Will Wheaton

Writer

Blogger

Voice Actor

The Big Bang Theory

**Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III** (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor, television personality, blogger, voice 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 roles as Aqualad in *Teen Titans*, Cosmic Boy on the *Legion of Super Heroes* and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the *Ben 10* universe. He has also regularly appeared 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 is also the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show *TableTop*.

He voiced Cobalt Esmund

## 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.[2][3][4] He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy.[5] Both appeared uncredited in the *Star Trek: The Next Generation* episode "When the Bough Breaks".[6] Amy also appeared alongside Wil in the 1987 film *The Curse*.[7]

## Career

### Early work

Wheaton made his acting debut in the television film *A Long Way Home* (1981), and his first cinema role was as Martin Brisby in the animated film *The Secret of NIMH* (1982), the movie adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's book *Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH* (1971). He had a minor role in *The Last Starfighter* (1984) as Louis's friend, but it was cut.

He first gained widespread attention for playing Gordie Lachance in *Stand by Me* (1986), the film adaptation of Stephen King's novella *The Body* which was originally published in 1982's *Different Seasons*.[8][9][10]

### *Star Trek*

He played Wesley Crusher for the first four seasons of *Star Trek: The Next Generation*, from 1987 to 1991. This became a recurring role later in the series. A vocal group of Trekkies disliked his *Star Trek* character and, by extension, Wheaton himself. Wheaton commented about his critics in an interview for WebTalk Radio:

Wheaton's notoriety among *Star Trek* fandom is covered in a number of web comics. For example, *ArcaneTimes* (March 25, 2005) offers a sympathetic position;[12] *Something Positive* presents a range of opinions on the storyline *Mike's Kid*;[13] and *Abstruse Goose* tries to distinguish between the character and the actor.[14]

### Post-*Star Trek*

Wil 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[15][16] and later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product.[17] Wheaton said this was a period of growth in his life, and living away from Los Angeles helped him deal with anger problems.

Afterward, he returned to Los Angeles, attended acting school for five years, and then re-entered the acting world.[18][19] 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.[*citation needed*] For his performance in *Jane White Is Sick & Twisted* (2002) he received the Best Actor award at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival.[*citation needed*]

### Voice work

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*, Hans in *Slayers Evolution-R*, Aaron Terzieff in *Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn*. 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".[20][21] Wheaton and Frontalot have both appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).[*citation needed*]

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.