David William Duchovny (/dʊˈkɒvni/ duu-KOV-nee; born (1960-08-07)August 7, 1960)[1] is an American actor, director, writer, producer, and musician.

In the 2000s, he starred in Return to Me with Minnie Driver (2000), Evolution with Orlando Jones (2001), Connie and Carla with Nia Vardalos (2004), House of D with Robin Williams (2004), and The Joneses with Demi Moore (2009).

in English literature from Yale University, and has since published five books: Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale (2015), Bucky F*cking Dent (2016), Miss Subways (2018), Truly Like Lightning (2021), and The Reservoir (2022).

[1][2] He is the son of Amram "Ami" Ducovny (1927–2003), a writer and publicist who worked for the American Jewish Committee, and Margaret "Meg" (née Miller), a school administrator and teacher.

[24] He earned a Master of Arts in English Literature from Yale University and subsequently began work on a Ph.D. that remains unfinished.

In December 1914 his ancestors were among 6,000 Jews who were forcibly removed from their homes by Ottoman police, violently expelled from Jaffa, and deported by ship to Egypt.

In 1993, Duchovny began starring in the science fiction series The X-Files, as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, a conspiracy theorist who believed his sister had been abducted by aliens.

[29] Also in 1993, Duchovny was cast alongside Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis, in the Dominic Sena-directed thriller Kalifornia.

[4] He remained with the series until leaving the show in 2001, partly because of a contract dispute that occurred after season seven finished filming.

He also provided the voice for a parody of his Mulder character in the episode "The Springfield Files" of the animated comedy series The Simpsons.

[31] Duchovny caused controversy when it became public that he was the primary reason for The X-Files moving filming locations from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Los Angeles in 1998.

In 2000 he starred in the feature film Return to Me, a romantic comedy-drama directed by Bonnie Hunt and co-starring Minnie Driver and Carroll O'Connor.

He played the role of Jeremy, Carrie Bradshaw's high-school ex-boyfriend, who has committed himself to a Connecticut mental health facility.

From 2007 to 2014, Duchovny played the troubled, womanizing novelist, Hank Moody, in the Showtime series, Californication.

[37] In March 2014, NBC announced that a new TV series, entitled Aquarius, would be produced starring Duchovny.

Duchovny portrayed a 1960s police sergeant investigating small-time criminal and budding cult leader Charles Manson.

He has also released four novels: Holy Cow (2015), Bucky F*cking Dent (2016), Miss Subways (2018), Truly Like Lightning (2021), and a novella, The Reservoir (2021).

In 2022, Duchovny released the film Reverse the Curse (based on his novel Bucky F*cking Dent), which he wrote, directed, and acted in.

[47][48][49] Claims by the Daily Mail that he had an affair with Hungarian tennis instructor Edit Pakay led to legal threats[50] and a retraction by the paper on November 15.