Wil Wheaton

Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor, blogger, and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Wheaton has also appeared in recurring roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy on the Legion of Super Heroes and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 universe. He also appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was also the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop.

Career
Wheaton was born July 29, 1972, in Burbank, California, to Debra "Debbie" Nordean (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 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks". Amy also appeared alongside Wil in the 1987 film The Curse.

As an adult, Wheaton described his father as being abusive to him as a child and his mother as being an enabler of that abuse.

Wheaton made his acting debut in the television film A Long Way Home, and his first cinema role was as Martin Brisby in the animated film The Secret of NIMH, the movie adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. He had a minor role in The Last Starfighter as Louis's friend, but it was cut.

He first gained widespread attention for playing Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me, the film adaptation of Stephen King's novella The Body which was originally published in 1982's Different Seasons

Wheaton has worked as a voice actor in animation, video games and audiobooks, beginning with the role of Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH at age 10. His most noteworthy credits include the roles of Aqualad in the cartoons Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, the voice of radio journalist Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Kyle in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Kyle + Rosemary as well as himself and various other characters on both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. Wheaton also featured as the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Dr. Peter Meechum in Generator Rex, Mike Morningstar / Darkstar in Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien & Ben 10: Omniverse. Wheaton also took upon the anime roles of Yakumo in Kurokami: The Animation, Menma in Naruto, and Hans in The Slayers Evolution-R. He also 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 what Wheaton calls "Wheaton's law": "don't be a dick". 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, Fuzzy Nation also by Scalzi, and books 6–10 of the Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny.

Wheaton was roommates with Chris Hardwick while they were both students 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 19, he asked Wheaton to legally adopt him, which he did.

Wheaton has interest in computers, the internet, and technology in general. He enjoyed 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 longtime fan of the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team, and of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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

Wheaton is an atheist.

Animated Series

 * Redakai: Conquer the Kairu (2011-2012) - Quantus

Anime

 * Naruto (2002) - Menma
 * Kurokami: The Animation (2009) - Yakumo
 * The Slayers Evolution-R (2009) - Hans (ep. 2)

Anime Films

 * Naruto Shippūden The Movie (2008) - Taruho