Joss Whedon

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon (born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, film and television director, film and television producer, comic book author, and composer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), Angel (1999–2004), Firefly (2002), Dollhouse (2009–10) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–present).

Whedon co-wrote the Pixar film Toy Story (1995), wrote and directed the Firefly film continuation Serenity (2005), co-wrote and directed the Internet mini-series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008), co-wrote and produced the horror comedy The Cabin in the Woods (2012), and wrote and directed the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films The Avengers (2012) and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Early life

Born in New York City on June 23, 1964 as Joseph Hill Whedon, and being a third-generation TV writer, he is the son of Tom Whedon, a screenwriter for Alice in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, who worked on The Donna Reed Show in the 1950s and The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s. His mother, Ann Lee (née Jeffries) Stearns, originally from Kentucky, was a teacher at Riverdale Country School as Lee Whedon, and an aspiring novelist. His parents had both acted, and appeared in a play together at the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club. Whedon is the younger sibling of Samuel and Matthew Whedon and older sibling of writers Jed and Zack Whedon. At a young age, he showed great interest in British television with shows like Masterpiece and Monty Python.