Press release from Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House presents one of the world’s best-loved screenwriters and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon in the Concert Hall on Sunday August 29.
Joss will talk about his ongoing love affair with popular culture, storytelling and the common themes in his work including strong women characters, outsider heroes and the uses and abuses of power. He will discuss the creative ways in which he has played these themes out in a variety of media forms: from the forthcoming film adaption of Marvel Comics The Avengers (which Joss is both writing and directing) to his work on Toy Story and in TV series from Buffy through Firefly to Glee, and across a vast range of comics.
A third-generation screenwriter, Joss Whedon could perhaps be responsible for starting popular culture’s obsession with modern-day stories of the vampires. His development of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the feature film into an intellectually-appealing television series in 1996 created a cult phenomenon. The
character of Buffy became an alternative feminist icon and was named as “one of the most intelligent, and most underestimated, shows on television” by the New York Times, winning several awards and various Emmy nominations.
Starting out with his first writing gig on the top-rating series, Roseanne, Joss went on to work as writer and co-producer on Parenthood before he first created Buffy. His Buffy spin-off series, Angel in 1998 gained a loyal following of its own. In 2002, he followed up with the critically acclaimed sci-fi drama Firefly for the Fox network.
As a film screenwriter, Joss’ credits include Titan A.E., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Speed, Alien Resurrection and Disney's box-office smash Toy Story for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
Whedon’s musical internet series titled Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog made its debut online in 2008 and, winning numerous awards including an Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Short-Format – Live Action Entertainment Program. In 2009, Whedon was awarded the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism by Harvard University’s Humanist Society.
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