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Early life

Duchovny was born in New York City, New York to Amram Ducovny, a writer and publicist, and Margaret "Meg" , a school administrator. His father was Jewish and his mother a Lutheran immigrant from Scotland. Duchovny's siblings are Daniel and Laurie Duchovny. He attended The Collegiate School For Boys in Manhattan, and ultimately graduated from Princeton University. He also holds a Master's degree in English Literature from Yale University and began work on a Ph.D. that remains unfinished. At Princeton, he was a member of the Charter Club, one of the University's eating clubs, where upperclassmen take their meals. The title of his senior thesis is The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason in Beckett's Early Novels (1982).

Career

Duchovny appeared in an advertisement for beer in 1987. He had a recurring role as a transvestite DEA agent on the series Twin Peaks and played the narrator/host in the long-running Showtime erotica/softcore TV series Red Shoe Diaries. In 1993, Duchovny began starring in the sci-fi series The X-Files as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, a conspiracy theorist who believed his sister was abducted by aliens. The show began as a cult hit and quickly became one of The FOX Network's first major hits. During the show's run, in between the fifth and sixth seasons, Duchovny co-starred alongside Gillian Anderson in a 1998 motion picture that continued the X-Files storyline, entitled The X-Files: Fight the Future. He remained with the series until quitting in 2001, partly due to a contract dispute that occurred after season seven finished filming. Duchovny appeared in half of the season eight episodes but did not appear in season nine until the series finale in 2002. He also provided the voice for a parody of his Fox Mulder character in an episode of The Simpsons entitled The Springfield Files.

Duchovny caused controversy when it became public that he was the primary reason that filming of The X-Files series was moved from Vancouver, British Columbia to Los Angeles in 1998. Many residents of Vancouver were upset with Duchovny over scripted jokes on Conan O'Brien's late night show about the city's heavy rainfall; he joked that "Vancouver is a very nice place if you like 400 inches of rainfall a day" and also stated "Of course, I'm tired of the rain. But if I wasn't married to a woman that lives in L.A. I'd stay in Vancouver. It's a lovely city". During the run of The X-Files, he also made several guest appearances in the cult TV satire The Larry Sanders Show, playing himself but adding a strong homosexual attraction to Sanders. He featured memorably in the final episode of the series, performing a parody of Sharon Stone's infamous 'flashing' scene from Basic Instinct.

Duchovny has guest hosted Saturday Night Live twice (May 13, 1995 and May 9, 1998). Both shows were season finales. In 2000, he starred in the feature film Return to Me, a romantic comedy/drama. Return to Me was directed by Bonnie Hunt and co-starred Minnie Driver and in his last role, Carroll O'Connor. In 2001, Duchovny played a hand model in the Ben Stiller comedy, Zoolander.

Duchovny provided the voice of Ethan Cole in the 2005 video game Area 51, as well as that of the title character "XIII" in the 2003 video game XIII. In 2003, Duchovny starred in the 84th episode of the popular HBO show Sex and the City. He played the role of Jeremy, Carrie Bradshaw's high-school ex-boyfriend who has committed himself to a Connecticut mental health facility. In 2005, Duchovny, who had already made his directorial debut with an episode of The X-Files, wrote, directed and featured in House of D. The film starred Anton Yelchin, Robin Williams and Duchovny's wife Tea Leoni in a coming of age tale. It met with mostly poor reviews and little box office success.

Duchovny currently plays Hank Moody, a troubled novelist in Showtime's series Californication. He also guest-directed an episode of Bones (Episode 211, "Judas on a Pole") during its second season.