Early life

Denisof was born in Salisbury, Maryland, the son of Dr. Christiana Taylor and Gerald Denisof. He has Russian, French, and Irish ancestry. He moved to Seattle, Washington, when he was three years old. He attended Highline College, where his mother was head of the drama department. After graduating from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, he moved to London, England, at age 17, where he lived and worked for several years.

Career

Beginning his career in the film industry, Denisof was the fight director for a stage production of Hamlet, and in 1991 was the fight director for the BBC's The Other Side, Romeo and Juliet, and The Soul's Dark Night. Alexis's first lead was alongside Christopher Lee in the feature film Murder Story where he played an investigative reporter. It was released in 1989. One of his first known works in television was on the arcade version of the video for "Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison. In 1995 he landed a small part in the 1995 movie First Knight, appearing as one of Arthur's round table knights in multiple scenes with Sean Connery and Richard Gere. Following those roles, Denisof would later work with Sean Bean in three episodes of Sharpe as Lord John Rossendale in 1997.

His best-known character, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, was first introduced in 1999 to season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Buffy's replacement Watcher. Originally, Wyndam-Pryce was supposed to be killed off in the season 3 finale but, due to Whedon's surprise at how well he fit into the series, Denisof was given the choice about his character's fate and chose for him to live. As a result, he later showed up in season one, episode 10 of Angel, and was an official main cast member from episode 11 (effectively replacing Doyle), appearing in 100 out of the 110 episodes of the series. The character was heavily endeared to fans due to the transformation from goofy and lovable, to dark, depressed and moody as a result of events that occur over the course of the series.

The end of the series in 2004 saw a bit of a lag in Denisof's career. Save for appearing in three episodes of the hit series How I Met Your Mother, as the goofy philandering Sandy Rivers, Denisof would not work as much as he used to for the next several years. During this time he appeared in several stage productions, including Rope at Chichester Festival Theatre's Minerva Theatre with Anthony Head, who played Wesley's predecessor Rupert Giles on Buffy. Most likely due to his time playing an English character on Angel, Denisof was among 200 actors considered for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale, but lost out to Daniel Craig. Later, in 2008, he would appear in Season 2 of Private Practice as a man named Daniel, who has two pregnant wives giving birth on the same day. In 2009, he would appear in 4 episodes of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse as Senator Daniel Perrin.

In 2011, Denisof reprised his recurring role in How I Met Your Mother, as Sandy Rivers; he appeared in 10 episodes, his last being the March 17, 2014 episode "Gary Blauman". In a season 1 commentary, creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays speculated that Denisof was initially reluctant to take the role back in 2006 because he feared it was just charity work on account of his wife, Hannigan, playing a main character on the show. They went on to state that he was not aware, until they actually told him, that they were huge fans of his work dating back to his time on Angel.

Since 2011, Denisof has been relatively active. He played a voice role in the animated DC movie Justice League: Doom. He was featured in the majority of episodes in the AOL webseries, Little Women Big Cars. Denisof was then cast as a lead in Bryan Singer's new webseries H+: The Digital Series. He then reunited with Joss Whedon for two different film projects. The first was a minor role in the summer blockbuster The Avengers, as The Other, a servant to the character Thanos, and a cohort of Loki. The second was the lead male role in a modern version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, to positive reviews from critics. The film was released worldwide in June 2013.

In August 2013 he was cast in the third season of NBC's Grimm as a recurring character named Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf. In 2014, Denisof reprised his role as the Other in Guardians of the Galaxy. In the same year he began starring in the MTV television series Finding Carter as David Wilson.

Personal life

According to the DVD release of Angel's Season Five, three weeks before the filming of the season premiere Denisof was stricken with Bell's palsy, from which he later recovered. Due to the paralysis of the left side of his face, scenes were structured as to not show its effects.

Denisof married past co-star Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow Rosenberg in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on October 11, 2003. The couple live in Santa Monica. They have two daughters, Satyana Marie Denisof, born on March 24, 2009 (which is also Alyson Hannigan's birthday) and Keeva Jane Denisof, born May 23, 2012.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role
1989	Murder Story	Tony Zonis
1991	Snow and Fire	David
1992	Dakota Road	Jacob
1995	Innocent Lies	Christopher Wood
	First Knight	Sir Gaheris
1996	True Blue	Ed Fox
1998	The Misadventures of Margaret	George
1999	Rogue Trader	Fernando Gueller
2001	Beyond the City Limits	Yuri
2002	Tarzan & Jane	Nigel Taylor (voice)
2011	Love, Wedding, Marriage	Lloyd
2011	All-Star Superman	Dr. Leo Quintum (voice)
2012	Justice League: Doom	Mirror Master (voice)
2012	The Avengers	The Other
2012	Much Ado About Nothing	Benedick
2014	Guardians of the Galaxy	The Other

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Romeo and Juliet	Tybalt	TV movie
	Faith	Joel	TV movie
	Soldier Soldier	Lt. Bob Steadman	Episode: "Proud Man"
1997	Crime Traveller		Episode "Fashion Shoot"
	Sharpe's Revenge	Lord John Rossendale
	Sharpe's Justice
	Sharpe's Waterloo
	Hostile Waters	John Baker	TV movie
	Highlander: The Series	Steve Banner	Episode: "Diplomatic Immunity"
1998	Ghost Cop	Jonah Blade	TV Pilot
	The Orchard Walls	Dennis	TV movie
1999	Noah's Ark	Ham	TV movie
	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Wesley Wyndam-Pryce	9 episodes
1999-2004	Angel		100 episodes
2000	Randall and Hopkirk	Richard Shelley	Episode: "Paranoia"
2001	Batman Beyond	Zander (voice)	Episodes: "The Curse of the Kobra (1)" "The Curse of the Kobra (2)"
	The Legend of Tarzan	Henry (voice)	Episode: "New Wave"
2006	Justice League Unlimited	Sam Scudder / Mirror Master I (voice)	Episode: "Flash and Substance"
2006-2014	How I Met Your Mother	Sandy Rivers	10 episodes
2008	Private Practice	Daniel	Episode: "Serving Two Masters"
2009	Dollhouse	Senator Daniel Perrin	Episodes: "Vows" "Instinct" "The Public Eye" "The Left Hand"
2012	H+: The Digital Series	Conall Sheehan	Series regular
2013-2015	Grimm	Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf	Recurring role
2014-2015	Finding Carter	David Wilson	Main cast

[ Source: Wikipedia ]