Full name: Emily Erin Deschanel
Born: October 11, 1976
Early life: Deschanel was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Academy Award–nominated cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir). She has one younger sister: actress, model, songwriter, and musician Zooey Deschanel.
Career: Deschanel made her feature film debut in 1994's It Could Happen to You. Her next notable role was in Stephen King's Rose Red in 2002. She then appeared in Cold Mountain, The Alamo, and Glory Road and was named one of "six actresses to watch" by Interview Magazine in 2004.
After starring in 2005's Boogeyman, Deschanel landed the role of Dr. Temperance Brennan on Fox's Bones, a series based on the real-life forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs. She has been playing this role in Bones for 6 years; season 7 premiered on November 3, 2011. For her performance she received a 2006 Satellite Award nomination and a 2007 Teen Choice Award nomination. Deschanel has served as co-producer since the start of the show's third season, and as producer since the middle of the show's fourth season along with co-star David Boreanaz.
Deschanel, with Alyson Hannigan, Jaime King, Minka Kelly, and Katharine McPhee made a video slumber party featured on FunnyorDie.com to promote regular breast cancer screenings for the organization Stand Up 2 Cancer.
In recent years, her passion for animal welfare has led her to providing the narration for My Child is a Monkey and serving as an associate producer on the documentary film How I Became an Elephant.
Personal life: Deschanel is a vegan and a committed supporter of animal rights causes. She can be seen in an Access Hollywood video at the book launch event of Karen Dawn's Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, discussing how vegetarian and vegan diets help the environment, and a video on the homepage of the book's website talking about the importance of animal rights. She attended Harvard-Westlake and Crossroads School in Los Angeles before graduating from Boston University's Professional Actors Training Program with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater.
Deschanel married actor and writer David Hornsby on September 25, 2010 during a small private ceremony in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. On September 21, 2011 the couple's first child, a son named Henry Lamar Hornsby was born.
