Comedian Dustin Diamond

He was one of Tori Spelling's first on-screen love interests, he fooled the FBI into thinking he was an extra terrestrial and he finally got to kiss the love of his life, Lisa Turtle, but only after she lost a bet to Zack.

Oh, the life and times of Samuel “Screech” Powers!

That's right, Dustin Diamond, the world's most typecast character actor in the history of Saturday morning television, will be at Fanshawe this week.

After more than a decade of playing Screech, first on Good Morning Miss Bliss in 1987 and then in Saved by the Bell (1988-1992), not to mention SBTB: The College Years (1993) or SBTB: The New Class (1994-2000), Dustin Diamond has found a more mature audience for his stand-up comedy routine.


That audience now consists of college students who grew up idolizing Zack, and were thanking their lucky stars they didn't have to wear Screech's nipple-high parachute pants.

Since SBTB went off the air, Diamond has appeared in movies like Funny Money (2003), Big Fat Liar (2002) and Jane White is Sick and Twisted (2002).

Diamond has also won notoriety for playing himself on the big screen.

In 2001, he had a scene in the movie Made, where Vince Vaughn's character gets upset because Diamond's celebrity status gets him in the back door of a popular club. The scene garnered him an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Cameo.

More recently Diamond had a small role in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star alongside Emmanuel Lewis, Leif Garrett, Danny Bonaduce, Corey Feldman and countless other forgotten actors of the past.

Like many struggling actors, Diamond has also turned to reality television, starring in 2002's Celebrity Boxing 2 where he fought, and won, against Welcome Back Kotter's Ron Palillo. That was the same classy episode where Joey Buttafuoco fought a girl.

It's not surprising, with Diamond's notoriety and an immense cult following, that urban myths about the celebrity's personal life would surface.

There is the one that claims Neil Diamond is Dustin's father, and that Mike D of the Beastie Boys is his brother. Although Dustin Diamond's real middle name is Neil, neither the crooner nor the hip-hop pioneer is of any relation.

You can catch Screech's (sorry Dustin Diamond's) stand-up act on Tuesday, April 11 in Forwell Hall at noon. He will also be available afterwards to sign photographs.