Happy Birthday! Joss Whedon Turns 52 Years Old

It's time to break out the cake: Today, Joss Whedon is turning 52!

Born in 1964 to parents Tom and Ann Lee, Whedon is well-known for...a lot of things really. The director-slash-writer-slash-producer has a filmography that anyone would be jealous of, and Whedon is recognized as one of the leading authorities on all things geek.

As a third-generation TV writer, Whedon was always enthralled by film and had a particular interest in British media such as Monty Python. He began his work in Hollywood as a consulting writer for shows like Roseanne and even acted as an uncredited writer for the an X-Men film. During that time, Whedon began work in 1995 on Pixar's Toy Story and started fleshing out the character that would become Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In 2001, Whedon would join the comic book industry as he published his first story, Fray, under Dark Horse. He then went to Marvel Comics and created series such as Astonishing X-Men. Following his work with the mutant team, Whedon eventually came to be a second writer on Runaways.

Most recently, Whedon's biggest works have undoubtedly been with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2010, Whedon was confirmed to direct the studio's film adaptation of The Avengers, and the project would go on to become the fourth highest-grossing film of all-time. He returned to the franchise last year with the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron which, unsurprisingly, grossed an insane amount of money.

Currently, Whedon has teased his work on a new project which will be centered around a yet unnamed female protagonist. Given his work with characters like Buffy, fans are interested to see where Whedon's next projects will take him.

Whedon is also the mastermind behind projects such as Firefly, Serenity, Much Ado About Nothing, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along.