Early life

Wheaton was born July 29, 1972, in Burbank, California, the son of Debra Nordean "Debbie" (née O'Connor), an actress, and Richard William Wheaton, Jr., a medical specialist. He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy. Both appeared uncredited in the episode "When the Bough Breaks" of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Amy also appeared alongside Wil in The Curse.

Career

Early work

Wheaton made his acting debut in the television film A Long Way Home (1981), and his first cinema role was as Martin Brisby in the animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982), the movie adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. He had a minor role in The Last Starfighter (1984) as Louis' friend, but it was cut. He first gained widespread attention for playing Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me (1986), the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Body.

Star Trek

From 1987 to 1991, he played Wesley Crusher in the first four seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This became a recurring role later in the series. A vocal group of Trekkies disliked his Star Trek character and, by extension, Wheaton himself during TNG's first run. Wheaton commented about his critics in an interview for WebTalk Radio:

Later, I determined that the people who were really, really cruel - like the Usenet weenies - really are a statistically insignificant number of people. And I know, just over the years from people who've e-mailed me at my web site and people who I've talked to since I started going to Star Trek conventions again in the last five years, that there are so many more people who really enjoyed everything about the show, including my performance, including the character.

Wheaton's popularity among Star Trek fandom is covered in a number of web comics. ArcaneTimes of March 25, 2005, offers a sympathetic position. Something Positive presents a range of opinions as part of the storyline Mike's Kid. Abstruse Goose tries to distinguish between the character and the actor.

Post-Star Trek

In 1991, he played Joey Trotta in the action film Toy Soldiers. After leaving Star Trek, Wheaton moved to Topeka, Kansas to work for NewTek, where he helped to develop the Video Toaster 4000 doing product testing and quality control. He later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product. Wheaton said this was a period of growth in his life, and living away from Los Angeles helped him deal with anger problems. He came back to Los Angeles, attended acting school for five years, then re-entered the acting world. In the late 1990s, Wheaton appeared in several independent films, including the award-winning The Good Things, in which he portrays a frustrated Kansas tollbooth worker. It was selected Best Short Film at the 2002 Deauville Film Festival. He received the Best Actor award at the 2002 Melbourne Underground Film Festival for his performance in Jane White Is Sick & Twisted.

Voice work

Wheaton has worked as a voice actor in cartoons, video games, audiobooks, and anime, beginning with the role of young Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH at age 10. His most noteworthy credits include the roles of Aqualad in the cartoon Teen Titans, the voice of radio journalist Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Kyle in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Kyle + Rosemary, himself and various other characters on both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold in the episode "Fall of the Blue Beetle!", Yakumo in Kurokami: The Animation, Menma in Naruto, Hans in Slayers Evolution-R and Aaron Terzieff in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. He appeared as himself in a skit on nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot's 2008 album Final Boss attempting to be a rapper, whose rhymes only involved shellfish. Wheaton later collaborated with Frontalot on "Your Friend Wil", a track from the 2010 album Zero Day on the subject of Wheaton's law, which states "don't be a dick" (the phrase was in use before Wheaton's blog post). Wheaton and Frontalot have both appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Wheaton has also narrated a number of bestselling audiobooks, mostly in the science-fiction and fantasy category, including Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Wheaton also exists in the novel's universe, described as being joint President, along with Cory Doctorow, of the virtual world Oasis, which is the setting for much of the book), "Armada" also by Cline, Redshirts by John Scalzi, and books 6-10 of the Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny.

Television and web

Wheaton was a contestant on a 2001 episode of The Weakest Link featuring Star Trek actors attempting to win money for charity. Wheaton has made guest appearances on the November 23, 2007 episode of the TV series Numb3rs, and the October 22, 2008 episode of the series Criminal Minds. He has also appeared in Internet presentations, including a cameo in a comedy sketch ("Lock Out") for LoadingReadyRun (and a reprise of the same the following year in CommodoreHustle 4), and the May 30, 2008 episode of the Internet series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. From 2009-2011, Wheaton appeared in seasons three, four and five of the web series The Guild as Fawkes, the leader for a rival guild known as Axis of Anarchy. Wheaton credits his roles in Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show and The Guild for reigniting his career by encouraging him to seek out roles as the "Villain You Love To Hate" stock character. He also appears in seasons two, three and four of the TV series Leverage, as rival computer hacker Colin "Chaos" Mason, antagonist to Leverage team hacker Alec Hardison. He makes regular appearances in many web productions for Geek & Sundry, including hosting TableTop, a board game based show, and Titansgrave, a roleplaying game based show.

He appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in several episodes of situation comedy The Big Bang Theory, starting in the fifth episode of the third season "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" (2009). On the show, Wheaton behaves in comically petty and manipulative ways towards main character Sheldon Cooper, who regards him an archenemy until the fifth season episode "The Russian Rocket Reaction", when they make amends and become friends. Wheaton appears in twelve episodes in a recurring, guest-starring role on Eureka, playing Dr. Isaac Parrish, the head of the Non-Lethal Weapons Lab at Global Dynamics and a thorn in Fargo's side. Wheaton also voices the character of former Scoutmaster and current sous-chef Earl Harlan in the popular dark, surreal-comedy podcast Welcome to Night Vale.

Wheaton appears as Alexander Rook in the Syfy TV series Dark Matter, based on the comic book of the same name. It premiered on June 12, 2015.

Hosting

From September 2006 to September 2007, Wheaton hosted a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and veteran host Hahn Choi. He hosted a NASA video on the Mars Curiosity rover which landed on Monday August 6, 2012. He has also hosted "2nd Watch," interviews with cast members and producers of the science-fiction series Falling Skies that appears on-line after each episode. On April 3, 2014, Wheaton announced on his blog that his new show called The Wil Wheaton Project would premiere on the SyFy network at 10pm on May 27 for an initial projected run of twelve episodes. However, on August 29, Wheaton blogged that SyFy canceled the show after only one season.

Other ventures

Games

In 2003, Wheaton mentioned his love for the game of poker on his blog. The following year, he began writing more extensively about his poker-playing experiences, including stories about playing Texas hold 'em tournaments locally and in Las Vegas. Eventually, he worked up to regular play, including a run at the 2005 World Poker Tour Championships. On June 23, 2005, Wheaton accepted an invitation to join Team PokerStars. He went on to play in that year's World Series of Poker and was the guest speaker for the 2005 BARGE Banquet. In June 2007, he announced he would no longer be on Team Pokerstars due to changes in the U.S. legal system that would cause poker sites to have to focus on European and Asian markets and held a farewell Pokerstars tournament on June 5, 2007, which he titled So Long and Thanks for All the Chips.

Wheaton is a Dungeons & Dragons player, and played during the PAX 2010 event using the 4th edition rules. Wheaton, along with webcartoonists Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade, and Scott Kurtz of PvP, played in front of a live audience. The game was hosted and recorded by Wizards of the Coast with Chris Perkins as the dungeonmaster. Wheaton also played D&D 4th edition at the PAX 2011 event using the 4th edition rules, and used the D&D Next play test rules at PAX Prime 2012. Wheaton also hosts the web series TableTop, where he explains how to play various card, board and dice games, then plays a round with celebrity guests. Wheaton also starred in the Kickstarter-funded game There Came an Echo by Iridium Studios. In Dungeons and Dragons Online, he became the dungeon master of the Temple of Elemental Evil quests.

Nintendo of America announced on Twitter that he would be voicing Abraham Lincoln in Code Name: STEAM.

Wheaton announced in February, 2015, that he was chosen to provide voiceover talent for the upcoming strategy role-playing video game Firefly Online, a game based on Joss Whedon's Firefly sci-fi franchise.

Wheaton has spoken out against misogyny in video game culture, and wrote a profile of Anita Sarkeesian for the 2015 Time 100.

Comic book

Wheaton made a guest appearance as a fictionalized version of himself in the comic book PS 238, in which he harbors the power of telekinesis. Wheaton's debut comic book The Guild: Fawkes which he wrote alongside Felicia Day was released on May 23, 2012.

Audiobooks

Wheaton has recorded several of his non-self-published books as downloadable audiobooks. These include Just a Geek, Dancing Barefoot, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and his Criminal Minds diary from Sunken Treasure. He also released excerpts of Memories of The Future: Vol 1 as free podcasts. He has also narrated several audiobooks by other authors, including Ready Player One and Armada by Ernest Cline; Masters of Doom by David Kushner; Fuzzy Nation, The Android's Dream, Agent to the Stars, and Lock In, all by John Scalzi; Peter and Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham; "Byways", part of METAtropolis: Cascadia by Tobias Buckell; "What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Hypothetical Questions" by Randall Munroe; and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Similarly, Wheaton has provided the voice-over for the digital gamebook, Trial of the Clone.

Live shows

Wheaton has performed improvisational and sketch comedy at the ACME Comedy Theater in Hollywood. He has a traveling sketch comedy/improv troupe called "EarnestBorg9" that performs science fiction-related comedy at conventions. Wheaton is one of the three headline acts of the w00tstock shows, appearing in nearly all of them when his filming schedule has allowed. He has also guest starred in one of the Welcome to Night Vale live stage shows, playing the role of a radio station intern named after himself, the character meeting a prompt demise as is the podcast's tradition for interns.

