page_title: Nathan Fillion
section_title: 2009–2018
hierarchical_section_title: Nathan Fillion / Career / 2009–2018
caption_attribution_description: English: Nathan Fillion speaking at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon on June 7, 2014.
context_page_description: Nathan Fillion is a Canadian-American actor, best known for the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on Firefly and its film continuation Serenity, Richard Castle on Castle, and is currently starring as John Nolan on The Rookie.
  Fillion has acted in traditionally distributed films like Slither and Trucker, Internet-distributed films like Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, television soap operas, sitcoms and theater. His voice is also featured in video games, such as the Bungie titles Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Destiny and Destiny 2, along with the 343 Industries video game Halo 5: Guardians.
  Fillion first gained recognition for his work on One Life to Live in the contract role of Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series as well as for his supporting role as Johnny Donnelly in the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl.
context_section_description: In March 2009, the first episode of the ABC television series Castle aired, in which Fillion starred as the titular character Richard Castle, a mystery novelist who helps the NYPD solve (frequently bizarre) murders. In May 2009, ABC green-lit the production of the series for a second season. In 2009, Fillion was nominated for Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for his performance in Castle. On March 30, 2010, ABC announced that Castle had been renewed for its third season with a 22-episode full-season order. Castle was renewed for a fourth season on January 10, 2011, a fifth season on May 10, 2012, a sixth season on May 10, 2013, and a seventh season on May 8, 2014. The show was cancelled by ABC in 2016, with the final episode airing on May 16 of that year.
  BuddyTV ranked him #10 on its list of "TV's 100 Sexiest Men of 2009", #19 in 2010, #20 in 2011 and #39 in 2012; #7 on its list of "The 15 Best Drama Lead Actors of the 2011-2012 TV Season"; named his character's relationship with the other main character as #18 (and the Best Flirting Relationship) on its list "Love Is All Around: Best TV Relationships of 2010", #13 (and the Best Delayed Relationship) on its list of "The Best Relationships of 2011", #15 on its list of "The Special Relationships: TV’s Top 50 Love Stories of the Past Decade", #1 on its list "Love... Or Not: The Top 12 Will-They-or-Won't-They Couples of 2012" and #2 on its list "Lip Smacking Good: The Best Kisses of 2012"; named Castle as #6 on its list of "The 11 Best Returning TV Shows of 2011", #11 on "The 15 Best Dramas of the 2011-2012 TV Season" and #12 on "The 12 Best Dramas of 2012".
  Fillion was featured in a spoof porn web video on Spike called "Nailing Your Wife", part of James Gunn's PG Porn series. Fillion made a brief cameo appearance in the season 5 episode "Revolving Doors" of the web series The Guild. In late September 2011, Fillion guest starred as the Action Sports 1 anchor in the web series Husbands. He played Dogberry in the independent film Much Ado About Nothing (2012), based on the Shakespeare play of the same name, written, directed and produced by Joss Whedon.
  Since 2011, Fillion has appeared as the recurring Space Western character Cactoid Jim in performances of the podcasted live show The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a stage show premised on the idea that actors are performing as characters in a radio show. The character of Cactoid Jim first appeared as part of the recurring segment "Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars", but was soon given his own segment, called "Cactoid Jim: King of the Martian Frontier". Fillion has advertised his participation as a guest star on The Thrilling Adventure Hour by means of including filmed elements of the live show on the DVD set for season 4 of Castle.
  In 2012, he appeared in the episode "The Daly Superheroes" of the web series The Daly Show. On February 17, 2013, Fillion hosted the 2013 WGA West Coast Awards.
  In 2014 he appeared in the video game Destiny as the character Cayde-6. Over the next few years his role became larger with expansions to the game. Fillion returned to the role in the 2017 sequel Destiny 2, and featured prominently in the game until his character's death in Forsaken.
  In 2015 and 2016, Fillion worked with Alan Tudyk on a web series called Con Man, loosely based on their experiences on the convention circuit after Firefly.
  In 2017, Fillion was cast in the recurring role of Gary West on the Netflix horror-comedy series Santa Clarita Diet. In the same year, Fillion was cast in the recurring role of Jacques Snicket on the second season of the Netflix comedy drama series A Series of Unfortunate Events.
  In February 2018, Fillion was cast to star as John Nolan in the new ABC TV series The Rookie, which was created by former Castle executive producer Alexi Hawley.
  On July 16, 2018, Fillion and director Allan Ungar released a live action short film based on the Naughty Dog franchise Uncharted. The short immediately went viral and was praised for its witty humor, action, and ability to stay true to the source material.
caption: Fillion at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon
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