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Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion by Gage Skidmore 3.jpg
Fillion at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con
Born (1971-03-27) March 27, 1971 (age 53)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Citizenship
  • Canada
  • United States
Education
  • Concordia University of Edmonton
  • University of Alberta
Occupation Actor
Years active 1993–present

Nathan Fillion (born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on Firefly and its film continuation Serenity, and Richard Castle on Castle. As of 2018, he stars as John Nolan on The Rookie and is an executive producer on the show as well as its spin-off series, The Rookie: Feds.

Fillion has acted in traditionally distributed films like Slither and Trucker, Internet-distributed films like Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, television soap operas, sitcoms and theatre. His voice is also featured in animation and video games, such as the Bungie games Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Destiny and Destiny 2, along with the 343 Industries game Halo 5: Guardians, and M.O.D.O.K. (2021).

Fillion first gained recognition for his work on One Life to Live in the contract role of Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series, as well as for his supporting role as Johnny Donnelly in the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl.

Early life

Fillion was born on March 27, 1971, in Edmonton, Alberta, the younger of two sons of Robert "Bob" Fillion and June "Cookie" Early, both retired English teachers. Both sides of his father's family were part of the Quebec diaspora in Fall River, Massachusetts, and his mother had a Norwegian maternal grandfather and a Finnish maternal grandmother.

Fillion was raised in Edmonton's Mill Woods neighbourhood and completed his secondary and post-secondary education in Edmonton, attending Holy Trinity Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta, and the University of Alberta, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society. He has been a U.S. citizen since 1997.

Career

1994–2009

After working in several theatre, television, and film productions, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty, Fillion moved to New York City in 1994 where he acted in the soap opera One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series. In 1997, he left the series to pursue other projects (returning for a brief guest appearance in 2007).

After moving to Los Angeles, he played a supporting role in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, and was cast as James Frederick "The Minnesota" Ryan in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.

In 2002, Fillion starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the Joss Whedon science fiction television series Firefly, for which he won the Cinescape Genre Face of the Future – Male award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Fillion also won the Syfy Genre Awards in 2006 for Best Actor/Television and was runner-up for Best Actor/Movie. Fillion called his time on Firefly the best acting job he ever had, and compares every job he has had to it. Although the show was cancelled, it was adapted to the big screen; he reprised his role as Mal in Whedon's movie Serenity (2005).

In 2003, Fillion had a recurring role as Caleb in the final five episodes of Joss Whedon's series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Nathan Fillion by Gage Skidmore
Fillion at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Fillion lent his voice to the animated series King of the Hill in 2001, the video game Jade Empire (as the voice of Gao the Lesser), and the animated series Justice League Unlimited (as Vigilante in the episodes "Hunter's Moon" and "Patriot Act") in 2005–06. He portrayed Green Lantern/Hal Jordan in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, Justice League: Doom, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis and The Death of Superman. Fillion starred in James Gunn's 2006 horror film Slither. For his starring role as Bill Pardy, he garnered a 2006 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards nomination in the category of Dude You Don't Wanna Mess With.

Fillion starred in the romantic comedy film Waitress, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2007, and opened in theaters on May 2, 2007. Fillion starred in White Noise 2: The Light. He made one appearance in the 2006–2007 season of the television show Lost, as Kevin, Kate's ex-husband.

In October 2006, Fillion signed a talent holding contract with the Fox Broadcasting Company, and in December 2006, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Fillion was cast as Alex Tully in the series Drive, which debuted on Fox in the spring of 2007. Drive was created by Tim Minear. Ivan Sergei played Alex Tully in the original pilot episode of Drive. The first two Drive episodes premiered on April 13, 2007, in Canada (April 15, 2007, in the United States). However, the show did not deliver the ratings Fox desired, and on April 25, 2007, the network announced that the series was cancelled. The final two produced episodes were supposed to air back-to-back on Fox in July 2007 but did not actually become available until July 15 when they were posted on the Drive MySpace page.

Fillion reprised his 1990s role as One Life to Live's Joey for the series' 9,999th and 10,000th episodes, aired August 16 and 17, 2007.

