"My name's Nicholas Brendon. I'm an Aries. I wear Old Spice. And I have a twin brother. The story of my life, in a nutshell."

Such is the introduction to the world of Nicholas Brendon.

"I just like saying 'nutshell'," he confesses, without a moment's pause. In Brendon's presence, pauses are few and far between.

The 28-year-old actor, well-known to genre fans as Xander of the WB's wildly successful Buffy the Vampire Slayer, shares his character's off-the-wall sense of humor and more often than not wears a wide, charming grin. Heading into his fourth year on the series, Brendon is happy to discuss the show, sex, and talking monkeys.

Buffy's season three finale left the Slayer and her Slayerettes as high school graduates. With Buffy and Willow headed for college, and Angel for his own spin-off (airing directly after Buffy Tuesdays on the WB), what will become of Xander?

"Xander is... the high plains drifter," Brendon says, revealing plans for season four. "He's got odd jobs."

But while the rest of Buffy's characters seem to be moving up in the world, Xander's life is taking a decidedly lower path. Literally.

"This year I am living in my [parents] basement," he says. Unfortunately the move from bedroom to basement won't reveal much more about Xander's elusive home life. "There's a couple that we're doing on Wednesday -- episode seven already -- that you hear my mom's voice. Joss is making a big joke out if it, that you never see Xander's parents. I've pitched him Steven Seagal and George Hamilton for a father. Somebody full of machismo."

Well, even if Xander doesn't have much of a family, Brendon's found a second one, and he's got nothing but good to say -- in his own way -- about what is by all accounts a tight-knit cast.

"I wake up every day with a smile on my face. It makes me want to wake up the next day." He says it with an exaggerated expression and affected tears of joy, then shifts quickly back into seriousness -- or as close as he can come to it. "It's awesome. Everyone's awesome. It's a great group of people."

And if it wasn't, as he points out... does anybody honestly think that he'd say so?

"It's our fourth year now, and now they're talking about doing a few more years of the show. So even if you hate the person, you have to love them, because you're going to be there for awhile. No, we all hang out after work, during breaks and stuff like that. [We] visit each other on sets that we're doing away from Buffy." When pressed, he'll even provide examples of the cast's closeness. "Late-night walks on the beach. Maybe sharing a motel room for a couple hours. In my case, fifteen minutes."