Born in Chicago, Illinois on August 9, 1968, Gillian Leigh Anderson and her parents, Edward and Rosemary, who were die-hard hippies originally from Michigan, moved to England when Gillian was only 2 years old.
Gillian attended Coleridge Primary School in Crouch End, North London, which is where her parents settled upon their move to England. Her mom worked as a computer operator for The Daily Mirror, while her father completed his studies in the film genre.
After spending nine years in England, Gillian, then 13, and her family moved back to the USA, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was around this time that Gillian's younger brother, Aaron, and younger sister, Zoe, were born.
While attending City High School in Grand Rapids, Gillian auditioned for a school play, and that's when becoming an actor began to take precedence over her initial ambition to become a marine biologist or archeologist.
After graduating from high school in 1986, Gillian studied at DePaul University's Goodman Theater in Chicago, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in fine arts. At 22, and with her degree in hand, Gillian moved to New York to pursue her dream of becoming an actor.
It was in 1990 that Gillian landed her first big role in an off Broadway play, Absent Friends. Her performance was good enough to garner her a Theater World Award in 1991. After starring in another play entitled The Philanthropist, Gillian decided to relocate to Los Angeles and pursue a career in film.
After a year of unemployment and the 1992 flop of a movie The Turning, Gillian decided that she would try her hand at television. After landing a one-time role in a TV show called Class of '96, she auditioned for and landed the role of Special Agent Dana Scully for an upcoming FOX network show called The X-Files.
As luck would have it, she also found happiness in her personal life in 1993, having met Clyde Kotz on the set of The X-Files and marrying him on New Year's Day 1994, after only 3-months of dating. And by September 1994, Gillian gave birth to a baby girl named Piper. The couple divorced in 1997.
The X-Files thrust Gillian into the spotlight garnering her awards such as a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (1996 and 1997), an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Drama (both in 1997), and the Blockbuster Award for Favorite Sci-Fi Actress (1999).
By 1997, Gillian was selected as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine and by 1998, she completed four more movies entitled Chicago Cab, The Mighty and Playing By Heart, which also starred Angelina Jolie and Sean Connery. That same year, Gillian and her then co-star David Duchovny (he has since been replaced by Robert Patrick) starred in a movie version of their television show entitled The X-Files: Fight The Future.
In 1999, Gillian Anderson did her duty by starring in the theater production The Vagina Monologues.
In 2000, Gillian moved on to a starring role in The House of Mirth, directed by Terence Davies. Her role as Lily Bart garnered her a British Independent Film Award for Best Actress (2000).
The X-Files completed its ninth and final season in 2002, when Gillian was 34 years old. After the show came to a close, Gillian moved to London and began doing theater work again, starring in the Michael Weller play What the Night is For, from November 2002 to February 2003.
Meanwhile, Gillian is doing her best to promote awareness for charitable causes including Neurofibromatosis, Inc. (her brother has the disease), Buskaid, The Trevor Project, and Tusk Trust.
