Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel

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Birth name: Zooey Claire Deschanel
Date of birth: 17 January 1980
Place of birth:  Los Angeles, California, USA
Nickname:  Zo
Height: 5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

Famous Quote: “For a while I was like, Oh my God, anyone that would release an album as an actor is the biggest fool ever, but I happened to have sung all my life before I was an actor. Why are musicians allowed to become actors? No one ever gives them flack for that.”

 Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Zooey Deschanel
Seven Summits Pictures and Management
8906 West Olympic Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211, USA

Zooey Claire Deschanel (born January 17, 1980) is an American actress and singer. Deschanel made her film debut in 1999′s Mumford and soon became known for memorable, deadpan supporting roles in films such as Almost Famous (2000), The New Guy (2002), Big Trouble (2002) and The Good Girl (2002). She then began playing female leads, in All the Real Girls (2003), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and Tin Man in 2007.

Since 2001, Deschanel has performed in the jazz cabaret act If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies with fellow actress Samantha Shelton. Deschanel has sung in several of her films, and her debut album Volume One (recorded with M. Ward under the moniker She & Him) was released on March 18, 2008.

Zooey Deschanel was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir). She is of Irish and French ancestry (her surname means “from the channels” in French). She was named after Zooey Glass, the male protagonist of J. D. Salinger’s 1961 short story collection Franny and Zooey. Her older sister Emily is also an actress.

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, California, where she befriended future co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Kate Hudson. She also attended the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts summer camp and sang throughout high school, planning to pursue a career in musical theatre. She attended Northwestern University for seven months before dropping out to work as an actress.

It took little time for actress-singer Zooey Deschanel – a petite and enigmatic beauty of black hair, pale complexion and deep blue eyes – to gain a devoted audience. Taking up acting as a teenager in the late 1990s and moving into highly-monitored prestige projects such as “Almost Famous” (2000) and “All the Real Girls” (2003), Deschanel’s off-beat projections of character made her cast-worthy before the Christmas comedy, “Elf” (2003), did the trick. Over the next few years, Deschanel found her niche as a reliable supporting presence in both mainstream and independent works of comedy, drama and fantasy, before getting a shot headlining them herself.

Zooey Claire Deschanel was born on Jan. 17, 1980 in Los Angeles, CA. She and her older actress sister, Emily, were raised by their father, Caleb, an Oscar-winning cinematographer and their mother, actress Mary Jo. Deschanel, whose first name was taken from the male Zooey Glass character of J.D. Salinger’s story Franny and Zooey, often spent her young years hanging out on film set locations – despite the fact that deep down, Deschanel wished for a typical, sedentary family home life. Despite this fact, by the time she was old enough to know what acting was, she wanted to be an actress, but her parents rejected the idea, telling her she would have to wait until she had a driver’s license to get her around town.

Deschanel attended the elite prep school Crossroads in Santa Monica, CA alongside future co-stars Kate Hudson and Jake Gyllenhaal, where she discovered an interest in singing and musical theater; at one point, considering a career in jazz singing on Broadway. At 16, she appeared as Little Red Riding Hood in the North Hollywood-based Interact Theatre Company’s production of “Into the Woods.” Driver’s license firmly in hand, Deschanel started auditioning for onscreen parts, landing on an episode of NBC’s “Veronica’s Closet” (1997-2000) just days before her 18th birthday.

Frustrated by the industry politics of Hollywood, Deschanel left for Chicago to attend Northwestern University in the fall of 1998, but seven months into her first year, realized she wanted to be auditioning again and headed back to Los Angeles. Her first break came as a self-conscious teen on the psychiatrist’s couch of Lawrence Kasdan’s low-key comedy “Mumford” (1999). The fall release gave a wide audience a brief introduction to the actress, as did her appearance in the video for “She’s Got Issues” – a song from the popular punk quartet, The Offspring. The following year, she offered up a more formal introduction, knocking out audiences as the wise, world-ready flight attendant and older sister of Cameron Crowe’s rock and roll epic “Almost Famous” (2000) – a film which also served as classmate Kate Hudson’s breakout project.

Deschanel appeared in a guest role on the television series Veronica’s Closet before making her film debut in Lawrence Kasdan’s 1999 comedy Mumford, and later in the year she appeared in the music video for The Offspring’s single “She’s Got Issues”. In her second film, director Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical Almost Famous (2000), Deschanel played Anita Miller, the protagonist’s rebellious older sister. The film received critical praise,[5] but was not a box office success. Deschanel continued to sing, and in 2001 formed If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies, a jazz cabaret act with fellow actress Samantha Shelton. The pair performs around Los Angeles on an ad-hoc basis.

