Emily Deschanel

Emily Erin Deschanel is an American actress best known for her role as Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan in the Fox crime procedural series Bones. She was born on October 11, 1976, in Los Angeles, California, to cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel. Her younger sister is actress and singer-songwriter Zooey Deschanel. Her ancestry includes French, Swiss, Dutch, English, and Irish roots. During elementary school, Deschanel was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. She attended Harvard-Westlake School and Crossroads School in Los Angeles before graduating from the Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1998.

Deschanel made her feature film debut in the 1994 romantic comedy-drama It Could Happen to You. In 2002, she appeared as Pam Asbury in the horror miniseries Rose Red. Over the next two years, she appeared in films such as Cold Mountain, The Alamo, and Glory Road, and was named one of six actresses to watch by Interview Magazine in 2004. That same year, she played a receptionist in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2.

In 2005, Deschanel was cast as Dr. Temperance Brennan in the Fox series Bones, which ran for 12 seasons from 2005 to 2017. For her work on the series, she earned a Satellite Award nomination in 2006 and a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2007. Deschanel and co-star David Boreanaz served as co-producers starting in the third season before becoming full producers during the fourth season. While starring in Bones, she also reprised her role as Brennan in episodes of Sleepy Hollow and BoJack Horseman.

Beyond Bones, Deschanel starred in the 2022 Netflix miniseries Devil in Ohio. Her screen and media projects also include participating in a Stand Up 2 Cancer promotional video on FunnyorDie.com, narrating the documentary My Child Is a Monkey, and working as an associate producer on the documentary film How I Became an Elephant. In 2012, she was ranked number 72 on AfterEllen's Hot 100 list.

Outside of acting, Deschanel is an advocate for animal rights and follows a vegan diet. She has collaborated with PETA on a video advocating vegan parenting and joined the board of directors at Farm Sanctuary in 2014. Raised Roman Catholic, she later expressed agnostic and spiritual views. In 2010, she married actor and writer David Hornsby, with whom she has two sons. In 2015, Deschanel and her colleagues filed a lawsuit against Fox over Bones series profits, which resulted in a legal dispute that ultimately ended in an undisclosed settlement in September 2019.