Nathan Fillion Biography
Summary
"Nathan Fillion" (born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian actor known for his lead role as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series "Firefly" and its film continuation, "Serenity", his role as Joey Buchanan in "One Life to Live" and his current lead role as Richard Castle on "Castle".
Biography
Early life
Fillion was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the son of Cookie and Bob Fillion, both of whom are retired English teachers. He has an older brother, Jeff, and attended Holy Trinity Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta and the University of Alberta. According to Fillion, he is descended from Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early.
Career
After working in several theatre, television and film productions, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and the improvised soap opera "Die-Nasty", Fillion moved to New York City in 1994 where he acted in the soap opera "One Life to Live" as Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award in the 'Outstanding Younger Actor' category. In 1997, he left the series to pursue other projects (but would return for a brief guest appearance in 2007). After moving to Los Angeles, he played a supporting role in the sitcom "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place" and was cast as 'James Fredrick Ryan' or 'The Minnesota Ryan' in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan".
Fillion played in the final five episodes of ". He also worked with "Buffy" creator on ".
In 2002, Fillion starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the Joss Whedon science fiction television series "Firefly", for which he won the 'Cinescape Genre Face of the Future - Male' award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Fillion also won the Syfy Genre Awards in 2006 for "Best Actor/Television" and was runner-up for "Best Actor/Movie". Although the show was cancelled, it was adapted to the big screen; Fillion reprised his role as Mal in Whedon's movie "Serenity" (2005). He also had a recurring role as Caleb in the final season of Whedon's series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Fillion considered his time on "Firefly" to be the most fun he had on a television series.
Fillion has lent his voice to the animated series "King of the Hill" in 2001, the video game "Jade Empire" (as the voice of Gao the Lesser), and the animated series "Justice League Unlimited" (as Vigilante in the episodes 'Hunter's Moon' and 'Patriot Act') in 2005 and 2006. Fillion starred in James Gunn's 2006 horror film "Slither". For his starring role as Bill Pardy, he garnered a 2006 "Fangoria" Chainsaw Awards nomination in the category of "Dude You Don't Wanna Mess With".
Fillion starred in the romantic comedy film "Waitress", written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 21, 2007 and opened in theaters on May 2, 2007. According to Box Office Mojo, "Waitress" grossed $22,125,001 in worldwide sales as of May 13, 2008, and $29.22 million in rentals as of January 28, 2008.
Fillion also starred in "White Noise 2: The Light".
He has made one appearance in the 2006-2007 season of the television show "Lost", as Kevin, Kate's ex-husband.
In October 2006, Fillion signed a talent holding contract with the Fox Broadcasting Company, and in December 2006, "The Hollywood Reporter" confirmed that Fillion was cast in the lead role of Alex Tully in the series "Drive", which debuted on Fox in the spring of 2007.
"Drive" was created by Fillion's longtime friend and former "Angel" and "Firefly" writer Tim Minear. Ivan Sergei played Alex Tully in the original pilot episode of "Drive". The first two "Drive" episodes premiered on April 13, 2007 in Canada (April 15, 2007 in the United States). However, the show did not deliver the ratings Fox desired, and on April 25, 2007, the network announced that the series was cancelled.
The final two produced episodes were supposed to air back-to-back on Fox in July 2007, but did not actually become available until July 15 when they were posted on "Drive"s MySpace page. Fox has since removed "Drive" episodes from that Myspace. All six episodes are now available for download from Amazon.com and iTunes.
Fillion reprised his 1990s role as "One Life to Live"s Joey for the series' 9,999th and 10,000th episodes, aired August 16, 2007 and August 17, 2007.
Fillion joined the cast of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" at the beginning of the Fall 2007 season as Dr. Adam Mayfair, a gynecologist. His first appearance was in the episode 'Now You Know', which aired on September 30, 2007.
Fillion plays the voice of a Marine Sergeant in the Xbox 360 game "Halo 3". He is joined by his "Firefly" co-stars Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk who both voice marines. At one point early in the first mission, he identifies himself as 'Sergeant Reynolds' over the radio, referring to his character's name from the TV series "Firefly". All three actors are given personalities in the game that match those of their characters from "Firefly". He is the voice actor for Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck in the "Halo 3" expansion, "Halo 3: ODST". Nathan Fillion discusses his Halo 3: ODST role and on playing Halo with msnbc. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30501433/vp/31714988#31714988 Halo 3: ODST Interview His character 'Gunnery Sergeant Eddie Buck' in ODST also looks like him.
The independent feature film "Trucker" in which Fillion plays the character Runner was premiered at the New York 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. Trucker gets Theatrical Release Date: September 18, 2009.
On March 21, 2008 Fillion finished filming Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" which stars Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible and Felicia Day as Penny.
Fillion announced in 2008 that he had written a pilot and couple of episodes for a comedy with the working title "Repo Brothers" which has been picked up by ABC. Also in 2008, Fillion started working on a TV series for ABC called "Castle", in which he plays Rick Castle, a mystery novelist who helps the NYPD solve crimes. In August 2008, ABC green-lit the production of the series, which started airing on March 9, 2009 and has been renewed for a second season. ABC is promoting Castle by releasing a Richard Castle novel 'Heat Wave' online and worldwide in hardback.
Nathan Fillion made EW's The Must List: What's Hot for the Week of Oct. 5, 2008.
Fillion also is featured in a spoof porn web video on Spike called 'Nailing Your Wife', part of the "PG Porn" series.
The "Wonder Woman" animated DVD in which he voice acted the character Steve Trevor debuted #5 on the 3/08/09 Numbers DVD Sales chart.
He has been recognized several times for his looks including in 2007 when Fillion was featured in "People" magazine's Sexy Men issue under the 'Domestic Bliss/Guys Worth Running Home to' section. As well, he was listed as one of Entertainment Weekly's '50 Actors We'd Watch in Anything'.
Projects
Fillion co-founded the non-profit organization (Kids Need to Read) with author PJ Haarsma in 2007 to help inspire kids' imagination by helping to get books into underfunded libraries. Fillion believes strongly in the importance of reading and believes every child deserves the chance to read good books. Haarsma discovered while speaking at schools around the country that many libraries cannot afford to purchase new books and children would plead with him to get a copy of his book. Fillion took the dedication of his fans and put it to good use by directing their energies into something he believed was a worthwhile cause.
Fillion appears in the Martin Firrell project " (HERO) ".
External links
(Artist Martin Firrell internet and largescale public projection 2007 artwork with Nathan Fillion)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Nathan Fillion.