Deschanel played supporting roles in a series of films that included Manic (2001), Big Trouble (2002), Abandon (2002), and The Good Girl (2002). In late 2002, The New York Times reported that Deschanel was “one of Hollywood’s most sought-after young stars,” 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.”

Following “Almost Famous,” Deschanel’s options broadened, enabling her to develop what would become an ongoing taste for independent films. Appearing in “Manic” (2001), she played the sullen, troubled resident of a mental institution and a fellow patient’s object of affection. She just as easily switched gears to become the tart-mouthed small-town counter girl of a different indie, “The Good Girl” (2002), starring Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal. Turning her attentions to a musical diversion that arose from an introduction at filmmaker Sofia Coppola’s 2001 Jazz party, she and actress Samantha Shelton bonded over a common interest in old Jazz standards and decided to put together an act. With period outfits and a small backing band, the actresses would trek across Los Angeles in between acting gigs, performing in clubs under the moniker of If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies. When not onscreen, Deschanel would also spend her off time hanging with an equally-musical boyfriend, Coppola’s cousin, actor Jason Schwartzman, whom she dated until 2005.

Returning to bigger projects, Deschanel took on a role as Rene Russo’s daughter in the ensemble comedy, “Big Trouble” (2002), as well as had a smaller part as DJ Qualls’ bandmate in “The New Guy” (2002) before trying her hand at a thriller with “Abandon” (2002) – in which she played the best friend of a college classmate tormented by her boyfriend’s mysterious disappearance. On a roll, the projects kept her working, but Deschanel really got a chance to shine under the promising young director David Gordon Green. With his 2003 effort, “All the Real Girls,” she was his embodiment of first love, playing Noel, a small town 18-year-old on the cusp of a sexual awakening in North Carolina. Deschanel and co-star Paul Schneider won positive comments playing out the intimate, young romance between a virgin and the smitten town stud. By the summer, her status as one of Hollywood’s freshest faces had been further verified with her role as the good-hearted department store elf, tentatively romancing Will Ferrell’s lumbering real elf in “Elf” (2003). Deschanel even got to add her voice to the soundtrack, singing alongside Leon redbone in a rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

By 2004, her lead role in Green’s film had netted her an Independent Spirit Award nomination, but with “Elf,” Deschanel was now a sought out actress, picked to star in Disney’s long-in-development screen adaptation of Douglas Adams’ cult classic novel, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” As the alien love interest Trillian, Deschanel had serious fans of the sci-fi satire debating the merits of her casting well before the mid-2004 shoot had even begun. After wrapping production late in the year, she relaxed and watched the release of her indie ensemble comedy “Eulogy” (2004), for which her perplexed, grieving granddaughter provided the memorial.

As “Hitchhiker’s Guide” hit theaters in the summer of 2005 to mixed reviews, Deschanel continued to work steadily in different-sized projects. The somewhat delayed release of “Winter Passing” (2005) re-teamed her with Ferrell in a more somber outing of family estrangement, but the actress got to put her singing to serious use on television as Lady Larken of ABC’s musical movie, “Once Upon a Mattress” (2005) – a raucous retelling of the classic fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea.” Deschanel’s quirky sensibilities even managed to steal the show from Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey in the by-the-books rom-com, “Failure to Launch” (2006), a high concept comedy which showcased Deschanel’s character Kit – an off-kilter, mockingbird-hating roommate.

Taking advantage of an increasing number of diverse onscreen opportunities, Deschanel found another interesting place to go on television. For Showtime’s “Weeds” (2005- ), a series about a suburban mother dealing marijuana to make ends meet, Deschanel recurred as the wild girl Kat, coming in and out of her ex-boyfriend’s life. By 2007, she had no less than half a dozen projects that stretched into independent and studio territory. Deschanel opted to mix things up as a former famous child actor bonding with a social misfit under their small-town malaise in “The Good Life,” as well as the owner of a stolen car connecting with its thief in the small comedy, “The Go-Getter.”

Further into 2007, Deschanel shook the dust off the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” reception for another go at fantasy filmmaking. To an ever expanding group of converts, her casting as the winsome music teacher and crush of a young farmboy in Disney’s adaptation of the children’s novel “Bridge to Terabithia” seemed ideal. She also expanded her resume to include voice-over work, taking her distinct voice to the animation production of “Surf’s Up.” As Lani Aliikai, the sexy, exuberant penguin lifeguard of Pen Gu Island, the film was widely praised for its impressive story and CGI animation. Not wasting a moment’s time, Deschanel reconnected with past co-star Paul Schneider as they both went to the gritty old west to help tell the big screen story of “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007) – a movie starring Brad Pitt.

