Nicholas Brendon, who made a name for himself on Joss Whedon's hit TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, lent his talents to film and television, most notably in a few character-driven recurring roles after the series ended in 2003.
During his time on Buffy, Brendon played Xander Harris, one of Buffy's Scooby Gang and closest friends. In many ways, Xander represented the "everyman" on the show, and proved how one didn't need any sort of superpowers to be special or even heroic. In one particular instance, Xander drew from his compassion and humanity to save the world from his childhood best friend, Willow Rosenberg, who allowed dark magic to consume her after the murder of her lover, Tara. Willow's intent was to destroy the world and bring about the apocalypse - which they had all worked together to stop multiple times by the show's sixth season - but Xander talked her down with a charming memory of a broken yellow crayon and the plea for her to start with him if she wanted to kill everyone on the planet.
Though Xander is sometimes regarded as annoying or an example of toxic masculinity, particularly in early seasons when he was enamored with Buffy, he was, in many ways, the heart of the supernatural teen drama. Brendon has gone on to play other notable characters in television, though he hasn't been limited to the small screen.
What Happened To Nicholas Brendon After Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Soon after Buffy finished its seventh season, Brendon was cast in Kitchen Confidential alongside Bradley Cooper and Jaime King. He played Seth Richman for all 13 episodes of the series, which ran for only one season. Brendon starred in TV Christmas movie, A Golden Christmas, in 2009, and did a few other movies between 2007 and 2009, but went back to television with his recurring role of Lee McHenry on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off series, Private Practice. His turn to a villainous role might have been surprising to Buffy fans who were used to seeing him as a reliable best friend. Brendon's character, Lee, was responsible for sexually assaulting Dr. Charlotte King, one of the main characters of the show.
From 2007 to 2014, Brendon had another recurring role on CBS' smash procedural crime drama meets psychological thriller, Criminal Minds. While nerdy Kevin Lynch was responsible for breaking up the flirtation between Penelope Garcia and Special Agent Derek Morgan, fans were charmed by the character for the most part, who was a formidable partner for Garcia as well as an equally brilliant mind in her line of work. This duality made for an interesting relationship that had its ups and downs, and gave Brendon the chance to return to his penchant for quirky, nerdy, and even randomly heroic characters - in some ways, Kevin was reminiscent of Xander.
Most recently, Brendon was in a 2019 short film called Tics, and is in the process of filming a movie announced for 2020 release called Christmas Slasher. Brendon was also announced to be taking part in an upcoming sci-fi/comedy called The Inspector Chronicles, a feature movie that was conceived by Community and parodies Doctor Who. While Brendon has come a long way since Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the work he's done has kept him in the spotlight, but also allows him to meet with fans; he is frequently seen at conventions with other series alums.