NICHOLAS BRENDON

'Nicholas Brendon' (born April 12, 1971 as 'Nicholas Brendon Schultz' in Los Angeles, California), is an actor best known for his character Xander Harris in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997-2003). He has an identical twin brother named Kelly Donovan.

Contents

Biography

Recent history

Filmography

Television

External links

Biography

When he was younger he had aspirations to be a professional baseball player, but was forced to give up the dream after an arm injury. At the age of 20 he decided to get into acting to help him get over his stuttering problem, but gave it up after two years because, "I 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 being a plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, day care counselor, waiter, and a production assistant for the TV show ''Dave's World''. He gave acting another try after being fired from many of these jobs. It only took two months of auditioning before he landed his role of Xander on Buffy.
This role was initially that of the occasional comic relief and plucky sidekick to the lead female characters, but after the earlier seasons less comedic lines were given to the part.
Brendon 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 2000-2003.

Recent history

On April 25, 2004 at a Buffy fan convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Brendon announced that he had voluntarily entered rehab for alcoholism.
In 2005, 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.
Brendon has an identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan, who is three minutes older than he, and served as his occasional stand-in on Buffy. Kelly also played the part of Xander’s double in the episode "The Replacement" and when Nicholas fell sick with pneumonia, he played Xander in most of the episode "Intervention".
He played for season 2 (2006-2007) of the animated series ''. The series ended on September 1, 2007. His character's final appearance was in the episode ''Shaggy Frog'', which aired on April 28, 2007.
Brendon co-starred in the play ''Lobster Alice'' with Noah Wyle in Los Angeles from July 26 through August 30, 2006.
He is also featured in the ABC Family TV movie ''Relative Chaos'', which reunited him with former Buffy on-screen sweetheart, Charisma Carpenter.
He recently announced that he and actress Tressa di Figlia are divorcing.

Filmography

★ ''Psycho Beach Party'' (2000) as Starcat

★ ''Demon Island'' (a.k.a. ''Pinata: Survival Island'') (2002) as Kyle

★ ''Unholy'' (2007) as Lucas

Television

★ ''Married... With Children'' (1993) as Guy In Ray-Ray's Gang

★ ''Dave's World'' (1995), Guest star

★ ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997-2003) as Xander Harris

★ ''The Pool at Maddy Breakers'' (pilot) (2003)

★ ''Celeste in the City'' (2004) as Dana (Blodgett) Harrison

★ ''Kitchen Confidential'' (2005) as Seth Richman

★ '' (2006) as Huntsboy No. 89

★ ''Relative Chaos'' (2006) as Gil Gilbert

★ ''Fire Serpent'' (2007) as Jake Relm

External links

★ Nicholas Brendon's site

★ Stuttering Foundation site

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★ PopGurls 20 Questions with Nicholas Brendon