DAVID DUCHOVNY From the hallowed halls of Yale University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English Literature and was in pursuit of a Ph.D., David William Duchovny has become one of the most popular actors in television and film. He has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, in addition to being nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his acclaimed first appearance on The Larry Sanders Show. He's been nominated four times for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series, winning in 1997, twice for the TV Guide Award for Favorite Actor in a Drama, winning in 1999, and five times for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Male Actor in a Drama Series. He was born Aug. 7, 1960 in New York City, the son of Margaret (Meg) and Amram (Marty) Ducovny, who "took the h out of our last name because he was tired of having it mispronounced," Duchovny once explained. "But when my parents divorced, my mother put the h back in, as a show of solidarity with how a family member spelled the name. I spell it with the h; my brother [Daniel] doesn't use the h. My sister [Laurie] goes back and forth, depending on her mood." As a youth, Duchovny excelled in both sports and studies, at 13 earning an academic scholarship to the prestigious Collegiate prep school in Manhattan. One classmate was actor Jason Beghe, who a longtime friend who would appear in The X-Files episode "Darkness Falls." Duchovny went on to Princeton University, where he spent a year playing guard on the basketball team and two seasons playing centerfield on the baseball team. He earned a B.A. in English literature in 1982, with grades good enough to get into Yale on a Mellon Fellowship. Sudying under such literary stars as Harold Bloom John Hollander and Jay Hillis Miller, Duchovny was on Ph.D. track. But he eventually realized, "I would have been a failed academic, because I was good at it but it was insincere. I spoke the language, but underneath I was thinking, 'Somebody's going to find out that I really don't care." In the fall of 1985, at Beghe's suggestion, Duchovny began taking acting classes. He then began commuting twice weekly from Yale to New York to study with Marsha Haufrecht of the Actors Studio. He earned $9,000 — twice his Yale teaching-assistant stipend — doing a Lowenbrau beer commercial. At the urging of actress-girlfriend Maggie Jakobson (who as Maggie Wheeler appeared in The X-Files episode "Born Again" and went on to play Chandler's on-and-off girlfriend Janice on Friends), Duchovny played her boyfriend in the low-budget indie film New Year's Day. Shot in 1987, it was released in 1989, after Duchovny had debuted as a party friend in the 1988 hit Working Girl. Having by now left Yale to pursue an acting career, Duchovny moved to Los Angeles, and after a part in the low-budget Venice/Venice (filmed 1989, released 1992) and a blink-and-miss-it role in Bad Influence (1990), he played a lead in the erotic psychodrama Julia Has Two Lovers (1991). He broke into major-studio films with a supporting role in Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), and attracted critical notice co-starring with Mimi Rogers in the acclaimed Apocalyptic drama The Rapture (1991). Duchovny found himself a pop-culture shooting star for his three-episode role as cross-dressing FBI agent Dennis/Denise Bryson on TV's Twin Peaks. More film and telefilm work followed (including the ensemble crime-thriller Kalifornia with Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis and Michelle Forbes, in 1993) before becoming the X-File x-centric we all know and love. During the 1998-99 season Duchovny added the role of director to his already extensive list of accomplishments when he wrote, directed and starred in the X-Files episode "The Unnatural." His recent film credits include Return to Me, Evolution and Full Frontal. Duchovny is married to actress Tea Leoni, with whom he has two children. close window