Daniel Miller Duchovny (known as Danny Ducovny; also credited as Daniel Ducovny) is an actor and a director of commercials.[2]
Early life
Duchovny was born in New York City in 1956.[3] He is the son of Amram "Ami" Ducovny (1927–2003), a writer and publicist who worked for the American Jewish Committee, and Margaret "Meg" (née Miller), a school administrator and teacher.[4][5] He is the first son and the oldest child of three children. He has a younger brother, David (b. 1960) and a younger sister, Laurie (b. 1966).[6] Duchovny's mother is a Scottish immigrant from Whitehills, Aberdeen, Scotland.[7][8] His father was Jewish, and his mother was Lutheran.[9][10][11][12] His father dropped the h in his last name to avoid the sort of mispronunciations he encountered while serving in the Army.[4][13][14] In the Polish language, duchowny means 'clergyman', and in the Ukrainian language it means 'spiritual'. Duchovny's paternal grandfather was a Jewish emigrant from Berdychiv, Ukraine, and Duchovny's paternal grandmother was a Jewish emigrant from Congress Poland (now in Poland).[15][16][17][18]
Career
In 1990, he founded his production company, Cucoloris, with partner Linda Stewart.[19] Before moving into directing commercials and the occasional TV series episode, he had worked on several movies in the camera department.[20]
My relatives are Scottish, so I think my Scottish audience is important. Some are in Glasgow, but my mum's from Aberdeen. I hear it's grey there—like my mum. The name's Russian, but New York is my home. That's where I'm from.
I like that I look like my father and mother put together—that's a Russian Jew and a ScottishLutheran, and I like that it all looks mixed up. ... I'm sure my nose wasn't an asset until I was David Duchovny. Before that, it was, like, "Yeah, that kind of Jewish-looking guy with the kind of big nose."