Dana Scully

Dana Scully

FBI special agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists of the Fox television series The X-Files. Dana Scully is played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series. Scully is a Special Agent of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, partnered with fellow Special Agent Fox Mulder for the first seven seasons, and in the eighth and ninth seasons partnered with John Doggett. In the television series, they work out of a cramped basement office at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. to investigate unsolved cases labeled "X-Files"; as of the second film, Scully had left government employment and worked as a surgeon in a private Catholic hospital. In contrast to Mulder's credulous "believer" character, Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, 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.

She has appeared in all but four episodes of The X-Files, and additionally appears in the 20th Century Fox films The X-Files, released in 1998 (sometimes subtitled Fight the Future), and The X-Files: I Want to Believe, released 10 years later. The episodes she does not appear in are "3," "Zero Sum," "Unusual Suspects," and "Travelers." She appears only briefly in "The Gift," in a flashback which reuses footage from a previous episode.