Atticus Shaffer

Atticus Ronald Shaffer (born June 19, 1998) is an American actor known for playing Brick Heck on the ABC sitcom The Middle (2009–2018), as well as for voicing Edgar in the film Frankenweenie (2012) and Ono on the Disney Junior series The Lion Guard (2016–2019), and for his brief appearance in Hancock (2008). The role for which Shaffer is thus far most well-known is that of Brick Heck, a character in the American television sitcom The Middle. The role was played by Shaffer during the show's entire nine-season run, from 2009 to 2018. Brick is the youngest of the three Heck siblings, and is highly intelligent and smarter than most people his age. He loves to read and has an ongoing fascination with fonts. Brick is socially awkward, and repeatedly overlooked by the members of his family, such as forgotten birthdays. The series and its cast were nominated dozens of times for awards, and won over a dozen collectively. In a Wired magazine interview published in January 2013, Shaffer said his role as Brick was very similar to his own life, as he is also a "big reader" and "nerd[s] out over the weirdest stuff". In May 2011, a TV Guide article had reported the closeness as well. Brick's characterization, including his idiosyncratic palilalian repetition of words and phrases at the end of sentences, is actually based on The Middle co-creator Eileen Heisler's son, Justin.