Zooey deschanel was born to father Caleb deschanel who is a Oscar nominated cinematographer who is mostly known for movie “The Passion of the Christ” and mother Mary Jo deschanel, who is an actress, starred in movie “Twin Peaks”. Her sister, Emily Deschanel, is also an actress. So Zooey belonged to a complete showbiz family which made her decision to become an actress an easy one.

Zooey deschanel got her name from male character of the same name in J. D. Salinger's novel Franny and Zooey. Because of her father’s job, she has to spend her childhood moving internationally from one place to another. After finishing her graduation from crossroads school of science and arts, Zooey joined northwestern university. She got her first breakthrough at the age of 17 when she got a modeling chance in TV sitcom “Veronica’s Closet”. This helped her in getting a role in the movie “Mumford”.

Because of increasing opportunities as an actress, Zooey deschanel has to leave her studies in between. After Mumford, she appeared in “Almost Famous”. Then she got roles in small independent movies Manic and Big trouble. Her acting was very well appreciated in Big trouble. Next Zooey co-starred Katie Holmes in movie The Good Girl.

Zooey deschanel came into limelight when she got a role in movie All the Real Girls, in this movie she perfomed the role of 18 years old virgin girl. For this acting, she got the best actress award in Mar del Plata film festival. Zooey also played a department store elf in movie elf and then in movie Eulogy. Her hardwork, dedication and acting attrated more and more producers towards her. She played the role of Trillian in Douglas Adams's science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In year 2006, she perfomed a role in movie Failure to Launch as well.

Other than movies, Zooey deschanel has performed in tv shows like Weeds, fraiser and in music videos like The Offspring's She's Got Issues . Zooey is also showing her singing ability in cabaret If All the Stars were Pretty Babies. Even she has shown her singing as well in movies in which she has performed as an actress like Elf, Once Upon a Mattress, Winter Passing, The New Guy.

Zooey deschanel is still unmarried. She dated for several year with a friend of actor Jason Schwartzman but later in 2005 they broke off. For some time she also dated with Hunter Burgan, the bassist from AFI.