Writing

Wheaton runs his own blog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net. Between 2001 and late 2004, he operated a message board, known as "The Soapbox" or "Paracosm", as part of the blog site. Two collections of writings taken from postings to the message board have been published, titled Boxer Shorts (ISBN 1-932461-00-0) and Boxer Shorts Redux (ISBN 1-932461-03-5). He contributes regularly to the Los Angeles-based Metroblogging site. In June 2005, he became that month's featured Tech writer for the SuicideGirls Newswire. He had a monthly column, entitled "Wil Save," in the Dungeons & Dragons-based magazine Dungeon, until May 2005. From January 2005 to October 2006, he wrote a column for The Onion AV Club about early video games, called "Games of Our Lives." On December 12, 2008, he returned to his role as Geek in Review editor, with his editorials being published every second Wednesday of the month.

In early 2003, he founded the independent publishing company Monolith Press and released a memoir entitled Dancing Barefoot. Monolith Press was "founded on the idea that publication should not be limited by opportunity." Most of the entries are extended versions of his blog entries. Dancing Barefoot sold out three printings in four months. In winter 2003, Wheaton signed to publisher Tim O'Reilly with a three-book contract. O'Reilly acquired Dancing Barefoot, and published his extended memoirs, Just a Geek, in summer of 2004. He has since written about his bitterness regarding how the book was marketed, believing it was pitched as a Star Trek book when he intended it as more of a personal memoir. Subsequently in 2007, his next book, "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" was again published by Monolith Press.

With the release of Sunken Treasure: Wil Wheaton's Hot Cocoa Box Sampler in February 2009, instead of using traditional publishing, Wheaton decided to self-publish using Lulu Publishing, releasing paperback and digital copies, something he has continued to do with all his publications since. As a chapbook, Sunken Treasure contains several small extracts of various different projects, including two short stories from Ficlets, an ACME comedy sketch, William's Tell and a Criminal Minds production diary. The production diary was later released as an audiobook. Later that same year, Wheaton released Memories of the Future: Volume 1, a humorous critique, as well as an account of Wheaton's own experiences with, and memories of, the first thirteen episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Closing up 2009, Wheaton published a special edition of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", which also included an afterword by his son, Ryan. The Happiest Days of Our Lives and Sunken Treasure were also released on a Creative Commons license.

Politics

Wheaton described himself as a liberal in 2005. In September 2006, he criticized George W. Bush's antiterrorism plan: "Shame on President Bush. Shame on his Republican allies in Congress, and shame on the spineless, cowardly Democrats who did not stand up to them." In a column that he wrote for Salon.com in 2005, The Real War on Christmas, Wheaton attacked conservative commentators like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for influencing the political views of his parents, with whom Wheaton found himself unable to have political discussions during family get-togethers on holidays like Christmas. Wheaton's parents were very offended by the article, and he posted a lengthy apology on his site and an interview in which his parents clarified their political views.

Wheaton is a supporter of Electronic Frontier Foundation and is involved with the organization since 2002.

On August 24, 2007, Wheaton gave the keynote for the yearly Penny Arcade Expo, which was subsequently made available online. He stepped in following a public battle between the formerly-scheduled keynote debate participants, noted anti-games activist Jack Thompson and Hal Halpin, the president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA). Much of Wheaton's address focused on the debate over violence in video games. He also gave the keynote at PAX East 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts.

He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election and opposed Proposition 8, calling it "nothing but hate and discrimination".

In September 2015, Wheaton announced that he was supporting Bernie Sanders' bid to be the 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate nominee.

Personal life

Wheaton was roommates with Chris Hardwick at UCLA. They met at a showing of Arachnophobia in Burbank, California.

Wheaton married Anne Prince on November 7, 1999 and lives in Arcadia, California, with her and her two sons from a previous relationship. When one son was 18, he asked Wheaton to legally adopt him, which he did.

Wheaton is an aficionado of computers, the internet, and technology in general. He says he is drawn to alternatives like Linux because he is left-handed, though he ceased using Linux when he switched to Windows 2000. Since at least 2003, his operating system of choice has been OS X, though he still runs Linux (Debian) in a virtual machine. He also enjoys brewing his own beer at home, and he collaborated with Fark creator Drew Curtis and Stone Brewing Co. CEO Greg Koch to create a geek-themed stout beer called Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout.

Wheaton is also a major longtime fan of the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team and can often be found at the Staples Center at both regular season and playoff games. Wheaton is also a "die-hard" fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and has gone to many games at Dodger Stadium.

