By Nirali Naik | March 9, 2014 0 Comments

NET WORTH: $18 Million

 

PROFESSION: Actor

 

CHILDHOOD

Nathan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Born Nathan Christopher Fillion, on March 27th, 1971. Both his parents, Bob Fillion and Cookie Fillion, were English teachers. He also has an older brother, Jeff. Nathan attended Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Edmonton. He also went to college in Alberta, to Concordia University College of Alberta. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society there. In college he majored in art and minored in drama while pursuing an acting career on the side. He is an Aries by Zodiac signs.

 

CAREER

Fillion wanted to be a high school drama teacher. Fillion started working as a theatre actor before moving on to TV shows and films. He starred in productions as Edmonto Fringe Festival. He did theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre, which is a theatre company based in Alberta, Canada. Nathan did the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty, running weekly in the city of Edmonto, Alberta since 1991.  He has done a handful of popular TV shows that include  Firefly, One Life to Live, Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place,  Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Pasadena, Miss Match, Desperate Housewives and Castle. 

One of Nathan’s early TV roles was as ‘Joey Buchanan’ on the TV series  One Life to Live as  and later, was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for the role. He left the show in 1997. Fillion gained critical acclaim and a large cult of fans when he starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds on the Joss Whedon’s TV series Firefly (2002).  When Firefly was prematurely cancelled in late 2002, the show’s cast, crew, and many fans were devastated. Whedon vowed to resurrect the series in some way, and Fillion played Captain Reynolds again in the 2005 feature-film Serenity. Whedon gave Fillion a chance to display his range when he cast Fillion as the twisted preacher Caleb, a villain, in the seventh and final season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997). He followed the film Serenity, with more big screen leading roles in the 2006 horror-comedy Slither co-starring Elizabeth Banks, and the indie hit Waitress with Keri Russell in 2007. He also starred in the short lived Fox TV series Drive in 2007. Fillion took his first singing part in Joss Whedon’s musical internet smash Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog and cemented his cult appeal in 2008. Nathan Fillion voiced the Western themed ‘Vigilante’ on Justice League in 2001. He has voiced Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in three different animated features: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights in 2011, Justice League: Doom in 2012 and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox in 2013.

Fillion’s other film credits include Trucker, opposite Michelle Monoghan, White Noise 2, Saving Private Ryan, the independent film Water’s Edge, Blast from the Past, Dracula 2000 and Doubting Reilly. 

CASTLE

Fillion started acting as the title character on the TV show Castle since the first episode in March 2009. He play ‘Richard Caste’, best selling mystery novel author who helps the New York Police Department solve crimes. He finds his muse for his book series in Detective Kate Beckett at the 12th Precinct. But as the show progresses, and because of the tension between the pair, there rises doubt that Castle has found in Beckett much more than just a muse.

 

OTHER WORK

Fillion acted in a spoof porn web video on Spike TV channel, called “Nailing your Wife”, which was a part of the PG porn series. He has given his voice to a couple of video games as well, such as Jade Empire in 2005, Halo 3 in 2007, Halo 3: ODST in 2009 and Halo: Reach in 2010.

Nathan has co-founded a non-profit organization along with author PJ Haarsma in 2007 which is called ‘Kids Need To Read’. The organization helps getting more books into underfunded libraries.

 

NATHAN FILLION QUOTES

“If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.”

“I’ve always fantasized about being on TV. And I was. Then I fantasized about being in the movies. What could be better than captain of a space ship? I get to ride horses, shoot guns, have adventures ..”

“I don’t expect anybody to know who I am.”

“I’m a plethora of stolen jokes and kitschy references.”

“Somebody told me long ago that in acting, it’s okay to steal, but steal from the best.”

“There’s comedy even in tragedy. There’s comedy in life. And in ‘Castle’ we go for that comedy.”

 

FUN FACTS

He auditioned for the role of Michael in Dawn of the Dead.

Fillion claims to be descended from Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early. When told this, Joss Whedon created a bounty hunter by the name of “Jubal Early” for the Firefly episode Firefly: Objects in Space.

Nathan is deaf in one ear. He lost his hearing in his left ear in 1977.

He was a popular fan choice for the role of the heroic pilot Hal Jordan in Green Lantern, but the role went to Ryan Reynolds instead.

Fillion is an avid fan of video games and collects comic books.

 

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Fillion won the SFX award for Serenity under the category; Best Actor.

He was also nominated for Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Breakthrough Performance for Serenity. 

Nathan was nominated for the Satellite Award under category Best Actor in a Series, Drama in 2009 for Castle.

He won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite TV Drama Actor for two consecutive years, 2012 and 2013.