Zolfo is the son of an art director who worked at a publishing house in New York City. After Zolfo went to college, he worked as a set dresser in theater. He assisted set decorators in several films before entering the mainstream as a set decorator for Godzilla.
Zolfo won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Production Design for the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, sharing the awards for the film with art director and production designer Donald Graham Burt. He was also part of the 20-person team who won the Art Directors Guild"s Excellence in Production Design Award for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
