Gillian Anderson.

Born in Chicago, Illinois on August 9, 1968, Gillian Leigh Anderson and her parents, Edward and Rosemary, who were die-hard hippies originally from Michigan, moved to England when Gillian was only 2 years old. Gillian attended Coleridge Primary School in Crouch End, North London, which is where her parents settled upon their move to England. Her mom worked as a computer operator for The Daily Mirror, while her father completed his studies in the film genre.

After spending nine years in England, Gillian, then 13, and her family moved back to the USA, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was around this time that Gillian's younger brother, Aaron, and younger sister, Zoe, were born. While attending City High School in Grand Rapids, Gillian auditioned for a school play, and that's when becoming an actor began to take precedence over her initial ambition to become a marine biologist or archeologist.

After graduating from high school in 1986, Gillian studied at DePaul University's Goodman Theater in Chicago, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in fine arts. At 22, and with her degree in hand, Gillian moved to New York to pursue her dream of becoming an actor.

After a year of unemployment and the 1992 flop of a movie The Turning, Gillian decided that she would try her hand at television. After landing a one-time role in a TV show called Class of '96, she auditioned for and landed the role of Special Agent Dana Scully for an upcoming FOX network show called The X-Files. As luck would have it, she also found happiness in her personal life in 1993, having met Clyde Kotz on the set of The X-Files and marrying him on New Year's Day 1994, after only 3-months of dating. And by September 1994, Gillian gave birth to a baby girl named Piper. The couple divorced in 1997. The X-Files thrust Gillian into the spotlight garnering her awards such as a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (1996 and 1997), an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Drama (both in 1997), and the Blockbuster Award for Favorite Sci-Fi Actress (1999).