Duchovny was born in New York City in 1960.[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.[3][4][5] He is the middle child of three children. He has an elder brother, Daniel (b. 1956) and a younger sister, Laurie (b. 1966).[6] Duchovny's mother is a Scottish immigrant from Whitehills, Aberdeen, Scotland.[7][8] His father was Jewish, and his mother was Lutheran.[9][10][11][12] His father dropped the h in his last name to avoid the sort of mispronunciations he encountered while serving in the Army.[3][13][14] In the Polish language, duchowny means 'clergyman', and in the Ukrainian language it means 'spiritual'. Duchovny's paternal grandfather was a Jewish emigrant from Berdychiv, Ukraine, and Duchovny's paternal grandmother was a Jewish emigrant from Congress Poland (now in Poland).[15][16][17][18]
Duchovny's great-great-grandfather and his family moved from Berdychiv, Ukraine, to Jaffa (then in the Ottoman Empire, now in Israel). 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.[25][26]
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.[4] The show evolved into a cult hit and became one of The Fox Network's first major television hits. According to The X-Files creator Chris Carter, Duchovny turned out to be one of the best-read people he knew.[27] After getting the role, Duchovny thought the show would not last for long or make as much impact as it did. Executive producerFrank Spotnitz called Duchovny "amazingly smart". Spotnitz further stated that Duchovny was behind some of the main characteristic ideas behind Mulder.[28] Also in 1993, Duchovny was cast alongside Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis, in the Dominic Sena-directed thriller Kalifornia.
During The X-Files run, in between the fifth and sixth seasons, Duchovny co-starred alongside Gillian Anderson in a 1998 film also titled The X-Files that continued the storyline.[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.[29] Duchovny appeared in half of the season eight episodes, but did not appear in season nine until the series finale in 2002. 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. Duchovny has been nominated for four Emmy Awards.[30]
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. Many residents of Vancouver were upset with Duchovny over scripted jokes on Late Night with Conan O'Brien about the city's heavy rainfall, including one where he joked, "Vancouver is a very nice place if you like 400 inches of rainfall a day." (Duchovny's character Mulder would later reference this joke in the Season 5 episode "Schizogeny.") He also stated, "Of course, I'm tired of the rain. But if I wasn't married to a woman that lives in L.A., I'd stay in Vancouver. It's a lovely city."[31] During the run of The X-Files, he also made several guest appearances in the cult TV satire The Larry Sanders Show, playing a fictionalized version of himself who is very attracted to Sanders. In the final episode of the series, he performed a parody of Sharon Stone's 'flashing' scene from Basic Instinct and a parody of Dr. Hannibal Lecter being introduced to Agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.
Duchovny has guest-hosted Saturday Night Live twice (May 13, 1995, and May 9, 1998). Both shows were season finales.
In 1997 he played lead role as a disgraced doctor with a drug problem who after losing his medical license, takes a job with the mob in the film Playing God. 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. In 2001, Duchovny starred as Ira Kane in the sci-fi comedy film Evolution, alongside Seann William Scott, and had a cameo as hand model J.P. Prewitt in the Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander. He appeared in a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in May 2000. He got to the $250,000 question but answered his $500,000 question incorrectly and lost $218,000, leaving him with $32,000. He appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1995 and 2010.
Duchovny provided the voice of Ethan Cole in the 2005 video game Area 51, as well as that of the title character in the 2003 video game XIII. In 2003 Duchovny starred in the 84th[32] episode of the HBO show Sex and the City. He played the role of Jeremy, Carrie Bradshaw's high-school ex-boyfriend, who has committed himself to a Connecticutmental health facility. In 2005, Duchovny provided the voice-over for a PSA radio campaign for Act Against Violence.[33] In 2005, Duchovny, who had already made his directorial debut with an episode of The X-Files, wrote, directed, and appeared in the feature film House of D.[4] The film starred Anton Yelchin, Robin Williams, and Duchovny's then-wife Téa Leoni in a coming-of-age tale.[4] It received mostly poor reviews[34] and little box office success.[35] Duchovny also directed "Judas on a Pole," an episode of Bones, during the show's second season.
In 2015 he released his album Hell or Highwater and has dropped 2 more albums since then; Every Third Thought and Gestureland. He has also put out 4 novels Holy Cow 2015, Bucky F*cking Dent 2016, Miss Subways 2018, Truly Like Lightning 2021 and a novella The Reservoir 2021. He's kept working since the X-Files reboot and even recently released the movie Reverse the Curse based on his novel Bucky F*cking Dent in which he wrote, directed and acted in.
Personal life
Duchovny and actress Téa Leoni married on May 13, 1997.[40] They have two children, daughter West Duchovny, born in April 1999[41][42] and a son, Kyd Duchovny, born in June 2002.[43][44]
In 2008, the couple separated;[45] Duchovny received treatment for sex addiction from August to October.[46][47][48] Claims by the Daily Mail that he had an affair with Hungarian tennis instructor Edit Pakay led to legal threats[49] and a retraction by the paper on November 15.[50] In 2009, Duchovny and Leoni reunited but separated again on June 29, 2011.[46] Duchovny filed for divorce in June 2014, and the couple had agreed to settlement terms by that August.[51]
My relatives are Scottish, so I think my Scottish audience is important. Some are in Glasgow, but my mum's from Aberdeen. I hear it's grey there—like my mum. The name's Russian, but New York is my home. That's where I'm from.
I like that I look like my father and mother put together—that's a Russian Jew and a ScottishLutheran, and I like that it all looks mixed up. ... I'm sure my nose wasn't an asset until I was David Duchovny. Before that, it was, like, "Yeah, that kind of Jewish-looking guy with the kind of big nose."
^David Duchovny (voice-over) (January 14, 2005). Act Against Violence (CD (for radio station use)). United States: chemistri (ad agency on behalf of The Ad Council) in conjunction with Gold Sound.
^"House of D". Rotten Tomatoes. April 15, 2005. Retrieved March 21, 2011.
^"House of D". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
^Silverman, Stephen M. (June 18, 2002). "Leoni, Duchovny: And Baby Makes Four". People. ISSN0093-7673. Archived from the original on March 8, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2017.], according to a statement issued to Reuters on Monday by the actors' publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details, including the newborn's name, were released.