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Producer · Actor · Writer

1972-07-29 · Burbank, California, USA · Male

59 series in the catalog

Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American 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 voice acting roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy in Legion of Super Heroes, Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH, and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 franchise's original continuity. He appeared frequently as a fictionalized version of himself on the 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 was the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop. He has narrated numerous audio books, including Ready Player One and The Martian.

Early life

Richard William Wheaton III 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. He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy, both of whom appeared uncredited in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks". Amy appeared alongside Wil in the 1987 film The Curse.

As an adult, Wheaton described his father as being emotionally abusive and sometimes physically abusive to him as a child and his mother as being an enabler of that abuse. He also stated that his parents forced him to become an actor. In a 2021 interview, he said that his father was a bully who openly loved his brother and sister more than him. In 2023, he claimed that his parents stole his childhood earnings.

Acting career

Early work and Stand by Me

Wheaton made his acting debut with a small role in the television film A Long Way Home (1981), which starred Timothy Hutton and Rosanna Arquette. He voiced the character of Martin in the animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982), the film adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971). Wheaton also appeared in Hambone and Hillie (1983), The Buddy System (1984) (opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon), and The Last Starfighter. He had a few lines in Starfighter that were ultimately cut from the theatrical release, but Wheaton is still visible in several scenes.

Wheaton first gained widespread attention for his work in Stand by Me (1986), the film adaptation of Stephen King's novella The Body. In Stand by Me, Wheaton played the lead role of Gordie Lachance, a 12-year-old storyteller mourning the loss of his elder brother. In her review of the film, Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Wheaton makes Gordie's 'sensitivity' tangible, but not effete. He's a gem". In addition to being successful at the box office, Stand by Me was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and became known as a coming-of-age classic.

Star Trek

Wheaton played Wesley Crusher during the first four seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a "boy genius and Starfleet hopeful" who creator Gene Roddenberry based on himself. He appeared in an additional four episodes of the remaining three seasons. The character is seen as one of the most "polarizing" in the franchise; while many Star Trek fans love Wesley, others are vocal about their hatred of him. Wheaton commented on his critics in a 2004 interview for WebTalk Radio:

Later, I determined that the people who were really, really cruel – like the Usenet weenies – really are a statistically insignificant number of people. And I know, just over the years from people who've e-mailed me at my website and people who I've talked to since I started going to Star Trek conventions again in the last five years, that there are so many more people who really enjoyed everything about the show, including my performance, including the character.

He left the series due to concerns over how the production team addressed a scheduling conflict related to his wish to appear in the 1989 film Valmont.

Wheaton returned to Star Trek in 2002, 2022 and 2024, reprising his Wesley Crusher role in cameo appearances in Star Trek: Nemesis, the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Picard, and as a voice actor in the second season of the animated show Star Trek: Prodigy.

Post-Star Trek

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 and later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product.

Afterward, he returned to Los Angeles, attended acting school for five years, and then re-entered the acting world.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wheaton appeared in several independent films, including the short film The Good Things (2001), in which he portrays a frustrated Kansas tollbooth worker. For his performance in Jane White Is Sick & Twisted (2002) he received the award for Best Actor at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

Wheaton regularly portrayed a fictionalized version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, becoming a recurring guest star and then side character on the show.

He also appears in a The Big Bang Theory spin-off, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, again as himself, as the viewer follows the continued story through different universes.

In June 2024, Wheaton announced that he was retired from on-screen acting.

Voice work

Wheaton is known for his voice acting career. He voiced the role of Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH in 1981. Wheaton voiced the villainous John Juniper in the 2021 video game, I Expect You to Die 2: The Spy and the Liar.

Television and web

In 2010, Wheaton appeared in 12 episodes in a recurring, guest-starring role on Eureka, playing Dr. Isaac Parrish, the head of the Non-Lethal Weapons Lab at Global Dynamics and a thorn in Fargo's side. Wheaton also voices the character of the former scoutmaster and current sous-chef Earl Harlan in the podcast Welcome to Night Vale.

Hosting

From September 2006 to September 2007, Wheaton hosted a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and Hahn Choi. He hosted a NASA video on the Mars Curiosity rover which landed on Monday August 6, 2012. He has hosted "2nd Watch", interviews with cast members and producers of the science-fiction series Falling Skies that appears online after each episode. On April 3, 2014, Wheaton announced on his blog that his new show called The Wil Wheaton Project would premiere on the SyFy network at 10 pm on May 27 for an initial projected run of twelve episodes. However, on August 29, Wheaton blogged that SyFy canceled the show after only one season. Wheaton has hosted the Star Trek aftershow The Ready Room since the second season in 2020.

Games

Wheaton is a Dungeons & Dragons player, and played during the PAX 2010 event using the 4th edition rules. Wheaton, along with webcartoonists Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade, and Scott Kurtz of PvP, played in front of a live audience. The game was hosted and recorded by Wizards of the Coast with Chris Perkins as the dungeonmaster.

Wheaton starred in the Kickstarter-funded game There Came an Echo by Iridium Studios. In Dungeons and Dragons Online, he became the dungeon master of the Temple of Elemental Evil quests.

Nintendo of America announced on Twitter that Wheaton would be voicing Abraham Lincoln in Code Name: STEAM. Wheaton does the voice narration on the Secret Hitler companion app for the Secret Hitler social deduction game.

Wheaton has spoken out against misogyny in video game culture, and wrote a profile of Anita Sarkeesian for the 2015 Time 100.

Comic book

A fictionalized version of Wheaton was included in the comic book PS 238, in which he harbors the power of telekinesis. Wheaton's debut comic book The Guild: Fawkes, which he wrote alongside Felicia Day, was…