Date of Birth

29 December 1972, Burbank, California, USA

Birth Name

Richard William Wheaton III

Nickname

Uncle Willie
Miltie
Teen Idol

Height

5' 9½" (1.77 m)

Mini Biography

Wil Wheaton was born Richard William Wheaton III on July 29, 1972 in Burbank, California. He first gained international attention by starring in the Rob Reiner comedy-drama film Stand by Me (1986). He then played Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) for three and one-quarter seasons. Wheaton left the Hollywood scene for 18 months to pursue personal video production. He did return to "Star Trek" every now and then for an occasional episode, however. He then returned to Los Angeles, California, attended acting school for five years and now works on many projects. He lives in Arcadia, California with his wife Anne and her two sons.

Trivia

• Family: parents, Rick and Debbie; younger siblings, Jeremy Wheaton, Amy Wheaton.
• Wil's first big break in acting was opposite Bill Cosby in a Jell-O Pudding Pops commercial.
• Loves hockey, magic, juggling, plays golf and plays guitar.
• He said a few lines on Chunky A's (Arsenio Hall's) song "Dope, the Big Lie", which appears on the Chunky A album "Large and in Charge".
• He and wife, Anne, have two sons, Nolan and Ryan Wheaton, from her previous marriage. They live in Los Angeles, California.
• Was once a celebrity spokesman for NewTek company, after leaving Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
• Wil is a life-long fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, and he is also an avid player of video games, which lead to his voice-over role in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).
• He is a posting member of the internet communities Slashdot (slashdot.org) and Reddit (reddit.com). He does interviews on a regular basis and participates in discussion. He also answers private messages.
• Has played as part of the PokerStars.com team in the 2005 World Series of Poker.
• Regained a decent measure of fame after launching his own website, WilWheaton.net, which led to a number of voice acting roles and a new career as a blogger and an author--he has written three memoirs; "Dancing Barefoot" (Monolith Press - 2003), "Just a Geek" (O'Reilly Media - 2004) and "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" (Monolith Press - 2007). All three books are based on his blog.
• According to Wheaton's book "Just a Geek", several of his Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) castmates, including Jonathan Frakes, nicknamed (and still call) him Teen Idol, while Brent Spiner calls him Miltie.
• Was number 62 on VH1's The Greatest: 100 Greatest Kid Stars (2005).
• Was one of the first bloggers and is an avid, active homebrewer.
• He is an active member of the Propeller social news site, where he is a Scout.
• In 1988, Wil Power was the name of his Nickelodeon-based club for all Trek and non-Trek fans.
• Recently designed/created a T-shirt for the one-item-a-day-sale spin-off of woot.com, shirt.woot.com. It is entitled "How We Roll".
• Is the first Star Trek actor and the only cast member of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) to be born after the franchise had begun.
• His first major film role was as a child playing Gordie LaChance in Stand by Me (1986), before taking the role of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). He later returned to the Star Trek franchise by lending his voice to Star Trek (2009). This film featured Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov. Not only are the characters similar, but Yelchin's career parallels that of Wheaton's in another way: he too got his first big role as a child in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), which was also based on a Stephen King story.
• Maintains the active wilwheaton.net, one of the most frequented fansites on the Internet.
• Growing up, he was a huge fan of the original Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) series.
• Signed a 3-book deal with publisher O'Reilly & Associates for books "Dancing Barefoot", "Just a Geek" (expected spring 2004) and "Wil Wheaton's Web Design" (expected summer 2004). [December 2003]
• Terminated his deal with publisher O'Reilly & Associates (2004).
• Wil's maternal grandmother, Norma Aleene Farrington, was born in Colón, Panama. Norma's father, Edwin Flavel Kortright Farrington, had English and French ancestry. Norma's mother, Wil's matrilineal great-grandmother Daphne Silvera, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Sephardi Jewish parents, Theodore Silvera and Deborah Pretto. Wil's other ancestry is English, German, Irish and Welsh.
• Wheaton has statistically improbable bad luck when rolling dice, rolling a 1 nearly 20% of the time on a 20 sided die when playing Dungeons & Dragons on the Critical Role Twitch stream.
• Endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election of the United States.
• Wil Wheaton once said that the only good thing about the movie The Curse (1987) was that his sister Amy Wheaton got a job on it.
• Anne Wheaton and her husband Wil Wheaton both attended the fictional wedding of Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler.
• Is a member of Mensa, the high-IQ society.
• First cousin three times removed of actor Frank Silvera. His great-great-great-grandparents Alexis Silvera and Caroline Aarons are Frank's paternal grandparents.
• Great-grandson of actor and director Frank O'Connor.

