Joss Whedon is the middle child of five brothers, with younger siblings Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. Growing up, Whedon was surrounded by a family of writers, as his father Tom Whedon and grandfather John Whedon were both successful television writers. His mother, Lee Stearns, was a history teacher who also wrote novels under the pen name Lee Whedon.
Whedon was raised in New York and attended Riverdale Country School, where his mother taught. He later spent two years at Winchester College in England before graduating with a film degree from Wesleyan University.
After moving to Los Angeles, Whedon landed his first TV writing job on "Roseanne" and went on to script a season of "Parenthood". He then developed a film script that would become the 1992 movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". However, Whedon was unhappy with the final product, as his original script was heavily rewritten and made lighter in tone.
Undeterred, Whedon continued to work in the industry, earning screenwriting credits on high-profile productions such as "Alien Resurrection" (1997) and "Toy Story" (1995),for which he received an Oscar nomination. He also worked as a script doctor on various features, including "Speed" (1994).
In 1997, Whedon had the opportunity to revive his character Buffy in a television series on The WB Network. As showrunner and executive producer, Whedon retained full artistic control and the series became a critical and commercial hit, running for several seasons on The WB and UPN. Whedon also produced a spin-off series, "Angel", which was also successful.
Whedon's next project was the sci-fi television series "Firefly", which developed a cult following but did not stay on air long. However, the show found an audience on DVD and through re-runs, and a spin-off feature film, "Serenity", was released in 2005.
In addition to his work in television, Whedon has also written comic books and worked on various other projects, including the sci-fi drama "Dollhouse" and the screenplay for Marvel blockbuster "The Avengers" (2012).
