We report the first demonstration of ZnSe metal‐semiconductor field‐effect transistors. These new devices were fabricated fromn‐type Cl‐doped epitaxial ZnSe layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (100) oriented semi‐insulating Cr‐doped GaAs substrates. Epitaxial layers with room‐temperature carrier concentrations of 1.6×1017cm−3and electron mobilities ranging from 400 to 500 cm2/V s were used for device fabrication. Au was used as a Schottky gate contact. Either In or a multilevel metallization scheme using Cr and In was employed for the source and drain ohmic contacts. Depletion‐mode transistor operation was observed for structures with 5 and 100 &mgr;m gate lengths and varying gate widths. The 5 &mgr;m gate length by 200 &mgr;m gate width device structures exhibited transconductances of 0.5 mS/mm.