Joss Whedon

He married Kai Cole, who is the co-founder of Bellwether Pictures. The couple has two children and currently resides in Los Angeles.

He believes he is a humanist and is an ardent supporter of gay rights.

Joseph Hill ‘Joss’ Whedon was born to Tom Whedon and Lee Stearns, in New York City. He is the third of the five children born to the couple. He studied at Riverdale Country School, where his mother was a history teacher.

From a very young age, he was extremely passionate about writing and acting and is believed to have been inspired by the works of William Shakespeare, Monty Python, Ray Bradbury, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

He studied at Wesleyan University and graduated from there in 1987. He then went to spend a couple of years at Winchester College, in England.

He started off as a staff writer for the 1989-1990 sitcom ‘Roseanne’, where he was the writer and also the producer. The same year, he also directed and wrote for the show, ‘Parenthood’.

He wrote the script for ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, which released in 1992, starring Kristy Swanson, Hilary Swank and Donald Sutherland. The television adaptation of the same was yet to be made.

In 1994, he wrote the script for two films; ‘Speed’ and ‘The Getaway’; both of which became blockbuster hits and won a number of awards. His career catapulted to success the following year, when he was asked to pen the script for the films, ‘Waterworld’ and ‘Toy Story’.

In 1997, his most prized work ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ was written and directed by him as a television series. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendan and Alyson Hannigan, the show had a successful run with a total of 144 episodes. The same year, he penned the script for ‘Alien Resurrection’.

In 1999, he wrote, directed and even co-produced another one of his pet projects ‘Angel’ that earned him widespread critical acclaim. The show was a spin-off from the original ‘Buffy’ series and was released on the ‘WB’ channel.

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is largely regarded as his magnum opus, which had a successful run from March 10, 1997 to May 20, 2003. The story is about a young woman who chooses to battle demonic elements, vampires and other forces of darkness. The show became so popular that it has a comic book adaptation, ‘Buff the Vampire Slayer’ and another related show, ‘Angel’. The series garnered around 4-6 million viewers from around the globe and was rated as one of the ’50 Greatest TV shows of All Time’.