Gillian Anderson
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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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gillian Anderson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Credits
TRON: Ares (2025)
as Elisabeth Dillinger
Johnny English Reborn (2011)
as Pamela
The X-Files (1998)
as Agent Dana Scully
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
as Billy Presley
The Mighty (1998)
as Loretta Lee
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)
as Wendy
White Bird (2023)
as Vivienne Beaumier
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
as Julia Marquis
Scoop (2024)
as Emily Maitlis
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
as Sarah Merrit
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
as Dana Scully
Crooked House (2017)
as Magda Leonides
Playing by Heart (1998)
as Meredith
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)
as Eleanor Johnson
UFO (2018)
as Dr. Hendricks
Shadow Dancer (2012)
as Kate Fletcher
Robot Overlords (2015)
as Kate
Straightheads (2007)
as Alice
Room on the Broom (2012)
as Witch (voice)
The Salt Path (2025)
as Raynor Winn
Robin Robin (2021)
as Cat (voice)
Boogie Woogie (2010)
as Jean Maclestone
The Turning (1992)
as April Cavanaugh
The House of Mirth (2000)
as Lily Bart
Mr. Morgan's Last Love (2013)
as Karen Morgan
Chicago Cab (1998)
as Southside Girl
A Cock and Bull Story (2005)
as Widow Wadman / Gillian Anderson
Viceroy's House (2017)
as Edwina Mountbatten
This Changes Everything (2019)
as Self
No Pressure (2010)
as Self
Animals (—)
Actor
I'll Follow You Down (2013)
as Marika Whyte
National Theatre Live: A Streetcar Named Desire (2014)
as Blanche DuBois
The Sunlit Night (2020)
as Olyana
Letters Live from the Archive: International Women’s Day (2021)
as Self
FOX 25th Anniversary Special (2012)
as Self
Sister (2012)
as Kristin Jansen
Inside The X-Files (1998)
as Self
Sold (2016)
as Sophia
The Julia Set (—)
Actor
Heroes Manufactured (2017)
as Self (archive footage)
Getting the Old Scent Again: Reimagining Red Dragon (2015)
as Self
The Departure (2014)
as Blanche DuBois
The Turning Door (—)
as (voice)
National Theatre Live: All About Eve (2019)
as Margo Channing
Woolf Works (2017)
as Voiceover from a letter by Virginia Woolf (voice)
Secrets of the X-Files (1995)
as Self
Woolf Works (2024)
Actor
Richard Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening (2002)
as Self - Performer
The Mighty Celt (2005)
as Kate
More Secrets of the X-Files (1996)
as Self
Tron: Ares - A Special Look (2025)
as Elisabeth Dillinger
Robbie the Reindeer in Close Encounters of the Herd Kind (2007)
as Queen Vorkana (voice)
The Making of 'The X Files: Fight the Future' (1998)
as Self
Akte X Intern - Was Sie schon immer wissen wollten (1998)
as Dana Scully / Self
The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism (2017)
as Narrator
The Widowmaker (2015)
as Narrator
Three at Once (1986)
as Woman 1
The Salt Path Scandal (2025)
as Self (archive footage)
A Matter of Choice (1988)
as Woman
Spies Above (1996)
as narrator
Why Planes Go Down (1996)
as Narrator