Wil Wheaton Biography

American actor (born 1972)This article is about the actor. For the musician, see Will Wheaton. For the 19th-century lawyer and baseball pioneer, see William Wheaton.

Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor 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 voice acting roles as Aqualad in Teen *ans, Cosmic Boy in Legion of Super Heroes, and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 franchise's original continuity. He appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the 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 the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop. He has narrated numerous audio books, including Ready Player One and The Martian.

Early life

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 of whom appeared uncredited in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks". Amy 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. He also stated that his parents forced him to become an actor. He is currently estranged from his parents.

Career

Early work and Stand By Me

Wheaton made his acting debut in the television film A Long Way Home (1981), which starred Timothy Hutton. He voiced the character of Martin in the animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982), the film adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971). Wheaton also appeared in Hambone and Hillie (1983), The Buddy System (1984) (opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon), and The Last Starfighter.

Wheaton first gained widespread attention for his work in Stand by Me (1986), the film adaptation of Stephen King's novella The Body. In Stand by Me, Wheaton played the lead role of Gordie Lachance, a 12-year-old storyteller mourning the loss of his elder brother. In her review of the film, Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Wheaton makes Gordie's 'sensitivity' tangible, but not effete. He's a gem". In addition to being successful at the box office, Stand by Me was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and became known as a coming-of-age cl*ic.

Star Trek

Wheaton with TNG co-star Gates McFadden (who played his mother on the show) in January 2019

Wheaton played Wesley Crusher, a "boy genius and Starfleet hopeful", during the first four seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He appeared in an additional four episodes of the remaining three seasons. The Wesley Crusher character is a "polarizing" character; while some Star Trek fans love him, others are vocal about their hatred for the character. Wheaton commented about his critics in a 2004 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 website 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 left Star Trek: The Next Generation due to concerns over how the production team addressed a scheduling conflict related to his wish to appear in the 1989 film Valmont.

Wheaton returned to Star Trek in 2002 and 2022, reprising his Wesley Crusher role in cameo appearances in Star Trek: Nemesis, and in the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Picard.

Post-Star Trek

Wheaton in 2001

Wheaton played Joey Trotta in the action film Toy Soldiers (1991). After leaving Star Trek, he moved to Topeka, Kansas, to work for NewTek, where he helped to develop the Video Toaster 4000 doing product testing and quality control and later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product.

Afterward, he returned to Los Angeles, attended acting school for five years, and then re-entered the acting world. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wheaton appeared in several independent films, including the award-winning The Good Things (2001), in which he portrays a frustrated Kansas tollbooth worker. For his performance in Jane White Is Sick & Twisted (2002) he received the award for Best Actor at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

Voice work

Wheaton at Q&A Panel Galaxy Con Richmond 2020

Wheaton is known for his voice acting career. He voiced the role of Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH in 1981. In August 2021. Wheaton voiced the villainous John Juniper in the video game, I Expect You to Die 2: The Spy and the Liar.

Television and web

Wheaton at W00tstock 2.4 in San Diego, July 2010

Wheaton appeared in 12 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 the former scoutmaster and current sous-chef Earl Harlan in the popular dark, surreal-comedy podcast Welcome to Night Vale.

Hosting

From September 2006 to September 2007, Wheaton hosted a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and Hahn Choi. He hosted a NASA video on the Mars Curiosity rover which landed on Monday August 6, 2012. He has hosted "2nd Watch", interviews with cast members and producers of the science-fiction series Falling Skies that appears online 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 10:pm 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. Wheaton has hosted Star Trek aftershow The Ready Room since the second season in 2020.

Other ventures

Games

Wheaton at the 2013 Wizard World New York Experience in Manhattan

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 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 Wheaton would be voicing Abraham Lincoln in Code Name: STEAM. Wheaton does the voice narration on the Secret Hitler companion app for the Secret Hitler social deduction game.

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

Comic book

A fictionalized version of Wheaton was included 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.

Narrations

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.

Writing

Wheaton is the author of Dancing Barefoot (2004) and Just a Geek (2004). He released a revised follow-up, Still Just a Geek, in 2022.

Wheaton runs his own blog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net. In June 2005, he became that month's featured Tech writer for the SuicideGirls Newswire.

Wil Wheaton (left) meets Tim O'Reilly at the 2003 booksigning of Dancing Barefoot at Powell's in Portland, Oregon.

In 2017, Wheaton wrote the short story "Laina" for the Star Wars anthology From a Certain Point of View. The book features 40 short stories, each by a different author, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Star Wars.

Politics

In a column that he wrote for Salon.com in 2005, The Real War on Christmas, Wheaton criticized 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 campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election.

Immediately following the Sutherland Springs church shooting on November 5, 2017, Wheaton on Twitter stated in response to Congressman Paul Ryan's call for prayers for the victims that "The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they'd still be alive, you worthless sack of *." Wheaton subsequently clarified his opinion after receiving criticism, writing "I apologize to those of you who are sincere people of Faith, who felt attacked by me", but accused "the right wing noise machine" of using his comments "to deflect attention and anger away from the role that unfettered access to weapons of m* murder played in the latest incidence of m* murder in America".

He has also been vocal about criticizing other entertainers he disagrees with, such as Dave Chappelle, after his The Closer special.

Personal life

Wheaton married Anne Prince on November 7, 1999, and lives in Arcadia, California, with her and her two sons from a previous relationship. Upon reaching maturity, both sons asked Wheaton to legally adopt them, which he did.

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

Wheaton has struggled with alcohol addiction. In January 2021, Wheaton announced he had been sober from alcohol for five years.

Wheaton lives with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and chronic depression. He supports mental health nonprofit organizations in raising awareness for these conditions.

In 2022, Wheaton participated in Celebrity Jeopardy!, playing for the National Women's Law Center. He reached the finals, defeating Troian Bellisario and Hasan Minhaj in the quarterfinals, and John Michael Higgins and Joel Kim Booster in the semifinals. He finished in third place, behind winner Ike Barinholtz and runner-up Patton Oswalt, earning $100,000.

Honors

• Young Artist Awards: 1989 & 1987
• Melbourne Underground Film Festival: Best Actor (2002)
• International Academy of Web Television Awards: Best Host (Pre-Recorded) (2014)
• Saturn Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award – The Cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation (2024)

An a* was named after him: 391257 Wilwheaton.

Filmography

Films and television films

TV shows and appearances

Web shows and series

Animation

Video games

Bibliography

• Dancing Barefoot (ISBN:0-596-00674-8) (2004)
• 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 (ISBN:0-9741160-4-1) (2009)
• Wil Wheaton's Criminal Minds Production Diary (2009)
• Clash of the Geeks (2010; contributor)
• The Day After, and Other Stories (2010)
• The Monster in My Closet (2011)
• Hunter (2011)
• Dead Trees Give No Shelter (2017)
• Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View (2017; contributor)
• Still Just a Geek (ISBN:978-0-06-308047-8) (2022)

Notes

References

Further reading

• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p.:390-391.
• Wheaton, Wil. "My name is Wil Wheaton. I Live With Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed." Medium.com, June 1, 2018.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wil Wheaton.

• Official website
• Wil Wheaton talks about his depression and anxiety
• WWdN: In Exile
• Wil Wheaton at IMDb
• Wil Wheaton at the TCM Movie Database
• Wil Wheaton at AllMovie
• Wil Wheaton at Curlie
• Wil Wheaton at Anime News Network's encyclopedia