An attractive young brunette with a style more reminiscent of an early Hollywood ingenue than the average crop of teen stars, Zooey Deschanel–the daughter of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel (“The Right Stuff” 1983) and named after the beloved J D Salinger character–began to quickly rack up credits starting in 1998, making her TV debut in an episode of “Veronica’s Closet”. The following year she was featured in her first film, “Mumford”, a comedy about a man (Loren Dean) posing as a psychologist in a small town. Here Deschanel played a troubled young woman obsessed with models and impressed critics and the film’s limited audience with her spot-on portrayal.
In 2000 she was featured in the ensemble of the long-awaited Cameron Crowe film “Almost Famous”, a semi-autobiographical look at a teenage rock journalist who goes on tour with an up and coming band. Deschanel played the older and musically influential sister of the character based on Crowe (played by newcomer Patrick Fugit). Decked out in timely miniskirts with teased hair, Deschanel was at ease in the period piece, lighting up the screen in her scenes and proving an asset to the film. The actress was poised to breakout into the big time in 2000, lensing featured roles in the mental institution-set drama “Manic”, the comedic crime caper “Big Trouble” and the romantic comedy “Beauty Loop”.
In 2002, Deschanel co-starred with Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal in the independent feature “The Good Girl” playing a drugstore cosmetics girl who indulges in some sadistic over-makeovers of her clueless customers. That same year, she was cast in the Stephan Gaghan action thriller “Abandon” and made a wildly funny guest appearance on the hit NBC sit-com “Frasier” as Roz’s cynical yet seductive young cousin Jen, who nearly derails the marriage of Frasier’s station manager Kenny (Tom McGowan) . The following year, Deschanel co-starred (opposite Paul Schneider) as a boarding school virgin who returns to her small town and falls in love with the town’s “lady’s man” in the romantic drama feature “All The Real Girls” (2003).
The actress returned to the eyes of more mainstream audiences when she co-starred in director Jon Favreau’s holiday charmer “Elf” (2003) as a comely department store Santa’s helper who befriends Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human raised by North Pole elves on a journey to discover his true heritage.
- Also Credited As:
Zooey Claire Deschanel
- Born:
on 01/17/80 in California
- Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Father: Caleb Deschanel.
- Mother: Mary Jo Deschanel. appeared in “The Right Stuff”
- Sister: Emily E Deschanel. born on October 11, 1976
Education
- Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- Crossroads, Santa Monica, California
Milestones
- 1998 TV acting debut in an episode of “Veronica’s Closet”
- 1999 Film acting debut in “Mumford”, directed by Lawrence Kasdan
- 2000 Co-starred as the sister of the main character in Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical “Almost Famous”
- 2002 Co-starred in the Stephen Gaghan’s thriller feature “Abandon”
- 2002 Co-starred in the feature “The Good Girl”
- 2003 Starred as Will Ferrell’s love interest in the holiday movie “Elf”
- 2003 Starred as a virgin who captures the heart of a womanizer in the romantic drama “All The Real Girls”; received nomination for an Independent Spirit Award for best female lead
- 2004 Cohosted the Sundance Film Festival, with Jake Gyllenhaal
- 2004 Starred in the black comedy “Eulogy” which follows three generations of a family, who come together for the funeral of the patriarch
- 2005 Portrayed the daughter of a reclusive novelist (Ed Harris) in “Winter Passing”
- 2005 Starred as Trillian in the big-screen adaptation of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
- Played Little Red Riding Hood in the Interact Theater Company’s production of the musical “Into the Woods”
- Will join Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker in the comedy “Failure to Launch” (lensed 2005)
