Nicholas Brendon Schultz (born April 12, 1971), known professionally as Nicholas Brendon, is an American actor and writer. He is best known for playing Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and Kevin Lynch in Criminal Minds (2007–2014).

Brendon played Xander Harris for seven years and appeared in all but one of 144 episodes. For his role as Xander, Brendon was nominated for a Saturn Award in 1998 and 1999 for Best Genre TV Actor and in 2000 for Best Supporting Actor. He continues to regularly attend comic conventions and sci-fi conventions. He has been involved in development of Xander's character in follow-up comic books, and has been credited as a writer for several issues.

Although Brendon has continued to work as an actor, with regular recurring parts in TV series and starring roles in limited release films such as Coherence and Big Gay Love, his struggles with substance misuse and depression have overshadowed his professional career. Brendon has attracted public attention for his multiple arrests and convictions on a variety of charges since 2010.

Nicholas Brendon was born Nicholas Brendon Schultz on April 12, 1971, in Los Angeles, three minutes after his identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan. He was born the second of four boys, with two younger brothers.

As a child, he aspired to become a professional baseball player, but he "lost the passion for it" at 20. Instead, he decided to pursue acting to help manage his stutter, which had first become apparent at age seven or eight, and had made him so fearful of speaking or interacting with strangers that he did not begin dating until 21 or 22. Brendon comments, "Every day I still have to remind myself to slow down and concentrate. Constant repetition of tongue-twisters was like lifting weights for me, but patience and persistence have paid off." Brendon has done work for the Stuttering Foundation of America, which approached him around 2001, and made him its honorary chairperson for its National Stuttering Awareness Week in May 2001.

He gave up acting after two years because he "couldn't stand the politics in Hollywood". Brendon returned to school to study medicine, which didn't work out; he also tried his hand at a variety of odd jobs, including plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, day care counselor, waiter, and production assistant for the television show Dave's World.

At the age of 25, Brendon had hit "rock bottom": his girlfriend had left him, he was working as a waiter and could barely afford his rent, and had almost given up on getting good work. After buying the wrong kind of Pop Tarts for his co-workers, his boss fired him and told him "You should be acting." Brendon was attracted to the pilot script for Buffy because of how much he had hated high school. Brendon recognised that Xander was based on Joss Whedon when he had attended high school, accounting for why Xander "gets all the good lines". He signed with a manager and was cast as Xander Harris on Buffy the Vampire Slayer three months later.

Brendon shared the screen with his twin, Kelly Donovan, when his character was split in two in the fifth-season episode "The Replacement".