Nicholas Brendon

Nicholas Brendon
Brendon in San Diego Comic-Con 2011.
Born	Nicholas Brendon Schultz (1971-04-12) April 12, 1971 (age 45) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1993–present
Spouse(s)	Tressa di Figlia (m.2001-2007) Moonda Tee (m. 2014-2015)

Nicholas Brendon (born Nicholas Brendon Schultz, April 12, 1971) is an American actor and writer. He is best known for playing Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and Kevin Lynch in Criminal Minds (2007–2014). Since 2014 he has been writing on the Buffy Season 10 comic book.

Nicholas Brendon was born Nicholas Brendon Schultz on April 12, 1971, in Los Angeles, three minutes after his identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan.

As a child, he aspired to become a professional baseball player, but he "lost the passion for it" at 20. Instead, he decided to pursue acting in an attempt to overcome his stuttering problem, which had first become apparent at age seven or eight, and had made him so fearful of speaking or interacting with strangers that he did not begin dating until 21 or 22. Brendon comments, "Every day I still have to remind myself to slow down and concentrate. Constant repetition of tongue-twisters was like lifting weights for me, but patience and persistence have paid off."

He gave up acting after two years because he "couldn't stand the politics in Hollywood." Brendon returned to school to study medicine, which didn't work out; he also tried his hand at a variety of odd jobs, including plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, day care counselor, waiter, and production assistant for the television show Dave's World.

At the age of 25, Brendon decided to return to acting. He signed with a manager and obtained the role of Xander Harris on Buffy the Vampire Slayer three months later. He appeared in all but one of the 144 episodes in the series, and even shared the screen with his twin, Kelly Donovan, when his character was split in two in the fifth-season episode "The Replacement".

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.