Joss Whedon, television writer, director, producer.
Sure, Joss Whedon is renowned for creating compelling TV that revolves around strong female leads, such as Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Eliza Dushku's super-agent Echo in his anxiously awaited new show, Dollhouse (due in January). But he's not just a creator of feminist superheroes, he is a feminist superhero. In 2007, after Dua Khalil, a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurdish woman, was publicly stoned, allegedly for having a Sunni Muslim boyfriend and possibly converting to Islam, Whedon made an impassioned plea to end violence against women: "It's no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news," he wrote on the blog Whedonesque.com. "All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a cheque, a strongly worded email. Pick a cause - there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action." Buffy would be proud.