BuddyTV is an entertainment-based website based in Seattle, Washington, which generates content about television programs and sporting events. The website publishes information about celebrity and related entertainment news through a series of articles, entertainment profiles, actor biographies and user forums.^[1]

History[link]

BuddyTV was co-founded in 2005 by Andy Liu and David Niu. The pair graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Business Administration, a master's degree in business administration. They sold their previous company, NetConversions, to aQuantive in 2004. While on a holiday, they realized that television is a "very passive or non-social experience", and wanted to "express ourselves at the time of the show".^[2] The website is also designed to allow real-time commentary for sports, allowing former players and fans to broadcast their opinions on basketball and baseball games. Niu felt that other Internet companies which were offering online sportscasting tools did not effectively combines audio broadcasts with online comments and forums.^[2]

In May 2007, BuddyTV received a loan of $250,000 from the Charles River Quick Start Seed Funding Program,^[3] at which time it was attracting 2 million unique visitors per month.^[4] In a first round financing, Gemstar-TV Guide International invested $2.8 million into the website.^[3] In September 2007, paidContent reported that BuddyTV was being acquired by Comcast, at which time is was receiving 3 million unique visitors per month and had hired 20 employees.^[5] However, the reports were later confirmed to be untrue.^[6] In April 2008, BuddyTV raised $6 million in a second round, with investments mainly coming from Madrona Venture Group. The two rounds saw a total raise of $9 million. Funding was expected to go towards investing in new personnel and technology.^[6]

BuddyTV has been compared to the television commentary site Television Without Pity. Television Without Pity's co-editor Sarah Bunting said that the website's focus is on in-depth and humorous recaps that appear three or four days after the episodes air. BuddyTV is designed, however, to provide immediate feedback.^[2] Liu said that many television networks were interested in partnering with BuddyTV to build online communities around their shows.^[7]

In September 2010, BuddyTV entered the mobile space with a new app for the iPhone and iPad.^[8] “We’re making a big bet on the mobile and tablet side of things,” said CEO Andy Liu. “When I watch TV, I’ve got my iPad open, I’ve got mobile phones nearby as well, and I think in the next 12 to 18 months this whole movement towards being a lot more social in television is really going to come together, and we just want to get ahead of that. It’s amazing how much hardware has changed this space.”^[8]

Soon after its first mobile app release, well-known Seattle entrepreneur and technology executive Bill Baxter joined BuddyTV as its Chief Technology Officer and executive vice president of products.^[9] A year later, the app was featured in TechCrunch, highlighting new utility features, remote control capabilities, and the app's ability to recommend TV shows to users.^[10]

Business Model[link]

BuddyTV makes money through online advertising and by offering advanced publishing tools to commentators. The website has a partnership with Windows Media Center, allowing viewers to turn on BuddyTV commentary on their televisions during shows.^[2] In 2007, online survey hosting company QuestionPro and Buddy TV created a new way for advertisers to learn about the viewers of television series which featured their ads. BuddyTV uses custom online surveys from QuestionPro to gather information and opinion from the community of fans. BuddyTV's analysts compile the results and produce a report within days for the advertiser.^[11]

In June of 2010, BuddyTV entered an advertising partnership with Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes. "This is a terrific partnership that capitalizes on each company's growth in social networking, mobile, and online to reach a huge and influential audience of trendsetting consumers," said Joe Greenstein, co-founder and CEO of Flixster Inc.^[12] "For us, we now have a large and professional sales force to sell our inventory directly to agencies and advertisers," said BuddyTV's Neal Freeland.^[13] "We already have some of these relationships, but expect this partnership to grow the volume significantly."

Impact[link]

BuddyTV has been described as "the Web's best entertainment-based community site".^[11] The website contains information about 410 television series, and provides content to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Co-founder Liu describes it as the "largest independent TV fan site".^[7] In March and April 2007, BuddyTV was the seventh most visited website in the Seattle startup index.^[14][15]

See also[link]

• TV Squad

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Listing of top 10 Seattle startups
• Crunchbase profile

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Misha Collins
Born	Dmitri Tippens Krushnic (1974-08-20) August 20, 1974 (age 37) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, Producer
Years active	1999–present
Spouse	Victoria Vantoch (m. 2002) «start: (2002)»"Marriage: Victoria Vantoch to Misha Collins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Misha_Collins)
Children	West Anaximander Collins (2010)

Misha Collins (born Misha Dmitri Tippens Krushnic) is an American actor, best known for his role as the angel Castiel on the CW television series Supernatural.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Collins was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Before acting, he interned for four months at the White House during the Clinton Administration in the Office of Presidential Personnel.^[1] Collins attended Northfield Mount Hermon School and the University of Chicago, where he studied social theory.^[2]

In 2002, Collins married Victoria Vantoch.^[3]

They have one child, West Anaximander Collins. He was born September 23, 2010.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Misha Collins

• Misha Collins at the Internet Movie Database
• Misha Collins on Twitter

Jared Padalecki
Padalecki at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2011.
Born	Jared Tristan Padalecki (1982-07-19) July 19, 1982 (age 29) San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1999–present
Spouse	Genevieve Cortese (2010–present)
Children	1

Jared Tristan Padalecki (born July 19, 1982) is an American actor. He grew up in Texas and came to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in several Hollywood films, including New York Minute and House of Wax. Padalecki plays Sam Winchester on the CW television series Supernatural.

