Zooey Deschanel (full name Zooey Claire Deschanel) was born on January 17, 1980, in
Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a famous American actress.
Biography and Career :
She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Weir; her sister,
Emily Deschanel, is also an actress. Her paternal grandfather was French and the remainder of her ancestry is
Irish American. The name "Zooey" (rhymes with "Joey") was inspired by the male character of the same name in J. D. Salinger's novel Franny
and Zooey.
She performed in stage productions before making her first TV appearance in 1998, as "Elena" on an episode of Veronica's Closet.
In 1999, she made her silver screen debut in Lawrence Kasdan's Mumford, as a client of a small-town psychologist. The following year, Zooey Deschanel portrayed the flight attendant sister of lead character William Miller in Almost Famous, working alongside real-life high school classmate
Kate Hudson.
In 2002, she could be seen in comedies like Big Trouble and The New Guy, as well as the critically acclaimed The Good Girl, starring
Jennifer Aniston, and the flop Abandon, starring
Katie Holmes. She also made an appearance on NBC's Frasier, as Roz's cousin.
In 2003, she really got noticed for her work in the breakout hit, Elf. Even Zooey said she didn't expect the flick to be as popular as it was, despite her fine performance as a department store elf who is also the apple of Will Ferrell's eye. Around the time of Elf's release, Zooey Deschanel heard that a screen test was being held for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Apparently, Zooey Deschanel was the only one among the filmmakers and cast who had actually read the book. She said that she read it when she was about 10 years old, and consulted the book again to prepare for the screen test.
We'll be seeing a lot more of Zooey Deschanel in the years to come: she's set to star in 2005's Winter Passing and 2006's Failure to Launch, Live Free or Die and Flakes. She will also be lending her voice to "Lani" in 2007's Surf's Up.
Trivia :
- Height 5' 6" / 168 cm
- She attended the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, an elite performance summer camp located in
New York. Zooey attended Northwestern University before dropping out to pursue her acting career.
- She wrote a screenplay titled "Circus Girl" with friend Jackson Nash. Circus Girl involves a witch, evil flying red ballons, and a giant diamond. Zooey Deschanel plans to star in the film as the nerdy main character.
- She is a big fan of actress
Parker Posey. When she is not on set filming, she enjoys: jazz music, philosophy, fashion, and photography. In fact she did her own singing in the movie Elf (2003).
- She plays the piano and the baritone ukulele.One of her favorite songs is "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey.
- She is part of the cabaret group called If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies.
- She shares her birthday with James Earl Jones and
Jim Carrey.
Filmography :
- Simply Halston (2007)
- Barry Munday (2007)
- Surf's Up (2007)
- The Good Life (2007)
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
- Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
- Flakes (2006)
- The Go-Getter (2006)
- Live Free or Die (2006)
- Failure to Launch (2006)
- Once Upon a Mattress (2005) (TV)
- Winter Passing (2005)
- "American Dad!" (2005)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
- Eulogy (2004)
- "Cracking Up" (2004)
- Elf (2003)
- House Hunting (2003)
- It's Better to Be Wanted for Murder Than Not to Be Wanted at All (2003)
- All the Real Girls (2003)
- Whatever We Do (2003)
- "Frasier" (2002)
- Abandon (2002) .... Samantha Harper
- Sweet Friggin' Daisies (2002)
- The New Guy (2002)
- Big Trouble (2002)
- The Good Girl (2002)
- Manic (2001)
- Almost Famous (2000)
- Mumford (1999)
- "Veronica's Closet".
Zooey Deschanel's Dates :
Chris Kattan
Dahni Harrison
Hunter Bergan
Martin Freeman
Matthew Davis
Mickey Madden
Jason Schwartzman (2004)
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