Quotes

• [Interview magazine, 2005] I am a huge geek. And Star Trek was a haven for geeks.
• (On his teenage years) I was such a geek that if I could go back in time, I would kick my own ass.
• [on the death of Majel Barrett Roddenberry, December 19, 2008] We always had fun when we were working on Next Generation, but when Majel was on the set, it was a party.
• Fun fact: I hate dancing. It makes me feel self conscious, stupid, uncoordinated, and like a complete idiot. Because I don't particularly enjoy feeling that way, I probably dance once a year, to only one song, and only to make Anne happy when she wants to dance with her husband at whatever thing we've gone to where they have organized dancing.
• [on his frequent appearances on The Big Bang Theory (2007) as "himself"] I'm not really a jerk but I have fun playing one.
• I was obsessed with Ghostbusters (1984).
• Even when I was little, people would always ask me if I wanted to be a movie star, and I would always say, "No, I just want to be an actor."
• If the world were a bar, America would currently be the angry drunk waving around a loaded gun. Yeah, the other people in the bar may be afraid of him, but they sure as hell don't respect him.
• I spent a lot of my childhood not fitting in, in a lot of different ways.
• I guess I'm up to about 70% of normal, which is a real relief. My doctor gave me clearance to go out in public again, so I've been able to go to the store and help out a little bit around the house.
• Even when I was little and going on auditions, it was clear who was there because they wanted to be there, and who was there because their stage parents were making them be there. There was a major difference.
• When you say a 'former child star', you may as well say 'failed child star'.
• People who don't want to give a creator money are never going to give a creator money.
• One of the things that drives me crazy is the belief in Hollywood that bittorrent exists solely for stealing things.
• When you get a group of kids together, especially boys, the psychology of those kids requires that they find a weak kid or a sensitive kid or a soft kid.
• Some ISPs are blocking all BitTorrent traffic, because BitTorrent can be used to share files in a piratical way. Hollywood lobbying groups are trying to pass laws which would force ISPs to block or degrade BitTorrent traffic, too. Personally, I think this is like closing down freeways because a bank robber could use them to get away.
• My wife is the most awesome person in the universe. She's made this experience much less miserable for me, with her compassion, patience and understanding.
• I've done a lot of geeky things in my life, but I think the geekiest of all was my first effort to build props and cosplay, when I was about twelve years-old.
• I would love to find myself in a position where I have to decide, "Gosh, do I want to be on a series?".
• [From blog posting about a "Shark Week" show, August 2013] Discovery Channel betrayed [its audience's] trust during its biggest viewing week of the year. Discovery Channel isn't run by stupid people, and this was not some kind of a mistake. Someone made a deliberate choice to present a work of fiction that is more suited for the Syfy channel as a truthful and factual documentary. That is disgusting.
• I loved Galaxy Quest (1999). I thought it was brilliant satire, not only of Trek, but of fandom in general. The only thing I wish they had done was cast me in it, and have me play a freaky fanboy who keeps screaming at the actor who played "the kid" about how awful it was that there was a kid on the spaceship. Alas.
• When I saw Galaxy Quest (1999), I remembered how much fun I used to have at conventions, and I missed it. I missed the interaction with the fans. I missed the chance to tell stories about my life on TNG... but mostly, I missed the sex. The hot, Klingon-forehead-wearing fansex.