Felicia Day—actress (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural) and writer-producer-Internet pioneer (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)—has serious geek credentials. So when YouTube went looking for personalities to help promote their 7-day celebration of nerd culture called Geek Week, they naturally turned to this multi-talented redhead.
Each day of Geek Week (which started on Sunday, Aug. 4) is “hosted” by a different YouTube channel—each offering an intro video and loads of new content. Day—and her popular Geek and Sundry channel—will, fittingly, host tomorrow’s (Aug. 8) Fan Friday.
“I thought about what we do best at Geek and Sundry and the space is mostly about the fans,” Day tells TIME.com. “I recognize avatars and interact online or in person at conventions with the fans. My whole career is at the grass roots level, so we want to make sure fans were a key part of participating in Geek Week.”
To mark this special, uh, day, Day kindly agreed to share her biggest geek-focused influences. We asked for five, but she cheated—while apologizing, it should be said—and gave us seven.
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“[1] Star Trek: The Next Generation was my favorite
show as a kid an made we want to go into space
and into another world.”
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHc0VDdhXVQ]
“As a creator, my favorites were [2] The IT Crowd and [3] Spaced,
two British comedies that aren’t even on the air anymore.
As a writer of geeky comedy, I think they are two
examples of successfully combining geek with comedy.”
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“[4] World of Warcraft was a big influence.
It helped me create guilds and show me that an online world
is a place to find yourself. And find friends.”
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“Fantasy books. [5] Game of Thrones
and [6] The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.”
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“I would have to say that [7] Joss Whedon, as a general creator
and in the comic world, was huge. I came to comics later in life.
He made me love comics and understand them.
There are amazing woman characters.
He made superheroes really relatable.”
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m_S-IDs3Wg]