David Duchovny was born in New York City to Amram Ducovny (David's father removed the "h" from Duchovny , because he was tired of people mispronouncing his name) and Margaret Duchovny (After David's parents divorced, Margaret added the "h" in Duchovny again.) David was educated at a private school in Manhattan (Collegiate Prep), where some of his classmates included John F. Kennedy, Jr. , Zach Galligan (Gremlins), Billy Wirth (who has appeared in Red Shoe Diaries), and Jason Baghe (who costarred along side Duchovny in an episode of the X-Files, titled "Darkness Falls".)
He then attended Princeton University, where he earned an AB (bachelor's degree) on a scholarship. His senior thesis was entitled "The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason in Beckett's Early Novels". He holds a Master of Arts in English Literature degree which he attained at Yale University, and was working on his Ph.D. when he left Yale to pursue acting. He has been a teaching assistant, and his Ph.D. dissertation (which was never finished) was entitled "Magic and Technology in Contemporary Poetry and Prose". (He still thinks it is a good subject for research.)
He made his feature film debut with a small role as a partygoer in Working Girl (1988) and quickly gained notice playing different sleazoids in Henry Jaglom's New Year's Day, Julia Has Two Lovers, and The Rapture. He did a brief stint on TV's Twin Peaks as cross-dressing D.E.A. agent Dennis/Denise Bryson, before taking on supporting roles in movies like Chaplin and Ruby. But it was his recurring role as Jake on Showtime's Red Shoe Diaries that cemented his reputation as a sensitive sex symbol. Duchovny's break-out role, of course, has been playing F.B.I. Agent Fox Mulder alongside Gillian Anderson's ever-cynical Agent Dana Scully on The X-Files, a paranormal drama in which the pair investigate all things spooky.
David has recently signed to work on a big-screen version of The X-Files with Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter, for a paycheck of $4 million bucks! He sure has come a long way from playing a transvestite!
