Rise to Fame
A prep school in Santa Monica where her classmates included Jake Gyllenhaal and Kate Hudson, a six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer for a father. She wasn't building from nothing. Almost Famous got her noticed, but Elf made her a name. That role nearly went to Katie Holmes, who dropped out over Dawson's Creek scheduling. The shower scene where she sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" wasn't in the script. Jon Favreau added it after learning she could sing (she had a cabaret act at the time and was performing regularly).
(500) Days of Summer sealed it. The film cost $7.5 million, made $60.7 million, and turned her into the poster child for a trope critics were still workshopping a name for.
In the Spotlight
New Girl was the real play. The pilot drew 10.28 million viewers, Fox's highest-rated scripted debut since 2001, and she reportedly earned up to $130,000 per episode across 146 episodes. Three Golden Globe nominations. Fox marketed the show as "adorkable," a label she called a network marketing scheme.
The post-New Girl move wasn't another sitcom. She sold HelloGiggles to Time Inc. for a reported $20-30 million, co-founded a farming startup with her ex-husband that they still run post-divorce, and showed up to Physical Season 3 with a Southern accent nobody expected. Rolling Stone ran "Zooey Deschanel Is Tired of Being Likable" in 2023, which tracks. An A24 comedy series is her first TV development since Jessica Day, and she's clearly done playing adorable.
Side Notes
Her parents named her after the protagonist of Salinger's Franny and Zooey, which tracks for a woman whose entire brand became "interestingly offbeat." She's a real musician, not a vanity-project one. She & Him, her duo with M. Ward, has put out seven albums since 2008, and the first moved over 300,000 copies on an indie label.
The bangs are basically a second identity. She posted a selfie without them a few years back and the internet treated it like a witness protection reveal. For someone who spent years rejecting the "manic pixie dream girl" label, she has a sharp sense of humor about the fact that a haircut is the most recognizable thing about her.