Zooey Deschanel
Deschanel in 2011, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Zooey Claire Deschanel
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: January 17, 1980
Ethnicity: French, English, German, Irish, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Swiss, Dutch, distant Cornish
Zooey Deschanel is an American actress and musician. Her roles include the films Mumford, Almost Famous, Manic, The New Guy, The Good Girl, All the Real Girls, Elf, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Winter Passing, Failure to Launch, Bridge to Terabithia, The Happening, Yes Man, (500) Days of Summer, Our Idiot Brother, and The Driftless Area, and the series New Girl. She has been a member of jazz cabaret act If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies, with actress Samantha Shelton, and musical duo She & Him, with M. Ward. She also plays keyboards, percussion, banjo, and ukulele. She co-founded female-focused website HelloGiggles.
Zooey is the daughter of Mary Jo Deschanel, an actress, and Caleb Deschanel, a cinematographer and director. She was named after Zooey Glass, from the novella Franny and Zooey. Her sister is actress Emily Deschanel. Zooey has two children with her former husband, producer Jacob Pechenik.
Her father is of half French ancestry, with his other roots including English, German, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, and distant Cornish. Her mother’s ancestry includes English, Irish, Northern Irish/Scots-Irish, French, Swiss, and Dutch.
Zooey’s father is a Quaker and her mother is Catholic. Zooey was raised in what she has described as a “you can be whatever you want” way. In 2015, US Magazine reported that Zooey has converted to Judaism (her then-husband Jacob’s religion).
Zooey’s paternal grandfather was Paul Jules Deschanel (the son of Joseph Marcelin Eugène Deschanel and Marie Josephine Favre). Paul was born in Oullins, Rhône, France, and moved to the United States in 1930. Joseph was the son of Jean Joseph Deschanel and Eugenie Michelle Amyot.
Zooey’s paternal grandmother was Anna/Ann Ward Orr (the daughter of Adrian Van Bracklin Orr and Mary Beulah E. Lamb). Anna was born in Pennsylvania. Adrian was the son of Joseph Moffitt/Maffett Orr and Martha Elizabeth Pownall. Mary Beulah was the daughter of Caleb W. Lamb and Anna Matilda Ward.
Zooey’s maternal grandfather was Donald Lamar Weir (the son of Ralph Harrison Weir and Helen Mary Ellen Lamar). Donald was born in Ohio. Ralph was the son of Addison Mohallan Weir, whose father was born in Lifford, Donegal, Ireland, and of Elizabeth Emilie Lanie Gurney, whose father was from Belfort, France, and whose mother was from Bern, Switzerland. Helen was the daughter of Henry Anson Lamar, Jr. and Mary B. Sullivan.
Zooey’s maternal grandmother was Elizabeth Ellen Manchester (the daughter of Raymond Earl Manchester and Mary Josephine Kennedy). Elizabeth was born in Wisconsin. Raymond was the son of Frank H. Manchester and Phoebe Carpenter. Mary Josephine was the daughter of William Andrew Kennedy, whose parents were Irish, and of Mary Ellen Kenny, who was born in Limerick, Ireland.
Sources: Family history of Zooey Deschanel – http://genealogy.about.com
Genealogy of Zooey Deschanel – https://www.geni.com
Genealogy of Zooey’s paternal grandmother, Anna/Ann Ward (Orr) Deschanel (focusing on her own father’s side) – https://www.findagrave.com
probably the only pretty white girl i’ve seen
You should get out more.
I saw her on the Qeen latifa an new girl lol
I thought it was SOOO hilarious how she was such a super feminist libtard activist and all about civil rights and when she went on that show to trace her ancestry, she ends up finding out her family owned slaves!! LMFAO!!!!! XD
Some of her distant ancestors owned slaves. But, in the show you’re talking about, they also traced some of her ancestors who were Quakers and abolitionists, and were strongly involved in the abolitionist movement of the 1850s.
I don’t find anything hilarious about that. No one can control what their ancestors did. What a stupid comment!
