Wil Wheaton loves to tell stories. He’s been doing it his whole life.
By age ten, he had already been acting for three years. In 1986, at age 12, he earned critical acclaim as Gordie Lachance in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me; at 14, he began his four-year turn as Wesley Crusher on the hit TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Since then, Wil has appeared in dozens of films and TV series, with recurring roles on TNT’s Leverage, SyFy’s Eureka, and the hit webseries The Guild. He is the creator, producer, and host of the wildly successful webseries Tabletop, credited with reigniting national interest in tabletop gaming. Most recently, he played a fictionalized version of himself on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, one of the most highly rated and watched sitcoms of the last decade.
An accomplished voice actor, Wil has lent his talents to animated series including Family Guy, Teen Titans, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. His video game credits include four installments each of the Grand Theft Auto and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series, as well as Fallout: New Vegas, DC Universe Online, and Broken Age.
His audiobook narration of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and was one of Goodreads’ 10 Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time. He has also lent his voice to titles by John Scalzi, Randall Munroe, and Joe Hill.
When he isn’t acting, narrating, or podcasting, Wil Wheaton is writing.
A lot.
He is the author of Just A Geek, Dancing Barefoot, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Hunter, and Dead Trees Give No Shelter, plus a forthcoming novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. He has contributed columns to Salon.com, The A.V. Club, LA Weekly, Playboy, The Washington Post, and the Suicide Girls Newswire.
In recent years, Wil has earned recognition as an outspoken mental health advocate, chronicling his own journey in his blog and as a public speaker for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. His powerful, candid essay about his struggle with chronic depression and anxiety garnered national attention.
Wil lives in Los Angeles with his badass, irrepressible wife Anne, two rescued dogs, one cat, and two vintage arcade cabinets. If you’re not a robot, you can reach him at: wil at wilwheaton dot net.
Wil Wheaton is also an inspiration to other creators who struggle. Wil has created a beloved Meme on the internet with his phrase “Don’t be a Jerk” that inspires others to do better.
Thank you Wil, you are the best!
I think it’s “Don’t be a dick”.
Congrats on all of your accomplishments! Here’s to many more to come!
Nicely done!
What wonderful accomplishments!
I appreciate everything you do !
Wil, My daughters first saw you on Tabletop and loved your work there. To surprise them I pulled out Stand By Me and let them watch without pointing out that it was you playing Gordie. It wasn’t until the leeches scene that my older daughter realized it was you and it blew her mind.
I have decided against showing them Toy Soldiers, I’m not sure they could handle your on-screen death.
I wish you the best!
You’ve gotta be proud of all that! Nice bio!
When you see it all in one place, it boggles the mind how much you’ve accomplished and how much humor, good will, and kindness you’ve put out into the world. Can’t wait to see what you do next.
What a well-written and extremely impressive resume! Ever onward to bigger and better!
Nice bio.
Except wait, how did I not notice that you’d voiced “Fallout: New Vegas”? … GUESS I’LL JUST HAVE TO DO A(nother) REPLAY OF THE GAME.
He voiced the Robobrains in New Vegas
As impressive as your bio is, and it’s magnificent, I’m absolutely convinced that there will be a whole long list of accomplishments in the future. (No pressure!!! lol) I believe it is an innate quality that you create, contribute and express in all you become involved, and we are the lucky recipients of your efforts. I definitely claim no ownership of your friendship, but I’m compelled to say that I’m so proud of you. You’re a beautiful and talented person in every way.
That’s a nice list. I think that reading this post to yourself might be something to add to your “dealing with depression” toolkit.
Nice read , Nice to be to involved beyond normal standards . Keep on Keeping on
You’re a survivor, man. As you can see, there are many of us who saw you “back in the day” who can be justly proud that you, and we, are here today doing our thing. Keep doing yours.
Will has been an amazing roll model from growing up watching Star Trek to Table Top. Keep it up 🙂
My husband and l are currently listening to Wil reading “Agent to the Stars” on audible. Wil is AMAZING in it. WORLD’S BEST AUDIOBOOK READER. When we are finished with it, I will be searching for anything read by him.
I highly recommend Ready Player One and Redshirts. Wil narrates both and is amazing at both!
That’s a resume to be celebrated, for sure! And don’t forget the most important achievement of all: You’re a kind and thoughtful human being.
Best…bio…ever ! Welcome (however briefly) to being a member of the I’m-an-awesome-person club, and learning to accept and enjoy it more often!
The link for your mental health comes up as not found
https://medium.com/@wilw/my-name-is-wil-wheaton-i-live-with-chronic-depression-and-generalized-anxiety-i-am-not-ashamed-8f693f9c0af1
It’s a grand bio, Wil! Wholly accurate!
