Manhattan-born David Duchovny did his undergraduate work at Princeton, then moved on to earn a Master's at Yale, where he was a teaching assistant. He was working on his PhD dissertation in literature when he made his acting debut in a beer commercial. In 1991, Duchovny made his first film appearance in Julia Has Two Lovers. Other films followed in rapid progression: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), The Rapture (1991), Chaplin (1992) and Kalifornia (1993). In his own words, Duchovny "imagined hopping from one glorious movie to another," but TV work was more steady and the money came faster. His television bow was as Denise, the transvestite detective, in Twin Peaks (1990). Since 1993, Duchovny has starred as FBI agent Fox Mulder in the Fox Network's Emmy-nominated sci-fi series The X Files.