Early life
Deschanel was born in Los Angeles, California, and brought up in various international locations because of her father's work. She is the daughter of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Weir; her sister, Emily Deschanel, is also an actress. Her paternal grandfather was French and the remainder of her ancestry is Irish. The name "Zooey" (IPA pronunciation: ['zo.i]) was inspired by the male character of the same name in J. D. Salinger's novel Franny and Zooey.
Zooey attended the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, an elite performance summer camp located in New York. She attended Northwestern University before dropping out to pursue her acting career.
Career
Film
She made her film debut in Lawrence Kasdan’s (1999) comedy Mumford. Deschanel then appeared as Patrick Fugit’s rebellious older sister in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical Almost Famous (2000). Her next roles were in the small independent film Manic as a mental patient and in the Tim Allen movie Big Trouble. Next she co-starred in Abandon with Katie Holmes playing her best friend. Her role as a disaffected drugstore clerk in the Jennifer Aniston film The Good Girl (2002) followed after that. Her next starring role was in All the Real Girls (2003), as sexually curious 18-year-old virgin who has a life-changing romance with an aimless 22-year-old man (Paul Schneider). For the role, Deschanel was voted Best Actress at the Mar del Plata Film Festival and also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Deschanel played a department store elf opposite Will Ferrell in the comedy Elf (2003), and a lead role in the 2004 film Eulogy. Later that year, she worked again with Ferrell, starring opposite Ed Harris in the dark, off-beat dramedy Winter Passing. She also starred as Trillian in the movie adaptation of Douglas Adams's science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Recently, she appeared as Sarah Jessica Parker's neurotic roommate in Failure to Launch (2006). Most recently, she appeared as Ms. Edmunds in Bridge to Terabithia (2007).
Television
Deschanel has appeared as a television actress on the programs Veronica's Closet and Frasier and in various music videos, including The Offspring's "She's Got Issues." She has most recently been on Showtime's "Weeds," as Andy Botwin's quirky ex-girlfriend, Kat. She will play DG, the lead in the new Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man, a re-imagining of the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Singing
Deschanel appears with fellow actress Samantha Shelton in a cabaret act named If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies. She has performed vocally in several of her films (Bridge to Terabithia, Elf, Once Upon a Mattress, The New Guy, Winter Passing). Her piano composition "Bittersuite" was used thematically in Winter Passing, in which she starred along with Ed Harris, Will Ferrell, and Amelia Warner. She has recently been chosen to play the lead role of Janis Joplin in Gospel According to Janis.
Private life
A friend of actor Jason Schwartzman since childhood, she dated him for several years before breaking up in 2005. She also dated Hunter Burgan, the bassist from AFI, for a time.
