Zooey Deschanel

After turning up in the Dogma 95-style Manic in 2001, Deschanel would join the strong cast of director Barry Sonnenfeld's long-delayed comedy Big Trouble before re-teaming with that film's D.J. Qualls for the loser-turned-smooth operator teen comedy The New Guy in (2002). After following up with a role in the equally ill-recieved teen-thriller Abandon the same year, Deschanel earned positive nods for her role as the virginal teen who falls for a reformed womanizer in critical darling David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls. Though her next few film roles remained relatively low-key, the latter half of 2003 found the emerging young actress appearing in both the independent black comedy Eulogy and wide-release Will Ferrel family comedy Elf. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide