Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel (born January 17, 1980) is an American actress, musician 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), Winter Passing (2005), and Tin Man in 2007.

Since 2001, Zooey 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 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, 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."

Zooey 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.

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.

In March 2007, Zooey 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 June 2008, Deschanel stars opposite Mark Wahlberg in M. Night Shyamalan's environmental thriller The Happening. She also stars opposite Jim Carrey in the romantic comedy Yes Man.