Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson

Born 1968-08-09 (age 57) Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Biography

Gillian Leigh Anderson OBE (born August 9, 1968) is an American actress, writer, and activist. She is best known for her roles as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the sci-fi series The X-Files (1993–2002; 2016–2018), Lily Bart in the drama film The House of Mirth (2000), DSI Stella Gibson in the BBC/RTÉ crime drama series The Fall (2013–2016), Jean Milburn in the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education (2019–2023), and Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of the Netflix drama series The Crown (2020). She has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Born in Chicago, Anderson was raised first in London and then in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She later started her career onstage in New York City before achieving international recognition for her work on The X-Files. Her film work includes the dramas The Mighty Celt (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), Shadow Dancer (2012), and Viceroy's House (2017), as well as the X-Files films Fight the Future (1998) and I Want to Believe (2008). Her television credits include Lady Dedlock in Bleak House (2005), Wallis Simpson in Any Human Heart (2010), Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (2011), Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier on Hannibal (2013–2015), Media in the first season of American Gods (2017), and Eleanor Roosevelt on The First Lady (2022).

Anderson has also received awards and acclaim for her stage work, which includes Absent Friends (1991), for which she won a Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer; A Doll's House (2009), for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress; Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (2014 and 2016), for which she won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination; and All About Eve (2019), for which she received a third Laurence Olivier Award nomination.

Anderson has supported numerous charities and humanitarian organizations, being an honorary spokesperson for the Neurofibromatosis Network and a co-founder of South African Youth Education for Sustainability (SAYes). She has lived in London since 2002 and was appointed an honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2016 for her services to drama.

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Known For

TRON: Ares
TRON: Ares

2025

as Elisabeth Dillinger

Johnny English Reborn
Crooked House
Crooked House

2017

as Magda Leonides

The X-Files
The X-Files

1998

as Agent Dana Scully

The Spy Who Dumped Me
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
The Pale Blue Eye
The Pale Blue Eye

2022

as Julia Marquis

White Bird
White Bird

2023

as Vivienne Beaumier

The Last King of Scotland
The Last King of Scotland

2006

as Sarah Merrit

Boogie Woogie
Boogie Woogie

2010

as Jean Maclestone

UFO
UFO

2018

as Dr. Hendricks

Playing by Heart
Playing by Heart

1998

as Meredith

Scoop
Scoop

2024

as Emily Maitlis

The Mighty
The Mighty

1998

as Loretta Lee

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Robot Overlords
Robot Overlords

2015

as Kate

Straightheads
Straightheads

2007

as Alice

Room on the Broom
Room on the Broom

2012

as Witch (voice)

The Salt Path
The Salt Path

2025

as Raynor Winn