Why does this website always list Northern Irish followed by (Scots-Irish)? Scots-Irish are an ethnic group of people who live in Ireland with Scottish ancestry.
So Zooey should be listed as either Scots-Irish or Northern Irish and Scottish. You seem to put these brackets after Northern Irish every time. Scots-Irish does not apply to every single person with Northern Irish ancestry, only those whose ancestors were Scottish and then moved to Northern Ireland.
Typically, “Northern Irish” means Irish Protestant, i.e. the Scots you’re talking about. They were only called “Scots-Irish” in the United States, however.
Scots-Irish means exactly that Scottish people living in Ireland. I’m Irish-Scots meaning of Irish descent living in Scotland.
There is no mention of religion linked to her Irish ancestry. But if this it is a religious ethnicity they are talking about, why have they made the unlikely assumption that they were protestant? Catholicism is the largest religion in Northern Ireland.
Also Northern Irish means people that come from Northern Ireland (Ulster), nothing to do with religion.
Scots-Irish Americans are generally descended from immigrants from Ulster, Northern Ireland, which is why I usually write “Scots-Irish” along with “Northern Irish”, since I don’t know if they were descended from English Protestants who moved to Ulster, Scottish Protestants who moved to Ulster, or “ethnic” Irish from Ulster who ended up Protestant or married into Protestant families.
correction; her eyes are grey (light blue) and her hair is dark brown (brunette) (dyed black)
If her eyes aren’t true blue than name a celebrity who has blue eyes because Zooey’s are as blue as you can get, with a little bit of green pigment around the pupil.
http://www.indiwall.com/big-wallpaper/1024×768/hd-wallpapers-zooey-deschanel-1024×768-wallpaper.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9HPiKk1JUa0/TtPNMm_F2FI/AAAAAAAABqQ/exwZNFtRkDY/s1600/Zooey%2BDeschanel.jpg
Grey and light blue are not the same color. There are many people who have blue-grey eyes but there are also people who have pure blue or more rarely pure grey eyes.
It’s called central heterochromia when you have a distinct different color around the ring. I don’t know if I really consider that real heterochromia though because A)Most people with light eyes have extra pigment around the pupil if you look up close due to the way the eye is shaped B) The biological factors that cause partial or complete heterochromia are completely different. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterochromia_iridum#Central_heterochromia
Yes most blue eyes up close have that little bit of green around the pupil. Zooey is blue eyed.
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQbqVyKIrX83sZcwEPzFcd_vQXGBTahj9A9MSR3ykVqRdEahktZhg
http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20100610/Grey-Eye-1563301.jpg
The links above show grey eyes.
Yes, there is a clear difference between the grey eyes you posted and Zooey’s. I wish ethnic would stop changing the eye color descriptions based on that crazy posters ideas. Most of the eye colors aren’t right anymore.
correction; smiley thinks he knows about eye colour because he suddenly discovered the term ‘central heterochromia’, zooey clearly doesn’t have ‘true blue’ eyes, they’re a light icy/misty blue making them grey and they do contain central heterochromia similar to carly rae jepsens eyes but the central heterochromia is not green, it’s a light golden brown colour which makes her eyes look abit green. You’re talking to someone that’s been researching eye colour for years and you’re talking to me as if I was born yesterday and that I’m making up my own conclusions without rational evidence, the statement; “Most of the eye colors aren’t right anymore” made by smiley is rather instigating and spiteful remark. If any one should be ignored it’s the one who chooses to contest nearly every single correction due to his own ignorant scepticism when he clearly has no idea about eye colour
You’re a troll. Plain and simple.
“You’re talking to someone that’s been researching eye colour for years and you’re talking to me as if I was born yesterday and that I’m making up my own conclusions without rational evidence”
Where’s your rational evidence? NOBODY AGREES WITH YOU, IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY BEING SERIOUS ABOUT THESE CORRECTIONS YOU MUST BE COLOR BLIND!
go read a book
That’s not rational evidence.