Actors - Joss Whedon

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	Actors - Joss Whedon

Joss Hill Whedon (born June 23, 1964) is a writer, director, executive producer, and creator of several television series, most famously Buffy the Vampire Slayer
, Angel
, and Firefly. He has also written several film scripts and several comic book series.

He attended high school at Winchester College in England and received a film degree from Wesleyan University in 1987.

Television work

After moving to Los Angeles, Whedon secured his first writing job on the television series Roseanne. After several years as a script doctor, he went back to TV, where he created three cult TV shows. In addition to writing and directing, Joss has had a couple of cameos in his shows Buffy
, Angel
, and Firefly, and had a guest role in an episode of Veronica Mars.

Whedon has been described as the world's first third-generation TV writer. He is the son of Tom Whedon, a successful screenwriter for The Electric Company in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, a writer for The Donna Reed Show in the 1950s.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Years after having his script for the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer
filmed (the interpretation by director Fran Rubel Kuzui having been poorly received by critics and audiences), Whedon revived the concept as a television series of the same name. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
went on to become a critical and cult hit, with the episode "Hush" receiving an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series in 2000.

Whedon wrote and directed the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling", which featured the show's cast in singing and dancing roles and also received an Emmy Award nomination. The show ran for five seasons on The WB Network before transferring to UPN for its final two seasons. Though it premiered on Mondays at 9pm, Buffy ran since the middle of the second season on Tuesdays at 8pm. (In the aforementioned musical episode, Buffy makes the Brechtian comment, "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.") According to an interview with Marti Noxon, the writing team for Buffy gave Joss the affectionate nickname Our Fearful Leader.

Angel

Angel
was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, featuring her vampire-with-a-soul boyfriend as the title character. It was created by Whedon in conjunction with David Greenwalt. Debuting in September 1999 on the WB, the show was broadcast after Buffy on Tuesday evenings; but when Buffy switched networks in 2001, Angel aired in a number of different time slots, and occasionally managed to attain the ratings of its predecessor. The WB cancelled the show in May 2004 while it was in its fifth season.

Firefly

In 2002, Firefly, which Whedon produced with Tim Minear, was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes had been aired, out of intended sequence, from a total of only 14 produced (including the original two-hour pilot, which was the last episode to be aired on Fox). Whedon had been writing a movie script based on the TV series for Universal Studios for about a year when the Firefly series was released on DVD. The excellent sales of the DVD set ensured the movie would be produced, and in early 2004 Whedon announced that his proposal for a Firefly movie had been greenlighted by Universal. Shooting started in July 2004, and the film, Serenity
, went into wide release in the United States on September 30, 2005 to widespread critical and fan acclaim, but mediocre results at the box office. As of February 2006 Serenitys worldwide earnings were about $0.2 million short of the film's $39 million budget, but it is expected to make a profit with DVD sales.
Movies
Whedon has written or co-written several movies including Buffy the Vampire Slayer
, Toy Story
, Alien: Resurrection
, Titan A.E.
and Ray Gun
. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Toy Storys screenplay.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Joss Whedon ]

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