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Gillian Leigh Anderson

Born 1968-08-09 in Chicago, IL
An Actor

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In Brief:

Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an American Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning actress, best known for her role as FBI Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files and her role as Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House.

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Bio:

She was born in Chicago to Edward and Rosemary Anderson. Soon after her birth her family moved to Puerto Rico for fifteen months and then to Crouch End in London. When she was eleven, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she attended Fountain Elementary and then City Middle/High School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities; she graduated in 1986. With her English accent and background, she felt out of place in the American Midwest, and developed a reputation as a strong-willed and rebellious teenager. Anderson, mocked because of her British accent, soon developed a Midwest dialect. In addition, she had her nose pierced in the early 1980s, and dyed her hair various colours.

She found an outlet for her talents when she began acting in high school and community theater productions. She had wanted to be a marine biologist, but at 17 after a couple of auditions for the Grand Rapids Community Theater, she gained a few roles and never looked back. She attended Goodman Theater School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990, and a few summer schools with the National Theatre of Great Britain at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Anderson moved to New York when she was twenty-two, and started her career in 'The Philanthropist' at the Long Wharf Theatre. To support herself when she started out she worked as a waitress. Anderson did a lot of theatre work and won much critical acclaim, including a 1990-91 Theatre World Award for he role in the play 'Absent Friends' produced by Alan Ayckbourn which ran at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1991/92, spending a year auditioning. Although she had once vowed she would never do TV, being out of work for a year changed her mind. Anderson did Home Fires Burning for a cable station as well as the audiocassette version of Exit to Eden. She broke into mainstream television in 1993, with a guest appearance on the collegiate drama Class of '96 on the fledgling Fox Network.

As a result of her guest appearance in Class of 96, Anderson was sent the script for The X Files at the age of 24. She decided to audition as: "for the first time in a long time the script involved a strong, independent intelligent woman as a lead character." Producer Chris Carter wanted to employ her, but FOX wanted someone with previous TV exposure and more "bimbo-like". Fox sent in more actresses, but Carter stood by Anderson, and she was cast as Special Agent Dana Scully. She got the part assuming it would run for thirteen episodes, the standard run for American TV networks. Filmed in Vancouver, the series eventually ran for nine seasons, and included one film. During her time on The X Files Anderson won several awards for her portrayal of Agent Scully, including an Emmy Award, Golden Globe and two SAG awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series. While filming she met assistant art director Clyde Klotz, whom she married. She had roles in a handful of films during the run of The X-Files and starred in The House of Mirth, an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel of the same name.

Since The X-Files ended, she has performed in several stage productions and worked on various film projects. She has also done narrative work for documentaries on scientific topics. In 2005, she appeared as Lady Dedlock in a BBC television adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House, had a starring role in the Irish film The Mighty Celt (for which she won an IFTA award for Best International Actress) and performed in a film version of the novel Tristram Shandy, released in January 2006.

In 1999, Anderson starred in English release of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, where she voiced the character of Moro. Anderson is a proclaimed lover of Miyazaki's work. She also took part in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.

In 2006, she was nominated for the prestigious British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Actress and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Award for Best Actress for her role in Bleak House. However, her co-star in Bleak House, Anna Maxwell Martin, walked away with the BAFTA award. Anderson also received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her performance as Lady Dedlock.

As a teenager, Anderson has been said to have dyed her hair purple and, in her mid-teens, dated a twenty-year old musician.

On New Year's Day 1994, Anderson married Clyde Klotz, the "The X-Files" series assistant art director, on the 17th hole of a golf course in Hawaii in a Buddhist ceremony. A few months later came the news that she was pregnant, and Chris Carter created an alien abduction storyline that kept Anderson off-camera long enough for labor, delivery, and a 10-day maternity leave. Daughter Piper Maru was born by caesarean section on September 25, 1994 - Chris Carter was her godfather.

"The X-Files" finished its ninth and final season in May 2002, marking the end of a major period in her life - she started the show when she was 24, and finished it when she was 34. Her marriage broke down and she moved to London. From November 2002 through February 9, 2003, she starred in the Michael Weller play "What the Night is For" in London's West End.

In December 2004, Anderson married Julian Ozanne, a documentary filmmaker, on Lamu's island of Shella, off the coast of Africa. Anderson and Ozanne announced their separation on 21st April 2006, after 16 months of marriage. In July of that year, Anderson announced that she was expecting a second child with businessman Mark Griffiths.

Anderson provides philanthropic and charitable assistance in the support of finding a cure for neurofibromatosis. She serves as NF, Inc.'s Honorary Spokesperson and is a Patron of the Neurofibromatosis Association (based in the UK). Her support stems from her brother being diagnosed with NF-1.

Gillian is a supporter of animal rights and an active member of PETA.

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Trivia:

• Is one of three children, to Ed and Rosemary Anderson
• Her eyes are blue-green, and her original hair color is ash-blonde.
• Her father owns a post-production film company
• So her father could attend the London Film school, the family moved to London
• As a child, Anderson dreamed of becoming a marine biologist
• Is allergic to cats, as stated in an X-Files commentary
• On the eve of her high school graduation, Anderson fulfilled her classmates' expectations. Having been voted "Most Bizarre," "Class Clown," and "Most Likely to be Arrested," Anderson was caught trying to jam the high school doors by filling their locks with glue.
• Had a nose piercing in her younger years; the remnants of the hole are still visible in some photographs
• Tattoos include a Tahitian tribal symbol on the inside of her right ankle, the words "every day" in Sanskrit on her right wrist, and a "P" on her left hip (presumably for daughter Piper)
• The X-Files episode "Piper Maru" is named after her child, Piper
• X-Files director, creator, and writer Chris Carter is godfather to her child
• Her favourite X-Files episodes are "Triangle" and "Bad Blood"
• Wrote and directed the X-Files episode "All Things"
• Compiled a collection of Electronica music inspired by Future Fantastic, entitled Future: A Journey Through The Electronic Underground. Contributed vocals to one track, Extremis, with music by HAL.
• Provided the voice for the ship's computer in the 1996 videogame Hellbender by Terminal Reality and Microsoft.
• Was at one time friends with Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan
• When interviewed on Britain's popular talk show Parkinson, she told the host Michael Parkinson that when she is in Britain she never knows how to speak, or what her "real" accent should be, and that it makes her feel a fraud. However, by speaking with a British accent she doesn't attract attention. But problems come if there's a phone call from the US and and she feels she has to switch accents.

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Filmography:

• Straightheads (2007)
• The Last King of Scotland (2006)
• Bleak House (2006)
• Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)
• The Mighty Celt (2005)
• The House of Mirth (2000)
• Monoke Hime (1999)
• Playing by Heart (1998)
• The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)
• The Mighty (1998)
• Chicago Cab (1998)
• The Turning (1992)
• A Matter of Choice (1988)
• Three at Once (1986)

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