Gillian Anderson.

Moving to London at age two shaped Gillian Anderson’s early life. She was born in Chicago on August 9, 1968, to Rosemary Alyce Lane, a computer analyst, and Homer Edward Anderson III, a film post-production company owner. In Northern Ireland, she adopted a British accent to fit in. When the family returned to the United States when she was 11, classmates teased her accent, and she switched back to American English. At City High-Middle School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, classmates voted her Class Clown and Most Likely to Be Arrested. She attended a summer acting program at Cornell University in 1987, studying under Peter Chelsom. She earned a Fine Arts degree from the Goodman Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.

Gillian Anderson’s big break came in 1993 when she was cast as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully on The X-Files. She initially told producers she was 27 to appear more credible for the role. Her performance earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1997, making her the youngest actress at age 29 to win that category since Lindsay Wagner. That same year, she also won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award, becoming the first actress to achieve this triple honor. Her film career began with The Turning in 1992, and she later starred in Playing by Heart 1998 alongside Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie. In the 2010s, she portrayed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Crown 2016. She also voiced Dana Scully on The Simpsons and hosted Masterpiece, the first woman to do so since its 1971 debut.

Gillian Anderson met her first husband, art director Clyde Klotz, on the set of The X-Files. They married on January 1, 1994, in a ceremony on the 17th hole of a golf course in Hawaii, officiated by a Buddhist priest. Their daughter, Piper Maru Klotz, was born on September 25, 1994. She returned to work on The X-Files just 10 days after giving birth. The couple divorced in 1997. In 2004, she married photojournalist Julian Ozanne on Lamu Island, Kenya; they separated in 2007. From 2006 to 2012, she was in a relationship with businessman Mark Griffiths, with whom she had two sons: Oscar born November 1, 2006 and Felix born October 15, 2008. She later dated screenwriter Peter Morgan from 2016 to 2020. She is bidialectal, speaking both British and American English fluently. She collects art and supports Planned Parenthood.

Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully on The X-Files inspired a generation of women in science and law enforcement. She won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for that role in 1997—the first actress to achieve that triple in one year. In 2016, she received an OBE for services to drama. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018. She later played Margaret Thatcher in The Crown. Her signature bob haircut influenced fashion. She continues to act in television, film, and theater.