History of Wil Wheaton in Timeline
July 29, 1972
Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers, and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Wheaton has also appeared in recurring voice acting roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy in Legion of Super Heroes, and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 franchise's original continuity. He appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage, and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop. He has narrated numerous audio books, including Ready Player One and The Martian.
July 29, 1972
Wheaton was born July 29, 1972, in Burbank, California, to Debra "Debbie" Nordean (née O'Connor), an actress, and Richard William Wheaton Jr., a medical specialist. He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy, both of whom appeared uncredited in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks". Amy appeared alongside Wil in the 1987 film The Curse.
1981
Wheaton is known for his voice acting career. He voiced the role of Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH in 1981. In August 2021. Wheaton voiced the villainous John Juniper in the video game, I Expect You to Die 2: The Spy and the Liar.
November 07, 1999
Wheaton married Anne Prince on November 7, 1999, and lives in Arcadia, California, with her and her two sons from a previous relationship. Upon reaching maturity, both sons asked Wheaton to legally adopt them, which he did.
2002
Wheaton returned to Star Trek in 2002, 2022 and 2024, reprising his Wesley Crusher role in cameo appearances in Star Trek: Nemesis, the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Picard, and as a voice actor in the second season of the animated show Star Trek: Prodigy.
June 2005
Wheaton runs his own blog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net. In June 2005, he became that month's featured Tech writer for the SuicideGirls Newswire.
September 2006
From September 2006 to September 2007, Wheaton hosted a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and Hahn Choi. He hosted a NASA video on the Mars Curiosity rover which landed on Monday August 6, 2012. He has hosted "2nd Watch", interviews with cast members and producers of the science-fiction series Falling Skies that appears online after each episode. On April 3, 2014, Wheaton announced on his blog that his new show called The Wil Wheaton Project would premiere on the SyFy network at 10 pm on May 27 for an initial projected run of twelve episodes. However, on August 29, Wheaton blogged that SyFy canceled the show after only one season. Wheaton has hosted Star Trek aftershow The Ready Room since the second season in 2020.
May 23, 2012
A fictionalized version of Wheaton was included in the comic book PS 238, in which he harbors the power of telekinesis. Wheaton's debut comic book The Guild: Fawkes, which he wrote alongside Felicia Day, was released on May 23, 2012.
2017
In 2017, Wheaton wrote the short story "Laina" for the Star Wars anthology From a Certain Point of View. The book features 40 short stories, each by a different author, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Star Wars.
November 05, 2017
Immediately following the Sutherland Springs church shooting on November 5, 2017, Wheaton on Twitter stated in response to Congressman Paul Ryan's call for prayers for the victims that "The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they'd still be alive, you worthless sack of shit." Wheaton subsequently clarified his opinion after receiving criticism, writing "I apologize to those of you who are sincere people of Faith, who felt attacked by me", but accused "the right wing noise machine" of using his comments "to deflect attention and anger away from the role that unfettered access to weapons of mass murder played in the latest incidence of mass murder in America".
January 2021
Wheaton has struggled with alcohol addiction. In January 2021, Wheaton announced he had been sober from alcohol for five years.
2022
In 2022, Wheaton participated in Celebrity Jeopardy!, playing for the National Women's Law Center. He reached the finals, defeating Troian Bellisario and Hasan Minhaj in the quarterfinals, and John Michael Higgins and Joel Kim Booster in the semifinals. He finished in third place, behind winner Ike Barinholtz and runner-up Patton Oswalt, earning $100,000.
2022
Wheaton is the author of Dancing Barefoot (2004) and Just a Geek (2004). He released a revised follow-up, Still Just a Geek, in 2022.
June 2024
In June 2024 Wheaton announced that he was retired from on-screen acting.
September 2024
In September 2024, Wheaton joined other actors from the Star Trek franchise on a livestream to support the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.