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.
, 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 the television series 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.
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.
1990
Fillion reprised his 1990s role as One Life to Live Joey for the series' 9,999th and 10,000th episodes, aired August 16 and 17, 2007.
1994
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.
1997
He has been a U.S. citizen since 1997.
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.
2001
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.
2002
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.
2003
In 2003, Fillion had a recurring role as Caleb in the final five episodes of Joss Whedon's series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
2005
Although the show was cancelled, it was adapted to the big screen; he reprised his role as Mal in Whedon's film Serenity (2005).
2006
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.
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.
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.
2007
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 theatres on May 2, 2007.
Fillion starred in White Noise 2: The Light.
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 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.
2008
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
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.
