By 1997, Gillian Anderson was selected as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine and by 1998, she completed four more movies entitled Chicago Cab, The Mighty and Playing By Heart, which also starred Angelina Jolie and Sean Connery. That same year, Gillian and her then co-star David Duchovny (he has since been replaced by Robert Patrick) starred in a movie version of their television show entitled The X-Files: Fight The Future.

In 1999, Gillian Anderson did her duty by starring in the theater production The Vagina Monologues.

In 2000, Gillian moved on to a starring role in The House of Mirth, directed by Terence Davies. Her role as Lily Bart garnered her a British Independent Film Award for Best Actress (2000).

In 2006, Anderson was nominated for a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Actress and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Award for Best Actress for her role in Bleak House. Anderson also received an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie” for her performance as Lady Dedlock. Furthermore, she was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award and Golden Globe for her performance in Bleak House and came in second place in the Best Actress category of the 2005 BBC Drama website poll for her performance as Lady Dedlock (Billie Piper came in first and Anna Maxwell Martin came in third).

During 2006 and 2007, Anderson appeared in two British films: The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Straightheads (2007).

In December 2007, it was announced that Anderson will host PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre.

On December 10, 2007, Anderson began filming for The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Filming concluded on March 11, 2008. The movie was released on July 25, 2008.

Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, the daughter of Rosemary Anderson, a computer analyst, and Edward Anderson, who owned a film post-production company.^[1] Soon after her birth, her family moved to Puerto Rico for 15 months and then to Crouch End and finally Harringay in London, so that her father could attend the London Film School. When Anderson was 11 years old, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended Fountain Elementary and then City High-Middle School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities; she graduated in 1986.

With her English accent and background, Anderson was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwest one. In addition, Anderson lived a rebellious Punk rock lifestyle in the early 1980s. She had her nose pierced, wore punk clothes, went barefoot, and shaved and dyed her hair various colors. Her high school classmates voted her as “Most Bizarre,” “Class Clown,” and “Most Likely to be Arrested.” Anderson was also caught trying to jam the high school doors by filling their locks with glue on the eve of her graduation.

Anderson found an outlet for her talents when she began acting in high school and community theater productions, even serving as a student intern at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. She had wanted to be a marine biologist, but began acting instead at 17, with a few roles in various community theatre productions. Anderson attended The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago (formerly the Goodman School of Drama), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. She also participated in the National Theatre of Great Britain’s summer program at Cornell University.

Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an Emmy-, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American actress, best known for her roles as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files and Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House. She currently hosts Masterpiece.