Deschanel turned down several supporting roles and played her first lead role in All the Real Girls (2003). Deschanel’s performance as Noel, a sexually curious 18-year-old virgin who has a life-changing romance with an aimless 22-year-old, received critical praise, and she received an Independent Spirit nomination for Best Actress.Later in 2003, Deschanel played a deadpan department store elf opposite Will Ferrell in the comedy Elf, which became a box office hit. 

Elf was the first of Deschanel’s films in which she sang onscreen; she dueted with Ferrell in the bathroom shower scene on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, and was also heard singing it on the soundtrack with Leon Redbone. Subsequently, Deschanel has sung in Winter Passing (“My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean”), the 2005 television musical Once Upon a Mattress (“An Opening For a Princess,” “In a Little While,” “Normandy,” and “Yesterday I Loved You”), an old cabaret song in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and the 2007 short film Raving (“Hello, Dolly!”). Her piano composition “Bittersuite” was used thematically in the dark, off-beat 2004 dramedy Winter Passing, in which she starred alongside Ferrell and Ed Harris.

2004, Deschanel also starred in Eulogy, and in 2005 as Trillian in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams’ science fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Deschanel then played Sarah Jessica Parker’s neurotic roommate in Failure to Launch (2006), and appeared on four episodes of the Showtime television series Weeds from 2006 to 2007, playing Andy Botwin’s quirky ex-girlfriend, Kat. In September 2006, Variety announced that Deschanel would play 1960s singer Janis Joplin in the film The Gospel According to Janis, to be co-written and directed by Penelope Spheeris. Deschanel planned to sing all of Joplin’s songs, and took four months of singing lessons “to approximate Joplin’s gritty vocals.” The film, scheduled to begin shooting on November 13, 2006, was postponed indefinitely.

In 2007, Deschanel appeared in two children’s films, Bridge to Terabithia and the animated film Surf’s Up, in which she voiced a penguin named Lani Aliikai. In December 2007, she played DG, the lead in the new Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man, a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum’s children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

If any expectations about Deschanel’s career remained, they were only of her abilities and the loftier challenges just ahead. On the heels of “Terabithia,” Deschanel moved to the Sci-Fi channel, embodying a Dorothy-esque figure named DG in “Tin Man” (2007), a very twisted take on “The Wizard of Oz.” Tweaking the beloved Judy Garland model would seem like a cakewalk compared to portraying the life of a real icon, but Deschanel’s trademark lower timbre would come in handy as the tragic singer/songwriter Janis Joplin. Cast in the biopic, Deschanel spent many months in vocal training, looking to perfect Joplin’s necessary trademark rasp. The subsequent “Gospel According to Janis” (2008) – one of several competing Joplin films – promised to usher the singer-actress into a new level of recognition. 

In March 2007, Deschanel contributed vocals to two songs (“Slowly” and “Ask Her To Dance”) on the album Nighttiming by Jason Schwartzman’s band Coconut Records. In May 2007, singer-songwriter M. Ward, who had previously performed with Deschanel onstage, said that he was “just finishing work” on her debut album, which will feature songs written by Deschanel and produced by Ward. In January 2008, Rolling Stone reported that Deschanel and Ward were recording under the moniker She & Him, and that the album, titled Volume One, would be released by Merge Records on March 18, 2008.

In 2008, Deschanel will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in M. Night Shyamalan’s environmental thriller The Happening, and opposite Jim Carrey in the romantic comedy Yes Man. A friend of actor Jason Schwartzman since childhood, she dated him for several years before breaking up in 2005. She also dated playwright Jeff Smeenge, and Hunter Burgan, the bassist from AFI, for a time. A June/July 2007 issue of Jane Magazine reported that Zooey was dating Richmond, Virginia-based singer/songwriter Brandon Peck.

Deschanel was next seen as the title character in the 2009 award winning romantic-drama-comedy (500) Days of Summer, opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt (for a second time after Manic). The film, about the development and demise of a relationship, received widespread praise and was directed by long-time commercial and music video director Marc Webb. The film received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical), but was ultimately defeated by The Hangover.

Deschanel guest starred in a Christmas 2009 episode of Bones as Brennan’s never-before-seen cousin. In the first-ever on-screen pairing of the Deschanel sisters, Zooey portrayed Margaret Whitesell, a distant relative of Emily’s Dr. Temperance Brennan. Brennan’s father, Max Keenan (guest star Ryan O’Neal), invites Margaret to spend Christmas with him and his daughter.

In 2010, Deschanel secured the role of Belladonna in the upcoming fantasy comedy film Your Highness alongside Natalie Portman and James Franco. Deschanel will star in the pilot for the HBO series I’m with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, in which she plays the role of Pamela Des Barres, who wrote a memoir based on her own experience as a former groupie.