As Summer Finn in the indie hit (500) Days of Summer, Zooey Deschanel set many hearts aflutter. It wasn’t until last year that this blue-eyed beauty became instantly recognizable, but Deschanel has actually been acting for the last decade. The Los Angeles native was born into show business: her mother is an actress, her father is a cinematographer, and her older sister Emily stars in the television series Bones.

Deschanel made her film début in 1999, with a small part in the Mumford. (Yeah, I’ve never heard of it either, but it still counts.) Her big break though came the next year in the critically acclaimed movie Almost Famous, in which she played another supporting role. She worked on several more independent projects but she didn’t play a lead role until 2003’s All the Real Girls, which earned her a nomination for That same year Zooey co-starred opposite Will Ferrel in the Christmas hit Elf.

Afterwards, Deschanel became more of a familiar face, appearing in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Failure to Launch, Gigantic, and Yes Man, as well as on the television showWeeds and the mini-series Tin Man. Then she reunited with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a co-star in Manic) and starred in the title role in (500) Days of Summer, last year’s breakout indie hit. (If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m not sure what you’re waiting for.) Thanks to the film’s success, she and Gordon-Levitt are verifiable A-listers.

Deschanel also has a blossoming career as a singer-songwriter. She has contributed to many movie soundtracks, including Elf and Yes Man. Deschanel and fellow singer-songwriter M. Ward form the indie pop duo and they have released two successful albums, Volume One and Volume Two.

Not only is Deschanel talented, she also has a growing reputation as a fashion icon because of her quirky and vintage style. College Fashion did some great inspiration posts on Zooey, which you can see here and here. She’s also one of the new faces of Rimmel London (her campaign is set to debut next month), but that shouldn’t come as a surprise because she’s, you know, gorgeous. Deschanel’s beauty has a freshness to it- she’s not your ordinary starlet.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of Zooey Deschanel?

~ Sarah

P.S. Thanks to Wash and Repeat‘s Sarah for inspiring me to write this post!