Fillion joined the cast of ABC's Desperate Housewives at the beginning of the fall 2007 season (season 4), portraying Dr. Adam Mayfair. His first appearance was in the episode "Now You Know", which aired on September 30, 2007. His final appearance was the final episode of season 4, in 2008.

Fillion voiced the role of an ODST Gunnery sergeant in the Xbox 360 game Halo 3, alongside fellow Firefly stars Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin. At one point early in the first mission, he identifies himself as "[Sergeant] Reynolds" over the radio, referring to his character's name from the TV series Firefly. All three actors are given personalities in the game that match those of their characters from Firefly. He provides the voice, portrayed likeness, and motion capture performance for Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck in Halo 3: ODST, Halo 5: Guardians, and a brief appearance in Halo: Reach.

2009–2018

Nathan Fillion by Gage Skidmore 2
Fillion at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon

In March 2009, the first episode of the ABC television series Castle aired, in which Fillion starred as the titular character Richard Castle, a mystery novelist who helps the NYPD solve (frequently bizarre) murders. In 2009, Fillion was nominated for Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for his performance in Castle. The show was cancelled by ABC in 2016, with the final episode airing on May 16 of that year.

..... Fillion made a brief cameo appearance in the season 5 episode "Revolving Doors" of the web series The Guild. In late September 2011, Fillion guest starred as the Action Sports 1 anchor in the web series Husbands. He played Dogberry in the independent film Much Ado About Nothing (2012), based on the Shakespeare play of the same name, written, directed and produced by Joss Whedon.

Since 2011, Fillion has appeared as the recurring Space Western character Cactoid Jim in performances of the podcasted live show The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a stage show premised on the idea that actors are performing as characters in a radio show. The character of Cactoid Jim first appeared as part of the recurring segment "Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars", but was soon given his own segment, called "Cactoid Jim: King of the Martian Frontier". Fillion has advertised his participation as a guest star on The Thrilling Adventure Hour by means of including filmed elements of the live show on the DVD set for season 4 of Castle.

In 2012, he appeared in the episode "The Daly Superheroes" of the web series The Daly Show. On February 17, 2013, Fillion hosted the 2013 WGA West Coast Awards.

In 2014 he appeared in the video game Destiny as the character Cayde-6. Over the next few years his role became larger with expansions to the game. Fillion returned to the role in the 2017 sequel Destiny 2, and featured prominently in the game until the release of Forsaken, where the character was instead voiced by Nolan North up to his death.

In 2015 and 2016, Fillion worked with Alan Tudyk on a web series called Con Man, loosely based on their experiences on the convention circuit after Firefly.

In 2017, Fillion was cast in the recurring role of Gary West on the Netflix horror-comedy series Santa Clarita Diet. In the same year, Fillion was cast in the recurring role of Jacques Snicket on the second season of the Netflix comedy drama series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

In February 2018, Fillion was cast to star as John Nolan in the new ABC TV series The Rookie, which was created by former Castle executive producer Alexi Hawley.

On July 16, 2018, Fillion and director Allan Ungar released a live action short film based on the Naughty Dog franchise Uncharted. The short immediately went viral and was praised for its witty humor, action, and ability to stay true to the source material. Fans and critics took to social media and began campaigning for Netflix to turn it into a series while referring to it as one of the best adaptations of a video game.

2018–Present

After a few years of various TV work, Fillion began making more film appearances, mostly in James Gunn superhero films, playing supporting roles such as T.D.K. in The Suicide Squad, Master Karja in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and in 2023 he was cast as Guy Gardner/Green Lantern in Gunn’s DCU. He is also set to star alongside Elizabeth Banks in the upcoming film Skincare.

Philanthropy

In 2007, Fillion and author PJ Haarsma co-founded the non-profit organization Kids Need to Read, to help inspire children's imaginations by getting more books into underfunded libraries.