Wheaton suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and chronic depression. He supports mental health nonprofit organizations in raising awareness for these conditions.

Filmography

Films and television films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	A Long Way Home	Donald Branch	Television film
1982	The Secret of NIMH	Martin Brisby (voice)
1983	Hambone and Hillie	Jeff Radcliffe
1983	13 Thirteenth Avenue	Willie	Television film
1984	The Last Starfighter	Louis' friend
1984	The Buddy System	Tim
1986	The Defiant Ones	Clyde	Television film
1986	Long Time Gone	Mitchell	Television film
1986	Stand by Me	Gordie Lachance
1987	The Curse	Zack
1987	The Last Prostitute	Danny	Television film
1987	The Man Who Fell to Earth	Billy Milton	Television film
1988	She's Having a Baby	Eloy
1991	Toy Soldiers	Joseph "Joey" Trotta
1991	December	Kipp Gibbs
1992	Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special	Himself / Wesley Crusher	Television documentary
1993	The Liars' Club	David Reynolds
1995	Mr. Stitch	Lazarus
1995	It Was Him or Us	Scottie	Television film
1996	Pie in the Sky	Jack
1996	Boys' Night Out	Marco
1997	Trekkies	Himself	Documentary
1997	Flubber	Bennett Hoenicker
1997	Tales of Glamour and Excess (imdbtitle)	Danny Sugerman
1998	The Day Lincoln Was Shot	Robert Lincoln	Television film
1998	Fag Hag	Himself
1999	Foreign Correspondents	Jonas
2000	The Girls' Room	Charlie
2000	Deep Core	Rodney Bedecker
2000	Python	Thommy
2001	Speechless...	Ryan	Short film
2001	The Good Things	Zach Means	Short film
2001	The Flintstones: On the Rocks	Brad (Bass Singer) (voice)	Television film
2002	Jane White is Sick and Twisted	Dick Smith
2002	Fish Don't Blink	Jimmy
2002	Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me	Himself	Documentary
2002	Star Trek Nemesis	Wesley Crusher
2003	Book of Days	Danny	Television film
2003	Four Fingers of the Dragon	Himself	Television film
2003	Neverland	John Darling
2007	Americanizing Shelley	Director Alan Smithee
2009	Star Trek	Romulans (various)
2010	Loki and SageKing Go to GenCon	Evil Wil Wheaton	Short film
2010	Naruto Shippuden the Movie	Shizuku (voice)	English version
2014	Sharknado 2: The Second One	Himself (Airline Passenger)	Uncredited
2014	Video Games: The Movie	Himself	Documentary

