Joss Whedon Biography

Joseph “Joss” Whedon is the screenwriter and filmmaker who made it big as the creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired from 1997 to 2003. A native of New York, and the son (and grandson) of television writers, Whedon moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Wesleyan University in 1987. He wrote for TV and the movies in the late 1980s and early ’90s, including for the sitcom Roseanne, the film Alien: Resurrection (1997, starring Sigourney Weaver) and the animated features Toy Story (1995) and Titan A.E. (2000). Whedon also wrote the campy, low-budget 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which he later adapted as a television series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as an indifferent teen with supernatural powers. The show became a hit when fans and critics came to appreciate Whedon’s stylized Valley Girl slang, and its success led to the spin-off series Angel (1999-2004). Both shows ended up with a cult following — an audience that became even more Whedon-crazy after his outer space western series Firefly was canceled in 2002, before its second season. The fan base was strong enough that Whedon made a successful feature film from Firefly, 2005’s Serenity (starring Nathan Fillion). Whedon returned to the theme of superpowered young women in the 2009 TV series Dollhouse (starring Buffy alumna Eliza Dushku). He continues to work in television, film, comics and various media projects, including the comic book Fray (2001-03), a multimedia continuation of the Buffy franchise, and the online series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (starring Neil Patrick Harris).