Richard William (Wil) Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is a former child actor, now a writer and father. He is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gordie LaChance in the film Stand By Me.
Like most actors who were popular from their work in the Star Trek franchise, most of Wheaton's career has been limited to Trek-oriented appearances. During his youth he was a prominently featured guest at Star Trek conventions and very popular in teen magazines. However, barring teen work in the 1980s and Stand By Me, he has done little else of note in the way of performing. As he left TNG during the middle of its television run, and as three other Trek series have come since, Wheaton eventually faded from the convention scene as well, replaced by more popular actors/characters. Like many actors attempting to revitalize their career, he has as of the late 1990s embraced independent film with various appearances. He was also a contestant on a Star Trek themed episode of The Weakest Link.
Although his character (and by extension Wil himself) was loudly hated by a small but vocal group of Trekkies during TNG's first run, Wheaton has emerged as a vocal member of the geek community and runs his own weblog web site, Wil Wheaton Dot Net. The majority of his popularity as of the year 2002 comes from this web site, and from fans admiring his work from the past. He is a frequent poster at Slashdot and Fark, and is heavily involved with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, promoting free speech and privacy issues.
In 2003 Wheaton released a book of his memoirs, entitled Dancing Barefoot. Most of the entries are extended versions of his online blog entries. In December 2003, due to lack of work, Wheaton was forced to put memorabilia items (found while cleaning out his garage) on the internet auction site Ebay in an attempt to raise money.
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