Maurissa Tancharoen

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Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon (born November 28, 1975 in Los Angeles, California) is an American television producer/writer, actress, singer, dancer, and lyricist.

Video Maurissa Tancharoen

Career

Tancharoen's first paid script came in 2001 when she sold Revolution Studios an untitled pitch in which two Asian American FBI agents investigate a gang in South Central Los Angeles by working undercover as Korean grocery store clerks. Her production credits include working as assistant to producer Mark Tinker on NYPD Blue and to William M. Finkelstein on Brooklyn South, as well as being co-executive producer of the series DanceLife.

As a writer and story editor Tancharoen has worked on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Starz series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Drop Dead Diva, Dollhouse and the short-lived sitcom Oliver Beene. She also worked on Spartacus: Vengeance.

In addition to writing, Tancharoen also played a brief acting role in Dollhouse as the active Kilo (like the other Los Angeles actives named from the NATO phonetic alphabet), and co-wrote and performed lyrics for "Remains" with Jed Whedon for the Dollhouse episode "Epitaph One". She co-wrote Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and appeared onscreen as Groupie #1, as well as on the DVD audio track "Commentary! The Musical", in which she sings about the scarcity of non-stereotyped roles in television and film for actors of Asian origin. She appeared onscreen as a singer in Joss Whedon's 2011 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing., provided Zelda's singing voice in the season 2 episode "The Musical" of The Legend of Neil, a spoof based on the video game The Legend of Zelda, and performed backing vocals and danced in the video for The Guild parody song "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" released August 17, 2009.

Tancharoen worked with Jed Whedon and Joss Whedon on The Avengers, and is currently a showrunner and executive producer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Maps Maurissa Tancharoen

Personal life

Tancharoen is Asian-American and has said that her surname is of Thai (????????) origin. She attended Occidental College, where she wrote two plays that won the Argonaut & Moore literary award. Her father, Tommy Tancharoen, is a transportation coordinator for Hollywood movies. Her brother Kevin Tancharoen is a director, whose feature film debut is 2009's Fame. On April 19, 2009, she married fellow writer Jed Whedon, brother of Joss Whedon. Their first child, daughter Bennie Sue Whedon, was born on March 5th, 2015.

In her younger years, Tancharoen was a member of the girl band Pretty in Pink. The band broke up before seeing major success and shortly after Tancharoen was diagnosed with lupus that required chemotherapy.