American actress, model and singer Zooey Deschanel is also a musician who plays the keyboards, percussion, banjo and ukulele. She sang throughout her time at high school, planning to pursue a career in Musical Theatre. Her career as an actress has been extremely successful, with film highlights including 'Almost Famous' (2000), 'All the Real Girls' (2003), 'Elf' (2003) and 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (2005). In 2001 she joined a Jazz Cabaret act with fellow actress Samantha Shelton called If the Stars Were Pretty Babies. They sang together for a few years, but it was with a duo with American singer-songwriter M. Ward that she had more musical success. The pair joined forces in 2006 to form She & Him and together they produced six albums between 2008 and 2016. Deschanel also sang vocals on two tracks for the band Coconut Records in 2007, 'Slowly' and 'Ask Her to Dance'.

Deschanel's first experience of singing in films was in 'The New Guy' (2002) followed by 'Elf' (2003) and 'Winter Passing' (2006) in which a composition she wrote for piano was also used as part of the theme music. In the film 'Yes Man' (2008) she sings in the fictional band Munchausen By Proxy. In '(500) Days of Summer' (2009) she sings a cover version of Nancy Sinatra's 'Sugar Town' and in 'Your Highness' (2011) she sings 'The Greatest Most Beautiful Love Song in All the Land'. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her own composition 'So Long' which was written for the film 'Winnie the Pooh' (2011) for which she also performed on the soundtrack.

Also in 2011, Deschanel wrote and performed the theme tune for the American sitcom 'New Girl' in which she also stars. In the third series of 'New Girl' for the episode 'Prince', which involved a party at the house of the artist Prince, he sang the song 'FALLINLOVE2NITE' featuring Deschanel. This track not only appeared on the soundtrack of the TV show, but also on Prince's album 'Hit n Run Phase One' (2015).