Screenwriter Joss Whedon is the writer, director and producer of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, based on his 1992 film of the same name.

Joss grew up in New York, and spent his high school years at an all-boy's school (Winchester) in England. After studying at Wesleyan University (Connecticut), he was hired as a writer for the sitcom 'Roseanne' and later worked on 'Parenthood'.

Joss sold his first script for the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Movie which was then made into a film in 1992 starring Kristy Swanson as 'Buffy Summers' and Donald Sutherland as Buffy's first watcher 'Merrick'. Since then he has worked on scripts for 'Toy Story' (1995), 'Alien Resurrection?', 'X Men', Titan A.E., and (uncredited) 'Speed'.

In 1997, he started the TV version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which eventually launched a spin off series, Angel in 1999. He is the writer and creator of the comic series Fray and is currently writing a 12-month X-Men series for Marvel Comics.

In 2002, Whedon produced a new Science Fiction series called Firefly, a western in space, free of aliens. Universal Studios has recently given the Serenity Movie a green light and the project began production in June 2004. It is expected for release September 30, 2005 and will be written and directed by Joss.

Q & A with Joss Whedon

from the Browncoats website(approve sites)

If there was one thing you wanted your audience to take away from your work [in general and on Firefly in particular] what would it be, and why?

The one thing I would want an audience to take away from my work is that people who do not think they have strength in them do and that everybody has the ability and chance to be stronger and better and happier than the world seems ready to let them.

When you create, do you start with a character in your head and build the world around them or does the world come first and dictate the type of characters you need to build to populate it?

The answer is yes. But to go on a bit more, a story starts in any number of places. It could be the idea for a place, a world, a person, literally a car, a gun, a moment, an outfit, it doesn’t matter. Stories grow from everywhere, they’re like some hideous alien moss that can just sprout up.