The creative genius behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, acclaimed writer and director Joss Whedon (1964–) was born on this day in Manhattan, the youngest of three boys.

“I was the sad, unlovable child, who had a perfectly normal childhood,” he recalled. “I never felt like anything was right in life and didn’t understand why it seemed so easy for everyone else.”

A graduate of Wesleyan University, Whedon came from a legacy of TV writers—his father wrote for The Dick Cavett Show and Alice; his grandfather for The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver.

In 1988, Whedon began writing for Roseanne. He followed with his first film script, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), and gained a reputation as a Hollywood “script doctor,” working on Toy Story, Speed, Waterworld, and Alien Resurrection.

His blend of imagination, wit, and excellence hit its stride in 1997 when he resurrected Buffy for television. “We don’t need heroes so much as recognizing ourselves as heroes,” he explained. His vision turned Buffy’s heroic journey into a cultural phenomenon.

With a lifelong passion for comics, Whedon authored the Dark Horse series Fray and Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men. “The great thing about comic books is you can do whatever you want... There are no real limitations to what you can create.”