Joss Whedon

Emmy and Oscar nominee Joss Whedon is one of Hollywood's top creators, scripting several hit films and creating one of television's most critically praised shows, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Born in New York June 23, 1964, Whedon is a third-generation television writer. His grandfather and father were both successful sitcom writers on shows such as "The Donna Reed Show," "Leave It to Beaver" and "The Golden Girls."

After receiving a degree in film studies from Wesleyan University, Whedon landed his first writing job on the staff of the top-rated series Roseanne. He later pulled double duty on the series Parenthood, co-producing and writing a number of episodes.

After creating "Buffy" as a feature film script, Whedon brought it to television in 1996, where it became a cult phenomenon. In 2000, Whedon garnered his first Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his groundbreaking episode entitled "Hush." In 2002, he wrote, composed and directed a Broadway-style musical episode entitled "Once More, With Feeling" which received worldwide recognition and spawned an Original Cast Recording soundtrack, which sold more than 400,000 CDs worldwide. In a New York Times Magazine profile, Buffy was called "one of the most intelligent, and most underestimated, shows on television." The show won several awards over its run including, Emmys, Saturns, SFXs and a Hugo in its seventh and final season.

In 1998, Whedon developed and produced "Angel" through 20th Century Fox Television and his production company, Mutant Enemy. The Buffy spin-off gained a loyal following of its own and ran for five seasons on the WB. In 2002, he followed up with the critically acclaimed sci-fi drama "Firefly" for the Fox network. In addition to serving as creator and executive producer on "Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly," Whedon also wrote and directed multiple episodes of each series.

He earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay with Disney's box-office smash "Toy Story." He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-founder of Bellwether Pictures. He also created the television series "Dollhouse" and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." as well as "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." He wrote and directed the film adaptation Marvel's "The Avengers," the third highest-grossing film of all time.