ABOUT JOSS WHEDON

"The times are chaotic. For me, I would hope that people look at my heroes and see people struggling to live decent, moral lives in a completely chaotic world. They see how hard it is, how often they fail, and how they get up and keep trying. That, to me, is the most important message I'm ever going to tell." -- Joss Whedon



Joss (Joseph Hill) Whedon, born in 1964, is a third-generation Hollywood screenwriter. His grandfather was a successful sitcom writer in the 1950s and '60s on "The Donna Reed Show"and "Leave it to Beaver," and his father wrote for "The Dick Cavett Show," "Alice," and "Benson."

After receiving a degree in film studies from Wesleyan University in 1987, Whedon moved to Los Angeles and landed his first writing job on the staff of "Roseanne." After working several years as a script doctor for films, he returned to television, where he created "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997), "Angel," "Firefly," and "Dollhouse."

As the "Buffy" creator, writer, producer and, in the case of a musical episode, songwriter, Whedon maintained complete creative control over his striking blend of dark fantasy and sharp humor. He took another one of his creations, "Firefly," on the opposite journey, turning the short-lived series into the movie "Serenity" in 2005. Since then, Whedon has kept busy with projects in a variety of different mediums: he wrote issues of the comic-book series Runaways, Astonishing X-Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cowrote the feature film "Cabin in the Woods," and has agreed to direct "The Avengers."

"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" was written by Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and actress Maurissa Tancharoen during the 2008 WGA writers' strike.

It was filmed in six days. Instead of be broadcast on the traditional medium of Television, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" was shown to millions around the world via the Internet.

"Whether this has any impact on the Internet is unclear to me. It will be something that hasn't been done. And although some people came up with a plan on how to monetize this right away, our first priority was to put this out. We do it for the fans, we do it as an advertisement for itself and for just this culture, this idea of people who are doing something smaller scale but hopefully in such a way they can reach a lot of people." -- Joss Whedon

"Dr. Horrible" won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Online Sensation. In 2009, it won seven Streamy Awards for web television, a Creative Art Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class - Short Format Live Action Entertainment Programs.


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