Early life[link]

Padalecki was born in San Antonio, Texas.^[1][2] He is of Polish ancestry on his father's side.^[3][4] He has an older brother, Jeff, and a younger sister, Megan. He started taking acting classes at the age of 12.

Education[link]

He attended James Madison High School in San Antonio and was named a candidate for the 2000 Presidential Scholars Program. In 1998, Padalecki and his partner Chris Cardenas won the National Forensic League national championship in Duo Interpretation.^[5] Padalecki won FOX's 1999 "Claim to Fame Contest"; he subsequently appeared at the Teen Choice Awards, where he met his current manager. After graduating from high school in 2000, he moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career, although he had originally planned to attend the University of Texas.^[1]

Career[link]

Padalecki's first credit was a minor role in the 1999 film A Little Inside. In 2000, he was cast as Dean Forester on the television series Gilmore Girls, a role he played until 2005. Throughout the early 2000s, he also appeared in several made-for-television films, including Silent Witness, Close to Home, and the Disney Channel Original Movie A Ring of Endless Light.

Padalecki had an uncredited part as a high school bully in 2003's comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, which he played after being asked by fellow actor and friend Tom Welling, who played the part of Charlie Baker, and the director of the movie, who wanted someone bigger than Charlie to pick on him. Padalecki originally auditioned for Welling's role, but gave it up in order to film a pilot titled Young MacGyver which was never picked up.^[6] In 2004, he appeared in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen comedy New York Minute as Trey Lipton a cute boy who the Olson's characters are attracted to. He also landed a short role in the thriller Flight of the Phoenix alongside Dennis Quaid and Hugh Laurie. In 2005, Padalecki starred opposite Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton in the horror film House of Wax in which he plays Wade, one of 5 teens who are slashed and killed. In the same year, Padalecki appeared in yet another horror film, Cry Wolf in which he played Tom.^[7]

The same year, Padalecki was cast as Sam Winchester on the WB series, Supernatural. Sam and his brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, sometimes with their father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The seventh season began broadcast on September 23, 2011 on the CW. The show is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Padalecki also served as the host of MTV's horror reality series, Room 401 which was discontinued after only 8 episodes due to poor ratings.^[8]

He had the lead role in 2008's The Christmas Cottage, in which he played Thomas Kinkade.

Padalecki also had the lead role in the horror remake Friday the 13th film alongside Danielle Panabaker, which opened on Friday, February 13, 2009. He plays Clay Miller, a character who heads out to the doomed Camp Crystal Lake in search of his sister who has gone missing.^[9]

Personal life[link]

Padalecki married his former Supernatural co-star Genevieve Cortese on February 27, 2010. He and his wife are currently residing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[10][11] On October 10, 2011, he announced they were expecting their first child.^{[12] [13]} The couple's son was born on March 19, 2012.^[14][15]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jared Padalecki

• Jared Padalecki at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Jared Padalecki at SuicideGirls.com
• Jared Padalecki on Twitter

Jensen Ackles
Ackles at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	Jensen Ross Ackles (1978-03-01) March 1, 1978 (age 34) Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Danneel Harris (m. 2010–present)

Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor and director. He is known for his roles in television as Eric Brady in Days of our Lives, which earned him several Daytime Emmy Award nominations, as well as Alec/X5-494 in Dark Angel and Jason Teague in Smallville. Ackles currently stars as Dean Winchester on the CW series Supernatural.

Early life[link]

Ackles was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Donna Joan (née Shaffer) and Alan Roger Ackles, an actor.^[1] Ackles has a brother, Joshua, who is three years older, and sister, Mackenzie, who is seven years younger. He is of English, Irish and Scottish ancestry.^[2] He had planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist but instead moved to Los Angeles to start his acting career.^[3]

Career[link]

After modelling on and off since the age of 4, Ackles began to concentrate on an acting career in 1996. He appeared in several guest roles on Mr. Rhodes, Sweet Valley High, and Cybill before joining the cast of the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives as Eric Brady in 1997. He won a 1998 Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer and went on to be nominated three times (in 1998, 1999, and 2000) for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Days of our Lives.^[4]

Ackles departed Days of our Lives in 2000 and went on to appear in the mini-series Blonde, about the life of Marilyn Monroe. He also auditioned for the role of the young Clark Kent on Smallville, a role offered to actor Tom Welling instead.^[5] Next he appeared in a guest role on the James Cameron television series Dark Angel on Fox in 2001 as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the "brother" of main character Max/X5-452 (played by Jessica Alba). His character died in the episode, but Ackles returned to the show as a series regular in the second season as Ben's sane clone, Alec/X5-494. He remained with the show until its cancellation in 2002.

