Gillian Leigh Anderson (photo ©Eva Rinaldi) was born on August 9, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Shortly after Gillian Anderson’s birth, her parents moved to Puerto Rico and after 15 months to London, where they lived for about nine years before returning to the USA. Her teen years were wild between weird looks and drug use but during her high school years, she also developed an interest in acting. That experience led her to attend The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1990.

Gillian Anderson’s first experience as a professional actress was in stage plays. In 1992 she moved to Los Angeles, initially looking for a career in cinema. Not finding work, she decided to accept roles for television productions and, after a small role, she auditioned for “The X-Files” and was cast for the role that changed her life, that of FBI agent Dana Scully. FOX wanted an actress with more experience and sex appeal but showrunner Chris Carter wanted Gillian Anderson and she got the role.

Thanks to “The X-Files”, Gillian Anderson obtained not only fame but also a number of awards, in particular an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Saturn Award. Her participation in the show gave her the opportunity to write the screenplay of an episode of the 7th season, “All Things”, which she directed herself.

After the end of the show, Gillian Anderson worked again in theater and in several British productions thanks to the fact that the years spent in England allowed her to acquire a perfect local accent. She starred in the 2005 mini-series “Bleak House”, an adaptation of a novel by Charles Dickens, and in movies such as “A Cock and Bull Story” (2005), “The Last King of Scotland” (2006), and “Straightheads” (2007).

“The X-Files” movie, “The X-Files – I Want To Believe” (2008) was almost a break in Gillian Anderson’s British career as she returned to an American production for what seemed like the final chapter of the saga that gave her fame.

Returning to British productions, Gillian Anderson divided her effort between cinema and television such as the 2010 mini-series “Any Human Heart”, the movie “Johnny English Reborn” (2011), the mini-series “Moby Dick” and “Great Expectations” (2011), and the movie “Shadow Dancer” (2012).

In recent years, Gillian Anderson divided her efforts between British and American productions. She stars in the British TV show “The Fall”, although, after its third season, it’s unclear whether it has a future, she played a semi-regular character in the American TV show “Hannibal”, participated in the American mini-series “War & Peace” (2016) and the TV show “American Gods” that started in 2017. She starred in the revival of “The X-Files”, although she stated that she wanted to close that experience for good.

Gillian Anderson is now an actress appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and in the coming months the movie “UFO” and the TV show “Sex Education” are scheduled to be released, two projects in which she participated. In short, even if “The X-Files” had really come to an end, her fans can still see her in other productions.