Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress and singer born on January 17, 1980. She is widely known for her deadpan roles in comedy films, her performances in independent dramas, and her lead role as Jessica Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl. Outside of acting, she is an accomplished musician who performs in the musical duo She & Him and previously formed the jazz cabaret act If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies. She is also a co-founder of the female-focused website HelloGiggles.

Deschanel was born in Los Angeles, California, to cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel. Named after the protagonist of J. D. Salinger's 1961 novella Franny and Zooey, she grew up alongside her older sister, actress Emily Deschanel. She spent much of her childhood traveling due to her father's film shoots on location. She attended Crossroads, a private preparatory school in Santa Monica, where she sang with plans to enter musical theatre. She later attended Northwestern University for nine months before leaving to pursue an acting career.

Deschanel made her television debut in a 1998 guest spot on Veronica's Closet and her film debut in the 1999 comedy Mumford. She gained attention for her role as Anita Miller in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous in 2000. She followed this with appearances in the independent drama Manic in 2001 and four feature films in 2002: Big Trouble, The New Guy, The Good Girl, and Abandon. During this era, her sardonic and deadpan performances established her as a recognizable screen presence.

Her breakthrough leading performance came in the 2003 independent drama All the Real Girls, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress. Later that year, she starred in the holiday comedy Elf. Her film work expanded to include The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Winter Passing, Failure to Launch, Bridge to Terabithia, The Happening, Yes Man, and 500 Days of Summer. On television, she had a recurring role in Weeds and starred in the miniseries Tin Man.

From 2011 to 2018, Deschanel starred as Jessica Day on New Girl, also serving as a producer on the series. Her work on the show earned her nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. Her later screen projects include films such as Our Idiot Brother, Your Highness, Rock the Kasbah, The Driftless Area, Dreamin' Wild, and Harold and the Purple Crayon, alongside voicing Bridget in the animated Trolls franchise. She also appeared in the series Physical, co-hosted The Celebrity Dating Game, and was cast in the romantic comedy Merv.

In her musical career, Deschanel paired with M. Ward to form She & Him in 2006, releasing their debut album Volume One in 2008 and six subsequent albums through 2022. She plays keyboards, percussion, banjo, and ukulele, and received a Grammy Award nomination for the song "So Long" from the Winnie the Pooh soundtrack. Additionally, she has modeled for Chanel, Clements Ribeiro, and Rimmel, co-hosts the New Girl rewatch podcast Welcome to Our Show, and co-founded HelloGiggles, which was acquired by Time Inc. in 2015.