Nicholas Brendon

At 53 years old, Nicholas Brendon has this physical status:

Nicholas Brendon Schultz (born April 12, 1971) is an American actor and writer.

He is best known for his role in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and Kevin Lynch in Criminal Minds (2007–2014).

He was writing for the Buffy Season ten comic book in 2014.

Early life

Nicholas Brendon Schultz was born in Los Angeles on April 12, 1971, three minutes after his identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan, was born. He was born the second of four boys, with two younger brothers in the household.

He as a child aspired to be a professional baseball player, but he "lost the passion" at 20. Rather, he decided to pursue acting to help with his stutter, which had first appeared at age seven or eight, and had made him afraid of speaking or dealing with strangers that he did not start dating until 21 or 22 years old. "I always have to remind myself to slow down and concentrate," Brendon says. For me, constant repetition of tongue-twisters was like lifting weights, but patience and perseverance have paid off." Brendon has worked for the Stuttering Foundation of America, which approached him in 2001 and named him as the honorary chairperson for its National Stuttering Awareness Week in May 2001.

After two years of acting, he left because he "couldn't abide the politics in Hollywood." Brendon resumed to school to study medicine, but he tried his hand at a variety of odd jobs, including plumber's assistant, emergency service manager, waiter, and production assistant for the television show Dave's World.

Personal life

Brendon was married to actress Tressa DiFiglia from 2001 to 2006.

He enjoys painting and photography and has sold his own original artwork. In 2019, Brendon's artwork was on display in galleries. In 2020, he unveiled a "Fall Art Collection" collection.

Brendon has suffered with depression and alcoholism for many years, resulting in numerous run-ins with the legislation, multiple arrests, and multiple charges for land theft, vandalism, and domestic violence. He declared that he had voluntarily entered alcoholism therapy at a Buffy fan convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2004.

Brendon was arrested by Los Angeles police in 2010 after he was approached by an intoxicated individual. He allegedly swung his fists at the officers and attempted to escape, and was arrested for criminal vandalism. Brendon was later charged with four misdemeanors, including one count of resisting arrest, two charges of battery against a police officer, and one count of vandalism. He checked himself into rehab in May 2010 to address his alcohol use and sleeping pills. Brendon pleaded no contest to all four allegations in June 2010 and received a one-year suspended prison term, was placed on probation for 36 months, and was required to complete ten days of community service.

Brendon was arrested on October 17, 2014, on misdemeanor charges of malicious attack to property and resisting or obstructing police while participating in the Tree City Comic Con, and on October 17, 2014, a Boise, Idaho hotel lobby was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor convictions of misdemeanor injuries to property and intimidating or obstructing officers. Brendon apologised shortly, saying that the incident was "embarrassing" and that it was the result of drinking alcohol while taking pain medications for a knee injury.

Moonda Tee was married in Las Vegas in 2014, just a week after he had been dating. Brendon revealed their separation on social media five months later in February, 2015. Tee said in a video shared on social media that this was because Brendon had cheated on her.

In February 2015, Brendon was arrested on suspicion of grand theft by Fort Lauderdale police after he allegedly smuggishly soiled his hotel room and refused to pay the bill. He had been in Fort Lauderdale for a local comic convention. His spokesperson issued a statement shortly after the incident: "Nicholas is, unfortunately, fighting a disease that few of us are not familiar with." He's sorry for his conduct. We are aware that Nicholas' behavior are from a much deeper source, and we are committed to providing him with a safe environment for him to thrive in. Nicholas' illness has been affecting and has consistently mistook him for several months, and it has been challenging. We're doing everything we can do at camp Nick to ensure his recovery." After requesting a new upgrade, Brendon was arrested again for burning another hotel room. In an interview the next day, he blamed his behavior on a recent change in medication and said he'll see a doctor to have it reviewed. Brendon missed the first day of the ALT*Con conference due to his detention, apologizing to fans.

In August 2015, Brendon appeared on Dr. Phil to address his latest arrests and alcoholism. However, he walked off the show shortly after the interview began. On his Facebook page, Brendon admitted that he had been drinking prior to the interview and that he was unprepared to "lay [out] the darkest parts of myself on national television." Brendon returned to Dr. Phil in December to address his detentions and mental health problems, as well as several suicide attempts.

In October 2015, Brendon was arrested in Saratoga Springs, New York, for choking his mother in a hotel room. He was charged with third-degree robbery, criminal mischief, and breathing obstacle. He pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. Brendon received a custodial sentence if he completed heroin and alcohol therapy as part of his plea bargain, as well as one year of probation. Brendon continued to be admitted to a California rehabilitation facility for a 90-day residential treatment program.