Ackles (left) with his Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki in 2008

Ackles worked steadily throughout 2003. He joined the cast of the WB's hit show Dawson's Creek during its final season, playing CJ, Jen Lindley's lover. Afterward, Ackles filmed several episodes of the unaired series Still Life for Fox before it was abruptly dropped. He also had a small role in the 2004 short film The Plight of Clownana. Ackles was the producer's first choice to play Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling,^[6] Ackles turned down the role, which was then offered to Eric Christian Olsen and the character's name was changed to "Jensen" because the producers of Tru Calling liked Ackles' name. Ackles returned to Vancouver (where Dark Angel was filmed) in 2004 to become a regular on Smallville playing the assistant football coach Jason Teague, who was also the newest romantic interest for Lana Lang (played by Kristin Kreuk). He also had a lead role in the 2005 film Devour in which Ackles' father, actor Alan Ackles, also had a role playing the father of Ackles' character, Jake Gray.

Most recently, Ackles joined the cast of the CW horror/drama series Supernatural in 2005, where he stars as Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, sometimes with their father, (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The seventh season began broadcast on September 23, 2011.

In the summer of 2007, Ackles took on the role of Priestly in the independent comedy Ten Inch Hero. The film began hitting the film festival circuit in early 2007 and Ackles received high praise for his comedic timing in the role. In February 2009, the film was released on DVD exclusively by Blockbuster Home Video. He also appeared on stage from June 5–10, 2007 with Lou Diamond Phillips in A Few Good Men at Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, as Lt. Daniel Kaffee. Ackles received strong praise for his work in this role, which was also his professional theatre debut.

In the summer of 2008, Ackles was cast in the remake of the cult film My Bloody Valentine 3D, which opened nationwide on January 16, 2009.

In summer of 2010, Ackles lent his voice as the Red Hood (Jason Todd) for the animated film, Batman: Under The Red Hood, which was released to DVD and Blu-ray on July 27.

On October 22, 2010, Disney Interactive Studios announced that he would be voicing a character named Gibson in the video game, Tron: Evolution, which was released on December 7, 2010.^[7]

Personal life[link]

After dating actress, model, and gymnast Danneel Harris for three years, and becoming engaged in November 2009,^[8] they married in Dallas, Texas on May 15, 2010.^[9] Ackles considers himself a non-denominational Christian.^[10]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Video games[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• Ackles won the 2008 and 2010 Best Actor in a Drama Series Ewwy Award for playing Dean Winchester on Supernatural.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jensen Ackles

• Jensen Ackles at the Internet Movie Database
• Jensen Ackles at AllRovi
• Works by or about Jensen Ackles in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Not to be confused with Alison Mac

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2009)

Allison Mack
Allison Mack at San Diego Comic Con 2009
Born	(1982-07-29) July 29, 1982 (age 29) Preetz, West Germany
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1989–present
Website
http://allisonmack.com/

Allison Mack (born July 29, 1982) is an American actress. She is best known for her role of Chloe Sullivan on the Superman-inspired television series Smallville.

Early life[link]

Mack was born in Preetz, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to American parents, Mindy and Jonathan Mack. Her father was an opera singer performing there. The Mack family moved back to the United States when she was two years old. She has an older brother, Shannon, and a younger sister, Robyn.

Career[link]

She began her acting career at the age of four in commercials for "German Chocolate".^[1] Mack then went into modeling for a short period because her mother thought she "looked cute in clothes". She began studying at The Young Actors Space in Los Angeles when she was seven.

Her first major TV role came in an episode of the WB series 7th Heaven, in which she gained a lot of attention playing a teenager who cut herself. In 2000, she starred in the short-lived series Opposite Sex. She also starred beside her former Smallville castmate Sam Jones III in an R. L. Stine miniseries The Nightmare Room. Her filmography includes Eric Stoltz's directorial debut My Horrible Year!, in which she plays a girl having great difficulties in her life as she turns 16, and Camp Nowhere.

Mack starred as Chloe Sullivan, one of Clark Kent's best friends, in the CW hit series Smallville.

In the summer of 2006, Mack's voice was heard as the sister of the main character in the Warner Bros. CGI movie The Ant Bully. That year she also provided the voice of a museum curator named Clea in an episode of The Batman.

In November 2008, Mack began directing for the first time, taking the reins on the Smallville episode "Power", which aired January 29, 2009.^[2]

Since May 2009, Mack has been part of a project with the Iris Theatre Company^[3] which performed a piece of experimental theater at the Prague Fringe Festival.^{[citation needed]}

She voiced Power Girl in the Warner Premiere animated feature, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, released on September 29, 2009.

In May 2010 it was announced that Mack will not be appearing as a series regular on the final season of Smallville, but will return for several episodes.^[4] At the 2010 San Diego Comic Con it was mentioned that Allison Mack may still be considered a series regular, as she would appear in several episodes.^[5] Mack returned for five episodes in the tenth season, being billed as a series regular for the episodes she appeared in. She also eventually appeared in the two-part season finale.

It was announced in March 2012 that Allison was cast in Season 2 of the TV Series Wilfred in a recurring role. She will play a love interest for the lead character Ryan, played by Elijah Wood.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Allison Mack

• Official website
• Allison Mack on Myspace
• Allison Mack Official on YouTube
• Allison Mack at the Internet Movie Database
• Allison Mack cast bio on The CW