Gillian Anderson Biography And Filmography:

Gillian Anderson was born on August 9, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois to Ed and Rosemary and is one of three children. She in Puerto Rico and then in London so her father could attend a private film and production school.

At age eleven, she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she attended elementary and then high school. She then relocated to Chicago where she attended college and gained her BFA, then moved to New York City where she had several theater roles, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1991. When she got the the role of Dana Scully, she finally settled down in Vancouver, Canada where the X-files was produced.  

She attended Fountain Elementary and then City High in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After graduating in 1986 she moved to Chicago to attend the Goodman Theater School at DePaul University in Chicago where she obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While attending DePaul University, she studied at the summer program for the National Theater of Great Britain at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

The young actress planned to seek a career in marine biology, but performed some community theater work and by age seventeen was participating in auditions at the Grand Rapids Community Theater where she was cast in small plays and productions, and from there she would never think about marine biology again.

While studying for her Bachelor of Fine Arts at DePaul University, she spent some time in the National Theater of Great Britain. She was hired and cast in a small role in the film "The Turning" (1992) about a white supremacist who returns to his hometown for the first time in years to try and save his parents' relationship. Having limited success with auditions, Anderson moved to New York to embark on a serious career in theater - including an off-Broadway production of Alan Ayckbourne's "Absent Friends," for which she won a Theater World Award in 1991. The actress also appeared in  "The Philanthropist " at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven.

She then moved to Los Angeles to spend a year auditioning and trying out for anything she could get, when she was cast in the film "Home Fires Burning",  an independent production,  as well as lending her voice to the audio version of "Exit to Eden." From there, she began to accept supporting actress roles in bigger profile movies such as "Chicago Cab" (1998), starring John Cusack, and the dramatic comedy "The Mighty" (1998) with Sharon Stone, that told the story of a strong friendship between a young boy with Morquio's syndrome and an older boy who is always bullied because of his size. Her big film break came with "Playing by Heart" (1998), working with an all-star cast including Angelina Jolie and Sean Connery, about eleven articulate people who work through affairs of the heart in Los Angeles.

Although she had once vowed to never do television and seemed set on a career in film or theater, being out of work for two years changed her mind. She was asked to read a script by Chris Carter about UFOs and alien conspiracy, and was impressed enough by the role of Dana Scully that she auditioned for Carter who was developing the series called "The X Files". This was the beginning of a new Gillian Anderson.

She told reporters, "The chance to play FBI Special Agent Dana Scully was the series key attraction, I was reading something that for the first time in a long time involved a strong, independent intelligent woman as a lead character". The audition went well and Carter was impressed enough to cast her as agent Dana Scully, against the role of Fox Mulder played by David Duchovny. The X-Files was an instant runaway success, making both Anderson and Duchovny instant celebrities.

The onscreen chemistry between the two was brilliant, and the show seemed to pick up steam with each new season. "The X Files" developed a cult following, and would forever change the television landscape. Both stars appeared in the big-screen movie version titled "The X Files" (1998) where after five years of chasing paranormal activity, the X-Files are closed by the government. FBI Agent Fox Mulder and his skeptical partner, Dana Scully, are reassigned to more mundane duties such as bomb detail. Even so, Mulder gets more and more information confirming his suspicions about alien activity on Earth and a secret, international cabal of men protecting that confidential information. An outbreak of metamorphic alien activity in Texas provides the clues for the agents. The film was a box office smash hit.

While still working on the weekly "X-files" televivision series, the actress found time to work on some big-screen feature films. The first was the romantic comedy "The House of Mirth: (2000) with Dan Aykroyd, about a woman who risks losing her chance of happiness with the only man she has ever loved. Next was the dramatic "The Mighty Celt" (2005), set in Ireland, it tells the story of a 14-year old who develops a passion for greyhound racing. He works in a kennel and is promised ownership of the keepers favorite greyhound, The Mighty Celt, if the animal wins three races in a row. She then appeared in the comedy "A Cock and Bull Story" (2005) and "The Last King of Scotland" (2006) starring Forest Whitaker and based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s. The actress then starred in the action thriller "Straightheads" (2007) when after surviving a gang rape and mugging, a middle aged businesswoman and her 23 year old boyfriend plot to murder their attackers, but find themselves conflicted about carrying out their plans.

She was then hired and cast in "Boogie Woogie" (2008) with Heather Graham, and then the comedic "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" (2008) starring Jeff Bridges, Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox, about a British writer who struggles to fit in at a high-profile magazine in New York. Based on Toby Young's memoir "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People". 

Then she appeared with her old friends in the sequel to the first "X-Files" in the summer blockbuster "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" (2008), the story about a group of women who are abducted in the hills of rural Virginia, and the only clues to their disappearance are the bizarre human remains that begin to turn up in snow banks along the highway. With officials desperate for any clue, a disgraced priest’s questionable “visions” send local police on a wild goose chase and straight to a bizarre secret medical experiment that may or may not be connected to the women’s disappearance. It’s a case right out of The X-Files. But the FBI closed down its investigations into the paranormal years ago. And the best team for the job is ex-agents Mulder and Scully, who have no desire to revisit their dark past. Still, the truth of these horrific crimes is out there somewhere...and it will take Mulder and Scully to find it!

Leaving "The X-Files" behind her, she next starred in the comedy "No One Gets Off in This Town" (2008) starring John Hurt, where blackmail threatens to expose the secrets of neighbors living in a seaside town. She wrapped the year with the novel based dramatic "The Smell of Apples" (2009)

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