American actress, best known for her action as FBI Agent Dana Scully in the American television series "The X-Files", Gillian Leigh Anderson was born on August 9, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is the eldest daughter of the married couple Edward and Rosemary Anderson. She has one younger sister named Zoe Anderson and one younger brother Aaron who suffers from neurofibromatosis for whom Anderson has done work to encourage government to increase funding for research.

Anderson spent her childhood grew up in London until her family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan when she was 11 years old. There she attended City High School in Grand Rapids, a program for gifted students, where with her "different" English accent and background that seemed "weird� among the American Midwest, she was named the "Class Clown" and "Most Bizarre Girl." Moreover, she was also voted as the "Most Likely to be Arrested" by her high school classmates, and was, in fact, arrested on graduation night for gluing the locks shut at her high school.

Firstly found her creativity and gifted talent when she started acting in high school and community theater productions, Anderson headed to Goodman Theater School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. After her graduation, she got her acting breakthrough, replacing Mary-Louise Parker in the 1992 play entitled "The Philanthropist." Went on acting on television series, in 1993 she subsequently got a guest appearance role on the collegiate drama "Class of '96" on the fledgling Fox Network. At the same year, she also auditioned for the role of Dana Scully on "The X-Files"(1993), which undoubtedly launched her into the galaxy of superstardom while brought her several awards as well, including an Emmy Award, Golden Globe and two SAG awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

During the filming of the TV series, where she played alongside co-star David Duchovny, Anderson met assistant art director Clyde Klotz whom she married with on January 1st, 1994. A month after the marriage, she was pregnant and gave birth to her first son, Piper Maru Anderson, on September 25 the same year. To note, Piper Maru had once become the inspiration for the title of "The X Files" episode introducing the famous black oil in the series. Sadly, the couple has later ended their marriage and filed for a legal divorce sometimes during 1997 with Anderson held on the custody over Piper Maru.

Done with "The X-Files", Anderson kept performing on several stage productions and working on various film projects. In the year of 2000 she got a chance to star in "The House of Mirth" played the role of Lily Bart. The film is a 1905 adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel of the same name, which focuses its story around Lily Bart, a New York socialite who attempts to secure a husband and a place in affluent society. While her acting career kept skyrocketing, the actress held her second marriage with photojournalist Julian Ozanne, on December 29, 2004 on Lamu's Shella Island, off Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. Sadly, this one also didn't work quite well that on April 21st, 2006 Anderson announced separation, released a statement through their solicitor, saying "Gillian Anderson and her husband Julian Ozanne are saddened to announce that their marriage is at an end and they are in the process of separating. At this difficult time they request that their privacy is respected. There will be no further comment." Later on Anderson romancing Mark Griffiths and gave birth to his son, Oscar Griffiths, on November 1st, 2006.

Marriage aside, Anderson proves to have been able to build a very solid acting career, either in big or small screen. In 2005, she starred in a BBC television adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel "Bleak House" portraying the role of Lady Dedlock that brought her the prestigious British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination for Best Actress, an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, plus the Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Award for Best Actress. Amidst her shaky marriage to Ozanne, this movie star kept adding more film projects into her resume, naming those of the Irish film "The Mighty Celt" (2005), "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" (2006), also "The Last King of Scotland" (2006). The list wonderfully grew larger as she later managed to add more titles like "Straightheads" (2007), "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" (2008), and "No One Gets Off in This Town" (2008) as well as a 2009 sequel to "The X Files" movie.