Nathan Fillion

**Nathan Fillion** (/ˈfɪliən/; born March 27, 1971)[2][3] is a Canadian-American actor and voice actor, best known for the lead roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds in theFox series *Firefly* and its feature film continuation, *Serenity*, as well as Richard Castle on the ABC series *Castle* and 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 Industriesvideo 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 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series, and for his supporting role as Johnny Donnelly in the sitcom *Two Guys and a Girl*.

## Early Life

Fillion was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the younger of two sons of Robert "Bob" Fillion and June "Cookie" Fillion (née Early),[4] both retired English teachers.[5] Both sides of his father's family were part of the Quebec diaspora in Fall River, Massachusetts,[6][7] and his mother had a Norwegian maternal grandfather and a Finnish maternal grandmother.[4][8]

Fillion was raised in Edmonton's Mill Woods neighborhood[9] and completed his secondary and post-secondary education in Edmonton, attending Holy Trinity Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta, and the University of Alberta, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society.[10] He has been a US citizen since 1997.

## Career

### 1994–2009[edit]

After working in several theatre, television, and film productions, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and the improvised soap opera *Die-Nasty*, Fillion moved to New York City in 1994 where he acted in the soap opera *One Life to Live* as Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series. In 1997, he left the series to pursue other projects (but would return for a brief guest appearance in 2007).[12]

After moving to Los Angeles, he played a supporting role in the sitcom *Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place*, and was cast as James Frederick "The Minnesota" Ryan in Steven Spielberg's *Saving Private Ryan*. Fillion had a recurring role as Caleb in 2003 in the final five episodes of the final season of Joss Whedon's series *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*.

In 2002, Fillion starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the Joss Whedon science fiction television series *Firefly*, for which he won the Cinescape Genre Face of the Future – Male award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Fillion also won the Syfy Genre Awards in 2006 for Best Actor/Television and was runner-up for Best Actor/Movie.[13] Fillion called his time on *Firefly* the best acting job he ever had,[14] and compares every job he has had to it.[15] Although the show was cancelled, it was adapted to the big screen; he reprised his role as Mal in Whedon's movie *Serenity* (2005).

Fillion at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Fillion lent his voice to the animated series *King of the Hill* in 2001, the video game *Jade Empire* (as the voice of Gao the Lesser), and the animated series *Justice League Unlimited* (as Vigilante in the episodes "Hunter's Moon" and "Patriot Act") in 2005-06. He portrayed Green Lantern/Hal Jordan in *Green Lantern: Emerald Knights*, *Justice League: Doom*, *Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox* and *Justice League: Throne of Atlantis* and *The Death of Superman*. Fillion starred in James Gunn's 2006 horror film*Slither*. For his starring role as Bill Pardy, he garnered a 2006 *Fangoria* Chainsaw Awards nomination in the category of *Dude You Don't Wanna Mess With*.[16]

Fillion starred in the romantic comedy film *Waitress*, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2007, and opened in theaters on May 2, 2007. *Waitress* grossed $22,125,001 in worldwide sales as of May 13, 2008, and $29.22 million in rentals as of January 28, 2008.[17][18] Fillion starred in *White Noise 2: The Light*. He made one appearance in the 2006–2007 season of the television show *Lost*, as Kevin, Kate's ex-husband.[19]

In October 2006, Fillion signed a talent holding contract with the Fox Broadcasting Company, and in December 2006, *The Hollywood Reporter*[20] confirmed that Fillion was cast as Alex Tully in the series *Drive*, which debuted on Fox in the spring of 2007. *Drive* was created by Tim Minear. Ivan Sergei played Alex Tully in the original pilot episode of *Drive*. The first two *Drive* episodes premiered on April 13, 2007, in Canada (April 15, 2007 in the United States). However, the show did not deliver the ratings Fox desired, and on April 25, 2007, the network announced that the series was cancelled.[21][22] The final two produced episodes were supposed to air back-to-back on Fox in July 2007 but did not actually become available until July 15 when they were posted on the *Drive* MySpace page.[23]

He reprised his 1990s role as *One Life to Live*'s Joey for the series' 9,999th and 10,000th episodes, aired August 16 and 17, 2007.[24][25][26]

Fillion joined the cast of ABC's *Desperate Housewives* at the beginning of the fall 2007 season as Dr. Adam Mayfair. His first appearance was in the episode "Now You Know", which aired on September 30, 2007. His final appearance was the final episode of season 4.

He voiced the role of an ODST Gunnery sergeant in the Xbox 360 game *Halo 3*, alongside fellow *Firefly* stars Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin. At one point early in the first mission, he identifies himself as "[Sergeant] Reynolds" over the radio, referring to his character's name from the TV series *Firefly*. All three actors are given personalities in the game that match those of their characters from *Firefly*. He provides the voice and portrayed likeness for Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck in *Halo 3: ODST*,[27] *Halo 5: Guardians*, and a brief appearance in *Halo: Reach*.

### 2009–present[edit]

Fillion at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon

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 theNYPD solve crimes. In May 2009, ABC green-lit the production of the series for a second season.[28] 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.[29] *Castle* was renewed for a fourth season on January 10, 2011,[30] a fifth season on May 10, 2012,[31] a sixth season on May 10, 2013,[32] 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.[33]

BuddyTV ranked him #10 on its list of "TV's 100 Sexiest Men of 2009",[34] #19 in 2010,[35] #20 in 2011[36] and #39 in 2012;[37] #7 on its list of "The 15 Best Drama Lead Actors of the 2011-2012 TV Season";[38] 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",[39] #13 (and the Best Delayed Relationship) on its list of "The Best Relationships of 2011",[40] #15 on its list of "The Special Relationships: TV’s Top 50 Love Stories of the Past Decade",[41] #1 on its list "Love... Or Not: The Top 12 Will-They-or-Won't-They Couples of 2012"[42] and #2 on its list "Lip Smacking Good: The Best Kisses of 2012";[43] named *Castle* as #6 on its list of "The 11 Best Returning TV Shows of 2011",[44] #11 on "The 15 Best Dramas of the 2011-2012 TV Season"[45] and #12 on "The 12 Best Dramas of 2012".[46]

Fillion was featured in a spoof porn web video on Spike called "Nailing Your Wife", part of the *PG Porn* series.[47] Fillion made a brief cameo appearance in the season 5 episode "Revolving Doors" of the web series *The Guild*.[48] In late September 2011, Fillion guest starred as the Action Sports 1 anchor in the web series *Husbands*.[49] 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.[50][51]

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*.[52] On February 17, 2013, Fillion hosted the 2013 WGA West Coast Awards.[53]

In 2014 he appeared in the video game Destiny as the character Cayde-6 as a somewhat minor character. Over the next few years his role became larger with expansions to the game. Fillion returned to the role in*Destiny 2*, and is featured prominently in the game.

He is currently working with Alan Tudyk on a web series called *Con Man*, loosely based on their experiences on the convention circuit after *Firefly*.[54]

In 2017, Fillion was cast in the recurring role of Gary West on the Netflix horror-comedy series *Santa Clarita Diet*.[55] 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*.[56]

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. Fans and critics took to social media and began campaigning for Netflix to turn it into a series while referring to it as one of the best adaptations of a video game.