Nicholas Brendon extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Nicholas Brendon
Born	Nicholas Brendon Schultz April 12, 1971 (1971-04-12) (age 38) Los Angeles, California, United States
Spouse(s)	Tressa di Figlia (2001–2007)
Official website

Nicholas Brendon (born April 12, 1971, as Nicholas Brendon Schultz in Los Angeles, California), is a actor best known for his character Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 Awards and nominations 6 References 7 External links

Early life

When Brendon was young, he had aspirations to be a professional baseball player, but was forced to give up the dream after an arm injury.¹ At the age of 20 he decided to try his hand at acting and overcome his stuttering problem,² but gave up after two years because he "couldn't stand the politics in Hollywood." He decided instead to go back to school and study medicine, but this did not work out. He also tried his hand at a variety of other jobs, including plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, day care counselor, waiter, and production assistant for the television show Dave's World.³ After these jobs, he gave acting another try. It only took four days of auditioning before he landed the role of Xander Harris on Buffy.

Career

Brendon's role as Xander Harris was initially that of the occasional comic relief and plucky sidekick to the lead female character, but in later seasons fewer comedic lines were given to the part. When the series ended in 2003, Brendon joined the cast of a new Fox sitcom, Kitchen Confidential, based on the book by chef Anthony Bourdain. Thirteen episodes were made, but the series was cancelled on December 9 of the same year, after the fourth episode aired with low ratings.

In 2006, he voiced Huntsboy #89 for season 2 of the animated series American Dragon: Jake Long. The series ended on September 1, 2007. His character's final appearance was in the episode "Shaggy Frog", which aired on April 28, 2007.

From July 26 through August 30, 2006, Brendon co-starred with Noah Wyle in the play Lobster Alice, in Los Angeles.

That same year, Brendon reunited with his former Buffy on-screen sweetheart, Charisma Carpenter, in the ABC Family TV movie Relative Chaos.

At a pop culture expo in Sydney, October 2007, he mentioned that he would be joining the cast of the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds as Penelope Garcia's love interest.⁴ Since that time he has been in several episodes playing FBI technical analyst Kevin Lynch and it seems as if he will be making random appearances in upcoming episodes.

He is currently playing the lead in David Sedaris’ play The Santaland Diaries. The play runs from November 20-December 20, 2009 at the The Blank Theatre's 2nd Stage in Hollywood,CA.

Personal life

In 2001, Brendon married actress Tressa DiFiglia. The couple divorced in 2007.

On April 25, 2004, at a Buffy fan convention in Cleveland, Ohio, he announced that he had voluntarily entered rehab for alcoholism.⁵

Brendon has played a major part in the Stuttering Foundation of America. He was the first person to serve the role of honorary chairperson of the Stuttering Foundation of America's Stuttering Awareness Week for three consecutive years, from 2000 to 2003.

Brendon has an identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan, the elder by three minutes, who served as his occasional stand-in on Buffy. Kelly played the part of Xander's double in the episode "The Replacement"⁶ when the two Xanders were on the screen at the same time. When Nicholas fell sick with pneumonia, Kelly filled in for him as Xander, and in most of Xander's fight scenes in the episode "Intervention", Kelly was filling the role.⁷

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1995	Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest	Basketball Player One
2000	Psycho Beach Party	Starcat
2002	Demon Island	Kyle
2007	Unholy	Lucas
2008	Blood on the Highway	Chase Sinclair
2009	The Portal	Paul
2009	My Neighbor's Secret	Brent Keller
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Married… with Children	Guy In Ray-Ray's Gang	Episode: Hood 'n the Boyz
1995	Dave's World		Episode: Do the Write Thing
1997–2003	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Xander Harris	143 episodes
2003	The Pool at Maddy Breaker's		TV-Movie
2004	Celeste in the City	Dana Blodgett/Harrison	ABC Family TV-Movie
2005–2006	Kitchen Confidential	Seth Richman	13 episodes
2006	Relative Chaos	Gil Gilbert	ABC Family TV-Movie
2006–2007	American Dragon: Jake Long	Huntsboy #89	Voice Role 6 episodes
2007	Fire Serpent	Jake Relm	Syfy Pictures Original Movie
2007–2009	Criminal Minds	Kevin Lynch	6 episodes
2009	Without a Trace	Edger	Episode: Undertow
Video games
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Xander Harris
2003	Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds	Xander Harris

Awards and nominations

Saturn Awards

• 1998: Nominated, "Best Genre TV Actor" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• 1999: Nominated, "Best Genre TV Actor" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• 2000: Nominated, "Best Genre TV Supporting Actor" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nicholas Brendon

• Nicholas Brendon's site
• Stuttering Foundation site
• Nicholas Brendon at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Major members of the Buffy and Angel casts Amy Acker · Amber Benson · Marc Blucas · David Boreanaz · Nicholas Brendon · Charisma Carpenter · Emma Caulfield · Alexis Denisof · Sarah Michelle Gellar · Seth Green · Andy Hallett · Alyson Hannigan · Anthony Stewart Head · Vincent Kartheiser · James Marsters · Mercedes McNab · Glenn Quinn · J. August Richards · Michelle Trachtenberg Category:Buffyverse

Persondata
NAME	Brendon, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schultz, Nicholas Brendon
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	April 12, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH