‘Buffy’ Star Nicholas Brendon Arrested For Alleged Prescription Drug Fraud
He may be hard to recognize in his mug shot, but that is former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Nicholas Brendon above, who was arrested in Indiana last week for alleged prescription drug fraud. Brendon, 50, played Buffy’s friend Xander Harris on all seven seasons of the iconic ’90s TV series.
According to TMZ, Brendon was “driving erratically when cops spotted his silver Dodge Journey last week in Vigo County, Indiana.” After the police pulled him over they “noticed him sweating profusely” and that he "appeared nervous due to a visibly racing pulse on his neck and shaking hands." When he was asked to provide identification, Brendon (real name Nicholas Brendon Schultz) “gave them a California ID with the name Kelton Schultz. Cops say Nicholas told them Kelton was his twin brother.” (The actor does have a twin brother named Kelly.) During a search, the police supposedly found a “small plastic bag that contained crystal/powder residue" along with medications prescribed to a “Nicholas Bender.”
This is not Brendon’s first run-in with the law, and he has struggled in the past with alcoholism and addiction. In 2010, he received probation after pleading no contest to an incident with police in California “that ended with him being Tasered and then arrested.” In 2014, he was arrested in Idaho after resisting arrest following an incident at a hotel during a comic convention. In early 2020, he was sentenced to three years probation, 20 hours of community service, and ordered to complete a domestic violence course for assaulting his girlfriend in 2017.
Since the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 2003, Brandon has also appeared on Kitchen Confidential, Private Practice, and Criminal Minds, among other series and films.