Joss Hill Whedon (b. June 23, 1964) is a writer, director, executive producer, and creator of several television series. He has also written several film scripts and two comic book series.

He attended Winchester College before receiving 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.

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 was poorly received by critics and audiences), he 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" (also Emmy-nominated), which featured the show's cast in singing and dancing roles. 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 for most of its seven seasons on Tuesdays at 8pm.

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 rarely attained the ratings of its predecessor. The WB cancelled the show in May 2004, but network executives have hinted that it might be brought back in some fashion.

Firefly

In 2002, Firefly, which Whedon produced with Tim Minear, was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes. Following a successful DVD release of the series, Whedon announced in early 2004 that his proposal for a Firefly movie had been "greenlighted" by Universal Studios. Shooting started in July 2004, and the film is slated for release on September 30, 2005.

Movies

Whedon has written or co-written several movies including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, Alien: Resurrection and Titan A.E.. He also wrote uncredited drafts or re-writes of Speed, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men, although little of Whedon's work remained in the final drafts of any of these screenplays.

He wrote and directed Serenity, based on his television series Firefly, and has been signed to write and direct Warner Brothers' 2006 adaptation of Wonder Woman.

Comic books

Whedon, a lifelong comic book fan, is the author of the Dark Horse Comics miniseries Fray which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse

Like many other authors from the Buffy TV show, he also contributed to the show's comic book version: He wrote the main storyline of the five issue mini series Tales of the Vampires and three stories in the anthology Tales of the Slayers, including one featuring Melaka Fray from Fray.

Whedon wrote Astonishing X-Men in Marvel Comics' popular line of comics about the X-Men. The title, created specifically for Whedon, has been Marvel's best-selling comic as of 2005 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards including Best Serialized Story, Best Continuing Story, Best New Series, and Best Writer.

The first of a three issue miniseries Serenity will be released in July of 2005. Co-written with Brett Mathews and pencilled by Will Conrad , it features covers drawn by John Cassaday, J. G. Jones , and Bryan Hitch .

See also

• Mutant Enemy

External links

• WhedonWiki
• Whedonesque