Zooey Deschanel

She was named after Zooey Glass, the protagonist of J. D. Salinger's 1961 novella Franny and Zooey.

Her older sister is actress Emily Deschanel, who starred in the Fox crime comedy-drama series Bones.

Deschanel lived in Los Angeles, but spent much of her childhood traveling because her father shot films on location; she later said that she:

"... hated all the traveling... I'm really happy now that I had the experience, but at the time I was just so miserable to have to leave my friends in Los Angeles and go to places where they didn't have any food I liked or things I was used to."

She attended Crossroads, a private preparatory school in Santa Monica, where she befriended future co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Kate Hudson.

She sang throughout high school, planning to pursue a career in musical theatre and attending French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts.

She attended Northwestern University for nine months before dropping out to pursue acting.

Zooey Claire Deschanel ( ZO-ee day-shə-NEL; born January 17, 1980 ) is an American actress and musician.

Zooey Claire Deschanel was born in Los Angeles, California on January 17, 1980, the younger daughter of cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir).

Her paternal grandfather was French, from Oullins, Rhône, and her paternal grandmother came from a Quaker family; she also has Swiss, Dutch, English, Irish, and other French ancestry.

Deschanel had a guest appearance on the television series Veronica's Closet in 1998.

She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000).

She made her film debut in Lawrence Kasdan's comedy Mumford (1999), revolving around the neurotic residents in a small town and co-starring Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard and Mary McDonnell.

That same year, she appeared in a non-singing role in the music video for The Offspring's single "She's Got Issues", which premiered on September 27, 1999.

Deschanel was a judge for the ninth Independent Music Awards.

Deschanel co-starred in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical Almost Famous (2000), where she played Anita Miller, the rebellious older sister of a teenage journalist.

Despite a modest box office response, the film received critical praise, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Film – Musical or Comedy.

She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007) and The Driftless Area (2015).

For a few years starting in 2001, Deschanel performed in the jazz cabaret act If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies with actress Samantha Shelton.

Deschanel appeared in the independent drama Manic (2001), as the love interest of a troubled teen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release.

The New York Times found Deschanel to be "particularly spontaneous, unaffected and emotionally direct" in her role.

Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), The Happening (2008), 500 Days of Summer (2009) and Our Idiot Brother (2011).

Following early notice, Deschanel took on supporting parts in four feature films released throughout 2002: Big Trouble, The New Guy, The Good Girl, and Abandon.

In the comedy Big Trouble, with Tim Allen and Rene Russo, she played the daughter of a devoted and reluctant woman, and in the teen comedy The New Guy, starred as a guitar player in a band.

Deschanel portrayed a cynical, plain-spoken young woman working in a big-box store in the black dramedy The Good Girl, opposite Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The psychological thriller Abandon saw her play the roommate of a woman involved in her boyfriend's disappearance.

Deschanel also made a one-episode appearance in Frasier, as Roz's out-of-control Cousin, Jen.

The New York Times reported that Deschanel was "one of Hollywood's most sought-after young stars", in 2002, and the Los Angeles Times wrote in early 2003 that Deschanel had become a recognizable type, due to "her deadpan, sardonic and scene-stealing [film] performances" as the protagonist's best friend.

Deschanel objected to her typecasting, arguing, "A lot of these roles are just a formula idea of somebody's best friend, and it's like, I don't even have that many friends. In high school, I stayed home all the time, so I don't know how I'm everybody's best friend now."

Deschanel obtained her first leading film role debut in the independent drama All the Real Girls (2003) as Noel, a sexually curious 18-year-old virgin who has a life-changing romance with an aimless 22-year-old.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was an arthouse success.

Her performance received wide critical acclaim, and Variety remarked: "Performances are all credible and naturalistic, but standing out from the rest is Deschanel's work, which evinces an impressively direct connection to her character's emotions. The actress does a wonderful job presenting a young woman who is trying, with varying degrees of success, to give voice to all sorts of things she has never felt or expressed before".

In 2005, she modeled for Chanel and Clements Ribeiro, and in 2010, she signed to represent Rimmel.

In 2006, Deschanel teamed up with M. Ward to form She & Him, and subsequently released their debut album, Volume One, in 2008.

They have since released six albums: Volume Two (2010), A Very She & Him Christmas (2011), Volume 3 (2013), Classics (2014), Christmas Party (2016), and Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson (2022).

From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jess Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.

She received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for "So Long", which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh.

Besides singing, she plays keyboards, percussion, banjo, and ukulele.

Deschanel is also a co-founder of the female-focused website HelloGiggles, which was acquired by Time Inc. in 2015.