Fillion's association with Charity: Water garnered over $60,000 worth of donations in 2019.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1994 Strange and Rich Walter Hoade
1998 Saving Private Ryan Pvt. James Frederick "Minnesota" Ryan
1999 Blast from the Past Cliff
2000 Dracula 2000 Father David
2003 Water's Edge Robert Graves
2004 Outing Riley Luke Riley
2005 Serenity Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds
2006 Slither Bill Pardy
2007 White Noise 2: The Light Abe Dale
Waitress Dr. Jim Pomatter
2008 Trucker Runner
2009 Wonder Woman Steve Trevor Voice, direct-to-video
2010 Super The Holy Avenger
2011 Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Hal Jordan / Green Lantern Voice, direct-to-video
2012 Justice League: Doom
Much Ado About Nothing Dogberry
2013 Monsters University Johnny Worthington III Voice
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox Hal Jordan / Green Lantern Voice, direct-to-video
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Hermes
2014 Party Central Johnny Worthington III Voice, short film
Guardians of the Galaxy Blue Alien Prisoner Voice, cameo
2015 Justice League: Throne of Atlantis Hal Jordan / Green Lantern Voice, direct-to-video
Highway of Tears Narrator Voice, documentary
Being Canadian Himself Documentary
2017 Yamasong: March of the Hollows Shojun
Cars 3 Sterling Voice
2018 The Death of Superman Hal Jordan / Green Lantern Voice, direct-to-video
Henchmen Captain Superior Voice
Night Hunter Matthew Quinn
2019 Reign of the Supermen Hal Jordan / Green Lantern Voice, direct-to-video
2021 The Suicide Squad Cory Pitzner / T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid)
2023 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Master Karja
TBA Skincare Post-production

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1993 Ordeal in the Arctic Master Warrant Officer Tom Jardine Television film
1994–1997, 2007 One Life to Live Joey Buchanan
1996 Spin City Guy Uncredited
Episode: "A Star Is Born"
1997 Total Security Troy Larson Episode: "Das Bootie"
1998 Maggie Winters Ronald Episode: "Mama's Got a Brand New Bag"
1998–2001 Two Guys and a Girl Johnny Donnelly 60 episodes
1999 Outer Limits, TheThe Outer Limits Michael Ryan Episode: "Star Crossed"
2001 King of the Hill Frisbee Guy Voice, episode: "Luanne Virgin 2.0"
2002 Pasadena Rev. Glenn Collins 3 episodes
2002 Firefly Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds Main role
14 episodes
2003 Alligator Point Bill Pilot
2003 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Caleb 5 episodes
2003 Miss Match Adam Logan 6 episodes
2004 Hollywood Division Det. Tommy Garrett Pilot
2005–2006 Justice League Unlimited Vigilante Voice, 3 episodes
2006 Lost Kevin Callis Episode: "I Do"
2007 Drive Alex Tully 6 episodes
2007–2014 Robot Chicken Various Voices 5 episodes
2007–2008 Desperate Housewives Dr. Adam Mayfair 12 episodes
2009–2016 Castle Richard Castle Main role, 173 episodes
2010–2018 Venture Bros., TheThe Venture Bros. Brown Widow Voice, 4 episodes
2012 American Dad! Joel Larson, Liver, American Businessman Klaus Voice, 2 episodes
2013 Writers Guild of America Awards 2012 Himself (host) Television special
2014–2015 Community Bob Waite 2 episodes
2014–2016 Gravity Falls Preston Northwest Voice, 5 episodes
2015 The Big Bang Theory Himself Episode: "The Comic Book Store Regeneration"
2015 Kroll Show Mountie McMinniman Episode: "Twins"
2015 ... History Wernher von Braun Episode: "Space"
2016 HarmonQuest Tetter Spice Episode: "Earthscar Village"
2016–2018 Modern Family Rainer Shine 7 episodes
2017–2018 Santa Clarita Diet Gary West 6 episodes
2017 Rick and Morty Cornvelious Daniel Voice, episode: "The Rickshank Rickdemption"
2017 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Mark Deveraux Episode: "Serve & Protect"
2017–present Big Mouth Himself, Jessi's Dog Voice, 9 episodes
2018 A Series of Unfortunate Events Jacques Snicket 10 episodes
2018 The Magic School Bus Rides Again Axle ValveStuck Voice, episode: "Waste Not, Want Not"
2018 American Housewife Himself 2 episodes
2018–present The Rookie John Nolan Main role
Also executive producer
2021 Resident Alien Number 42 – Octopus in tank Voice, 6 episodes
2021 M.O.D.O.K. Wonder Man Voice, episode: "This Man... This Makeover!"
2022 The Recruit CIA Director Episode : "W.T.F.I.O.H"
2022–2023 The Rookie: Feds John Nolan 3 episodes
2024 Monsters at Work Johnny Worthington III Voice

