In addition to starring in his own plays, he has had roles as Bob, one of the sailing teenagers, in Jaws 2 (1978), an alien Starfleet ensign in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), a military school cadet in the 1981 movie Taps, and a mobster wannabe in the 1999 film A Wake in Providence, which he also co-wrote.
On television, Billy was a regular cast member on the second season of ABC's Anything but Love and usually does small cameo roles within his own writing-producing television work, notably acting as Writer, creative consultant and guest star on the 1990 Valerie Bertinelli series Sydney.
Van Zandt is the half-brother of musician/actor Steven Van Zandt and brother-in-law of Steven's wife, Actress Maureen Van Zandt. Billy married Actress Adrienne Barbeau on December 31, 1992. The couple met in 1991 during the West Coast premiere of Billy's play Drop Dead! They have twin sons, william and Walker (born March 17, 1997).
Van Zandt is the co-author and star of the Off-Broadway plays You've Got Hate Mail, Silent Laughter, Drop Dead!, and 21 other theatrical plays written with Jane Milmore, including A Night at the Nutcracker, Wrong Window, and summer stock perennial Love, Sex, and the I.R.S. He also wrote The Property Known as Garland for Adrienne Barbeau, which ran Off-Broadway at the Actor's Playhouse in 2006.
He toured in the Off-Broadway hit You've Got Hate Mail which ran at the Triad Theater from 2010-2015 as well as his newest play The Man*O*Pause Boys.
