Dana Scully

Dana Katherine Scully, M.D., is one of the two protagonists in the Fox science-fiction, supernatural television series The X-Files. The character, played by Gillian Anderson, is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent and a medical doctor (MD). She investigates unsolved criminal cases labeled X-Files, which are often revealed to be supernatural or extraterrestrial in nature. During the first seven seasons, Scully is partnered with fellow Special Agent Fox Mulder. In contrast to Mulder's credulous "believer" character, Scully is the skeptic, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove. She later on becomes a "believer" after Mulder's abduction at the end of season seven, and partners with John Doggett in the eighth and ninth seasons. In 2002, Scully leaves government employment. In 2008, she begins working as a surgeon in a private Catholic hospital, where she stays for seven years, until rejoining the FBI. Scully has appeared in all but five episodes of The X-Files, and in the 20th Century Fox films The X-Files, released in 1998, and The X-Files: I Want to Believe, released 10 years later. The episodes in which she does not appear are "3," "Zero Sum," "Unusual Suspects," "Travelers" and "The Gift" (excluding archive footage). The eleventh season marked Anderson's final time portraying the character.