David Duchovny

Biography
David William Duchovny is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning American television and film actor, perhaps best known for his role as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files.

Duchovny was born in New York City, New York, the son of Margaret "Meg" (née Miller), a school administrator, and Amram Ducovny, a writer and publicist. His father was Jewish and his mother a Lutheran immigrant from Scotland. Duchovny's siblings are Daniel and Laurie Duchovny. He attended The Collegiate School For Boys in Manhattan and ultimately graduated from Princeton University. He also holds a Master's degree in English Literature from Yale ...( show more

) University and began work on a Ph.D. that remains unfinished. At Princeton, Duchovny was a member of the Charter Club, one of the University's eating clubs, where upperclassmen take their meals. The title of his senior thesis was The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason in Beckett's Early Novels (1982).

Duchovny appeared in an advertisement for Löwenbräu beer in 1987. He had a recurring role as a transvestite DEA agent on the series Twin Peaks and played the narrator/host in the long-running Showtime erotica/softcore TV series Red Shoe Diaries. In 1993, Duchovny began starring in the sci-fi series The X-Files as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, a conspiracy theorist who believed his sister was abducted by aliens. The show emerged as a cult hit and quickly became one of The FOX Network's first major hits. During the show's run, in between the fifth and sixth seasons, Duchovny co-starred alongside Gillian Anderson in a 1998 motion picture that continued the X-Files storyline, titled The X-Files: Fight the Future. He remained with the series until quitting in 2001, partly due to a contract dispute that occurred after season seven finished filming. Duchovny appeared in half of the season eight episodes, but did not appear in season nine until the series finale in 2002. He also provided the voice for a parody of his Fox Mulder character in an episode of The Simpsons, entitled The Springfield Files. Duchovny caused controversy when it became public that he was the primary reason that filming of The X-Files series was moved from Vancouver, British Columbia to Los Angeles in 1998. Many residents of Vancouver were upset with Duchovny over scripted jokes on Conan O'Brien's late night show about the city's heavy rainfall; he joked that "Vancouver is a very nice place, if you like 400 inches of rainfall a day." He also stated, "Of course, I'm tired of the rain. But if I wasn't married to a woman that lives in L.A. I'd stay in Vancouver. It's a lovely city." During the run of The X-Files, he also made several guest appearances in the cult TV satire The Larry Sanders Show, playing himself, but adding a strong homosexual attraction to Sanders. In the final episode of the series, he performed a memorable parody of Sharon Stone's infamous 'flashing' scene from Basic Instinct. Duchovny has guest hosted Saturday Night Live twice (May 13, 1995 and May 9, 1998). Both shows were season finales. In 2000, he starred in the feature film Return to Me, a romantic comedy/drama. Return to Me was directed by Bonnie Hunt and co-starred Minnie Driver and Carroll O'Connor. In 2001, Duchovny played a hand model in the Ben Stiller comedy, Zoolander. Duchovny provided the voice of Ethan Cole in the 2005 video game, Area 51, as well as that of the title character "XIII" in the 2003 video game XIII. In 2003, Duchovny starred in the 84th episode of the popular HBO show Sex And The City. He played the role of Jeremy, Carrie Bradshaw's high-school ex-boyfriend, who has committed himself to a Connecticut mental health facility. In 2005, Duchovny, who had already made his directorial debut with an episode of The X-Files, wrote, directed and featured in House of D. The film starred Anton Yelchin, Robin Williams and Duchovny's wife Tea Leoni in a coming-of-age tale. It received mostly poor reviews and little box office success. Duchovny also guest-directed an episode of Bones (Episode 211, "Judas on a Pole") during its second season. Duchovny currently plays Hank Moody, a troubled novelist in Showtime's series Californication. The portrayal landed him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical in 2007.

Duchovny married actress Téa Leoni on May 6, 1997. On April 24, 1999, Leoni gave birth to a daughter, Madelaine West Duchovny. Their second child, a son, Kyd Miller Duchovny, was born June 15, 2002. Though their children's names are Madelaine and Kyd, Duchovny and his wife call them by their middle names. The Duchovnys make their home in Malibu, California. Duchovny is a former vegetarian and wears contact lenses. He suffered an eye injury due to a basketball accident years ago, which caused the enlargement of one pupil. Duchovny keeps in shape with a variety of different activities, including swimming, yoga and boxing. When he took the skin-revealing role of Hank in Californication, he admitted to "lifting a little weights."