TV shows and appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	CBS Afternoon Playhouse	Amos Cotter	"The Shooting" (Season 4, Episode 3)
1985	Highway to Heaven	Max	"One Winged Angels" (Season 1, Episode 15)
1986	St. Elsewhere	Owen Drimmer	"Nothing Up My Sleeve" (Season 5, Episode 8)
1987	Disneyland	Ehrich Weiss / Harry Houdini	"Young Harry Houdini" (Season 31, Episode 20)
1987	Family Ties	Timothy Higgins	"'D' Is for Date" (Season 5, Episode 25)
1987-94	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Wesley Crusher	Main role
1989	ABC Afterschool Special	Nick Karpinsky	"My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?" (Season 18, Episode 1)
1990	Monsters	Kevin	"A Shave and a Haircut, Two Bites" (Season 3, Episode 8)
1992	"Lifestories: Families in Crisis"	Robert Bierer	"A Deadly Secret: The Robert Bierer Story" (Season 1, Episode 4)
1993	The Legend of Prince Valiant	Prince Michael / King Michael (voice)	Main role (Season 2)
1993	Tales from the Crypt	Arling	"House of Horror" (Season 5, Episode 7)
1994	Sirens	Wayne McGarrick	"Chasing a Ghost" (Season 2, Episode 5)
1996	The Outer Limits	Cadet	"The Light Brigade" (Season 2, Episode 18)
1997	Gun	Bilchick	"Ricochet" (Season 1, Episode 2)
1997	Perversions of Science	Bryan	"Snap Ending" (Season 1, Episode 8)
1998	The Love Boat: The Next Wave	Tristan Reedy	"I Can't Get No Satisfaction"
1998	Diagnosis: Murder	Forest Ranger Gary Barton	"Alienated" (Season 6, Episode 6)
1999	Guys Like Us	Steve / The Fig	"Good Old Days" (Season 1, Episode 12)
1999	Chicken Soup for the Soul	Will	"The Wallet" (Season 1, Episode 7)
2001	The Invisible Man	Dorman	"Perchance to Dream" (Season 1, Episode 17)
2001	Twice in a Lifetime	Ryan Storey / Dr. Thomas	"The Choice" (Season 2, Episode 22)
2002	A&E Biography	Narrator	"Eclipsed by Death: The Life of River Phoenix" (Season 1, Episode 323)
2002	The Zeta Project	Kevin (voice)	"The Wrong Morph" (Season 2, Episode 14)
2002	Arena	Presenter	Unknown episodes
2002-03	The Screen Savers	Presenter	2 episodes
2003-05	Teen Titans	Aqualad (voice)	Recurring role
2005	Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!	Skurg (voice)	"The Lords of Soturix 7" (Season 2, Episode 2)
2005	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Walter	"Compulsion" (Season 5, Episode 17)
2006	Avatar: The Last Airbender	Evan (voice)	"City of Walls and Secrets" (Season 2, Episode 14)
2006	Naruto	Menma (voice)	"Ushinawareta Kioku" (Season 1, Episode 213) "Torimodoshita Genjitsu" (Season 1, Episode 214) "Keshisaritai Kako" (Season 1, Episode 215) English version
2007	Random! Cartoons	Kyle / Sir Horace (voice)	"Kyle + Rosemary" (Season 1, Episode 8)
2007	Numb3rs	Miles Sklar	"Graphic" (Season 4, Episode 9)
2007-08	Legion of Super Heroes	Cosmic Boy (voice)	Recurring role
2008	Criminal Minds	Floyd Hansen	"Paradise" (Season 4, Episode 4)
2008-09	Ben 10: Alien Force	Mike Morningstar / Darkstar (voice)	Recurring role
2009	Kurokami: The Animation	Yakumo (voice)	Main role
2009-10	Family Guy	Himself (voice) (Season 7); Anti-Abortion Activist (voice) (Season 8)	"Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" (Season 7, Episode 11) "Partial Terms of Endearment" (Season 8, Episode 21)
2009-10	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Ted Kord / Silver Age Blue Beetle (voice)	Fall of the Blue Beetle!" (Season 1, Episode 8) "Menace of the Madniks!" (Season 2, Episode 17)
2009-present	The Big Bang Theory	Himself (fictional Wil Wheaton)	Recurring role (since Season 3)
2009-12	Leverage	Colin Mason	Recurring role
2010	Ben 10: Ultimate Alien	Mike Morningstar / Darkstar (voice)	Recurring role
2010	Slayers	Hans	Voice; Main role English version
2010-12	Eureka	Dr. Isaac Parrish	Recurring role (Season 4-5)
2011	Redakai	Quantus (voice)	Main role
2011	Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn	Aaron Terzieff (voice)	"Ghost of Laplace" (Episode 2) English version
2014	Robot Chicken	Dr. Doom / Centaur / Handy Smurf (voice)	"Batman Forever 21" (Season 7, Episode 17)
2014	The Wil Wheaton Project	Presenter	12 episodes
2015	Dark Matter	Alex Rook	"Episode 12" (Season 1, Episode 12)

Web shows and series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006-07	Revision3	Presenter
2007	LoadingReadyRun
2008	Retarded Policeman #5: Writers Strike	Presenter
2009-11	The Guild	Fawkes (voice)	Main role
2012-present	TableTop	Presenter	60 episodes
2013	Kris and Scott's Scott and Kris Show #10: Ties	Kris's father
2015	Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana	Game Master/Host	11 episodes
2015	Conversations with Creators	Host

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2004	EverQuest II	Festus Septimus / Overseer Zerrin / Merchant William / Innkeeper Valean
2004	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	Richard Burns
2004	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2	Various role
2005	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown	Various role
2005	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter	Various role
2006	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2	Various role
2005	Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories	Richard Burns
2006	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories	Richard Burns
2009	Brütal Legend	Watt-R-Boys
2009	Ben 10: Alien Force - Vilgax Attacks	Darkstar
2010	Fallout: New Vegas	Robobrains / Super-Ego / X-8 Robobrain
2011	DC Universe Online	Robin
2014	Broken Age	Curtis
2015	There Came an Echo	Corrin
2015	Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.	Abraham Lincoln
2015	Dungeons and Dragons Online - Reign of Elemental Evil	Dungeon Master

Bibliography

• Dancing Barefoot (ISBN 0-596-00674-8) (2003)
• Just a Geek (ISBN 0-596-00768-X) (2004)
• Stories of Strength (ISBN 1-4116-5503-6) (2005; contributor)
• The Happiest Days of Our Lives (ISBN 0-9741160-2-5) (2007)
• Sunken Treasure (2009)
• Memories of the Future Vol. 1 (2009)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]