I knew most of this information but LOVED reading about it all. I’m a huge fan among so many, and I love that you keep on keepin’ on!
👏👏👏
I love it!
WOW! GREAT Bio! I actually Did a Cut and Past to save this {along with ALL of the e-mail messages I get from your blog! 🙂 } Because THIS is a WONDER Way to do a Resume as well as a personal “Bio”. You HAVE Accomplished ALOT in your life and I’m looking forward to WHATEVER ELSE you do!
Wil, I’m almost 55 yrs. old. As a LIFE LONG Sufferer of Depression and Bi-Polarism I TOO understand the thing you have gone through AND Come out STRONGER Because of OR in SPITE Of! I’ve been a HUGE Fan since ST-TNG and Stand by Me and will CONTINUE to be a Fan!
It was my oldest Grand Son that turned me onto “TABLE TOP” and we watch it EVERY WEEK! GREAT SHOW! And BECAUSE of that show Between HIS House and MINE… We NOW own a STORE’S WORTH of GREAT GAMES! PLEASE Keep going with that! It’s a GREAT SHOW!
AND You all have SO MUCH FUN Playing those games and WE Have SO MUCH FUN Watching you!
What else can I say… Whether you want to hear it or NOT… you really have become somewhat of a HERO to MANY OF US, Young AND OLD alike!
Thanks for all the “COOLNESS” You do!
What about ‘Dark Matter’? 🙁
You probably won’t remember but I met you while I was working at FAO Schwarz in the late 90s. You took time to chitchat and gave me your autograph that read “Thanks for watching Star Trek”. I suffer from anxiety/depression and applaud you for your work regarding these issues. Thank you.
Wait, but I AM a robot. Sort of. What would you call a 400 year old AI in an 80-ton engine of destruction?
You need to add “not afraid to tell the truth about bullies and dictators and other things that threaten humanity as a whole”. One of your best accomplishments!
Nice, sir. Btw heard you saw The Ramones/ Spector play more than once. Got hip to it and Mr JR Booie via a great podcast parsing every Forest Hills Fabs song, and the guy who played Johnny mentioned you.
More RFB, please!!?
Hi Wil,
I’m curious about your process for creating this.
I’ve found writing about one’s self to be so hard, trying to strike the right notes of honesty, reality, pride and self-deprecating humor (“humble-brags”). I once had to do a bio for a talk I gave. It took longer to prepare than the talk itself, and I never liked it. Then I was interviewed for a “member profile” for our triathlon club newsletter. Every word was mine, just properly edited with only prompts added. Everyone loved it. I totally cribbed the entire thing as the base for my current bio.
How did you put your bio together?
Badass wife!! You got that right!
You are a prime example of the tortoise winning the race, You got off to a high-profile start and after a lime-light letdown at a very young age, you continued to plod along with your energetic passion for writing and the arts as your turtle’s-gait. You now have a long trail of accomplishments to your credit and the bear the wise vestige of the seasoned tortoise. I am happy for your success.
Oh good, it was just your average Tuesday and I was wondering what your bio was looking like these days…
Wait, you narrated Monroe‘s books? I need to listen to them! I only read them due to his drawings, but they’re good enough to go through them again!
I can only encourage you. I haven’t heard “How To” (yet) but Wheaton was great at narrating “What If?”.
That is a pretty nifty resume,Wil. I hope it leads to another project very,very soon.
Such a lovely bio for a lovely person!!
Which arcade games?
Wil, thank you so much for sharing. Writing bios is so difficult. Yours is lean, honest, positive and you made me smile! A perfect pitch. I wish I could say the same about mine. Must drag that monster out of my drawer and have a look at it.
Wil, that is a great bio and I too like your audiobook narration. I think, however, you have a small typo as I think it is “Randall Munroe”.
“How To” is a great read! I have enjoyed every single one of Wil’s narrations so far, so I don’t doubt that “What If” will be good too!
It’s good to be reminded of so many of the great things you have done, it’s like catching up with an old friend.
“His audiobook narration of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One… was one of Goodreads’ 10 Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time.”
Couldn’t agree more with that one. Turned a book that was a perfect 10 on it’s own, into an 11.
Medium link is sending back a 404. FYI.
You neglected to include giving the world “Wheaton’s Law” and what would Sheldon say to that rampant anti-robot discrimination? 😉
Needs more sweater.
Great Bio! I have always enjoyed everything I have seen or heard you in/on. Congrats and I look forward to more from you.
Don’t you just love this? Suddenly seeing everything written down? The mess of memories and impressions, good and bad reduced to your accomplishments.
Hi Wil, today’s an interesting milestone: If the public record is correct, then today you are the same age that Patrick Stewart was on the day that TNG first aired.
Hey I found this friendly meme regarding you and wanted to pass it on.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarTrekShitposting/permalink/2192806924356962/