Web

Year Title Role Notes
2008 Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Captain Hammer Internet miniseries
2008 James Gunn's PG ... Chris Episode: "Nailing Your Wife"
2011 Morning After, TheThe Morning After Himself Episode: "1.173"
2011 The Guild Himself Episode: "Revolving Doors"
2011 Kevin Pollak's Chat Show Himself Episode: "100"
2011 Husbands Anchor Episode: "Being Britney!"
2012 Neil's Puppet Dreams Dr. Mayfair Episode: "Doctor's Office"
2013 BriTANicK Himself/'Two Ugly Guys and a Dog' Episode: "... Pool Party"
2015–2017 Con Man Jack Moore 17 episodes
Also executive producer
2018 Uncharted Live Action Fan Film Nathan Drake Also producer

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
2005 Jade Empire Gao the Lesser
2007 Halo 3 Sergeant Reynolds
2009 Halo 3: ODST Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck Voice and likeness
2010 Halo: Reach
2014 Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff Himself
2014 Destiny Cayde-6
2015 Saints Row: Gat out of Hell God
2015 Destiny: The Taken King Cayde-6
2015 Halo 5: Guardians Spartan Edward Buck Also likeness and motion capture
2017 Destiny 2 Cayde-6
2023 Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Bodega Cat
2024 Destiny 2: The Final Shape Cayde-6

Audio books

Year Title Role
2013 World War Z Stanley McDonald
2020 The Salvage Crew Narrator

Podcast

Year Title Role Notes
2021 Bridgewater Thomas Bradshaw 7 episodes

Accolades

Year Nominated work Association Category Result Ref.
1996 One Life to Live Daytime Emmy Award Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series Nominated
Soap Opera Digest Award Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Younger Leading Actor Nominated
2003 Firefly Saturn Award Saturn Award for Cinescape Genre Face of the Future – Male Won
2005 Serenity SFX Award SFX Award for Best Actor Won
Empire Awards Empire Award for Best Newcomer Nominated
Online Film Critics Society Awards Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated
2007 Desperate Housewives Screen Actors Guild Award Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Nominated
Waitress EDA Award EDA Award for Best ... (with Keri Russell) Nominated
2009 Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Streamy Awards Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series Nominated
Castle Satellite Awards Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama Nominated
2010 PG ... Streamy Awards Streamy Awards for Best Guest Star in a Web Series Nominated
2011 Castle TV Guide Award TV Guide Award for Favorite Couple Who Should Get Together (with Stana Katic) Won
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Behind the Voice Actors Award Behind the Voice Actors Award for Best Male Vocal Performance in a TV Special/Direct-to-DVD Title of Theatrical Short Nominated
2012 Castle TV Guide Award TV Guide Award for Favorite TV Couple (with Stana Katic) Won
People's Choice Award People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Drama Actor Won
2013 TV Guide Award TV Guide Award for Favorite TV Couple (with Stana Katic) Won
People's Choice Award People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor Won
2014 TV Guide Award TV Guide Award for Favorite Actor Nominated
People's Choice Award People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Chemistry (with Stana Katic) Nominated
2015 People's Choice Award People's Choice Award for Favorite Crime Drama TV Actor Won
People's Choice Award People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Duo (with Stana Katic) Nominated
2016 People's Choice Award People's Choice Award for Favorite Crime Drama TV Actor Won

See also

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