2026. The family has been living in Southern California and plans to relocate to the Washington, D.C., area, she said.
Asked how she plans to balance the job with raising four kids, Zacharia mixed up her husband and her boss. “I love being with my kids. The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable,” she said. “So my president — excuse me, my husband — that’s a good one — my husband is out here for the week because we have two birthdays in our family, and we are very, very protective of celebrating birthdays as a family.”
Zacharia said she stayed home with the kids from 2014 to 2020 before returning to work, and that she found ways to bring them into her professional life. She said she plans to do the same at the White House and that her children “will always be a priority.”
In a July interview with the LA Mom Magazine podcast, Zacharia described how she and her husband divide the work at home. “Teamwork is so essential,” she said, explaining that Tyler takes the kids at night when she is on prime-time television and sometimes keeps two or three of them while she travels with the others. She said he also brings the whole family along when he is on location for a film. “He integrates family on work trips, the entire family,” she said.
Asked how the couple keeps their relationship strong with four young kids, Zacharia said family events come first, including flying home to watch the Fourth of July fireworks with her husband and children. “It is important as a family that we are together for these events,” she said. “You make it work.”
Tyler Zacharia, Katie Zacharia’s Husband: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know