In October 2017, Brendon was arrested in Palm Springs, California, for assaulting another woman. In April 2019, he was charged with felony corporal injury to a spouse but pleaded not guilty a month later. Brendon later agreed to a plea bargain to prevent a four-year prison term for criminal domestic violence and breach of active protective orders in two states, in which Brendon was allowed to be near the woman but prohibited from harassing, attacking, hurting, or assaulting her. On February 28, 2020, he was sentenced to three years of probation and 20 hours of community service, as well as a 52-week domestic violence course.

Brendon revealed on Instagram on February 15, 2021, after slipping earlier this month. Brendon responded to the allegations that his former co-star Charisma Carpenter made against Joss Whedon by saying that "I love and support [her] very much and that it's not a good story," despite the fact that his Whedon friendship was "kinda difficult to give a statement" given his personal relationship with the individuals involved.

In August 2021, Brendon was arrested in Terre Haute, Indiana, for inability to recognize and obtaining a prescription by fraud. He was arrested while driving erratically, and police discovered bags containing crystal residue powder in them. K9 dogs discovered shadow compartments in the vehicle's floor, as well as more bags of residue powder. This detention is in breach of his new domestic assault conviction.

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Career

At the age of 25, Brendon had hit "rock bottom": his girlfriend had left him, he was working as a waiter and could barely afford his rent, and had almost given up on getting good work. After buying the wrong kind of Pop Tarts for his co-workers, his boss fired him and told him "You should be acting." Brendon was attracted to the pilot script for Buffy because of how much he had hated high school. Brendon recognised that Xander was based on Joss Whedon when he had attended high school, accounting for why Xander "gets all the good lines". He signed with a manager and obtained the role of Xander Harris on Buffy the Vampire Slayer three months later.

Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is the "Slayer", one in a long line of young women chosen by fate to battle evil forces. This mystical calling grants her the powers of dramatically increased physical strength, endurance, agility, accelerated healing, intuition, and a limited degree of precognition. In contrast, Brendon's character, Xander is the only character without supernatural abilities, and provides comic relief and a grounded perspective. It is Xander who often provides the heart to the series, and in season six, becomes the hero in place of Buffy who defeats the "Big Bad". Buffy and Willow are the only characters who appear in all 144 episodes; Xander is missing in only one.

Brendon shared the screen with his twin, Kelly Donovan, when his character was split in two in the fifth-season episode "The Replacement".

For his role as Xander, Brendon was nominated for Saturn Award in 1998 and 1999 for Best Genre TV Actor and in 2000 for the Supporting Actor.

In 2014, Brendon was part of a summit for writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, which included Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Drew Greenberg, Andrew Chambliss and the then-incoming Buffy writer Christos Gage. He was involved with the show's canonical comic book series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten, on stories centering on his character.

Brendon continues to be a regular fixture at comic conventions and sci-fi fan conventions, and has streamed videos of himself reading fanfiction starring his character Xander Harris on his Facebook page.

After the series ended in 2003, Brendon joined the cast of the Fox television pilot The Pool at Maddy Breakers. The series was not picked up by the network. In 2004, he co-starred in his first ABC Family movie, Celeste in the City. The following year, he returned to Fox as part of the cast of Kitchen Confidential, based on the book by chef Anthony Bourdain. Thirteen episodes were made, but the series was canceled on December 9 of the same year after the fourth episode aired, due to low ratings.

In 2006, he voiced Huntsboy #89 for season 2 of the animated series American Dragon: Jake Long. That same year, he reunited with his former Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Charisma Carpenter in the ABC Family TV movie Relative Chaos.

From July 26 through August 30, 2006, Brendon co-starred with Noah Wyle in the play Lobster Alice at the Blank Theatre Company in Los Angeles. He subsequently appeared in the Blank Theatre's annual Young Playwrights Festival and its productions of The SantaLand Diaries (November 20 to December 20, 2009), and Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.

In 2007, Brendon began appearing on the TV series Criminal Minds in the recurring role of FBI technical analyst Kevin Lynch. He appeared in episodes in each subsequent season through the tenth season.

In late 2010, he premiered his web comic Very Bad Koalas, co-created with animation director/producer Steve Loter. The comic follows the journey of two sheltered and innocent koalas experiencing a variety of people and places while on the run from the law in a 1958 Cadillac El Dorado.

Also in 2010, Brendon began a four-episode arc on ABC's Private Practice playing Lee McHenry, a mentally disturbed man who assaults Charlotte King.

Brendon had a recurring role in Untitled Web Series About a Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time along with Sylvester McCoy, Robert Picardo, Mayim Bialik, Chase Masterson, Rosearik Rikki Simons, Carrie Keranen.

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