As the team at Talent Management are starting to get hooked on new American sitcom New Girl, we thought we’d get to know a little more about the show’s leading lady Zooey Deschanel…

1. First off, name pronunciation. If you’re going to be a die-hard Zooey Deschanel fan like us, then you’d better learn to say her name right – ‘Zoh-ee Day-Shuh-Nell’.

2. A little fact about her name, now we’ve got pronouncing it down, is that she was named after Zooey Glass; the male character from J.D. Salinger’s book ‘Franny and Zooey’.

3. With an Oscar-winning cinematographer for a dad, Caleb Deschanel, and famous actress for a mum, Mary Jo Deschanel, Zooey has show-business in her blood.

4. Zooey has a equally famous big sister; actress, movie and television producer Emily Deschanel, who plays Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan in the comedy-crime drama, Bones.

5. Zooey’s highschool classmates included Jake Gyllenhall and Kate Hudson.

6. Miss Deschanel is the lead singer in the band ‘She & Him’, who actually wrote and sang the theme tune for New Girl.

7. One of Zooey’s favourite things to do is to write and listen to music and her favourite band is the Beach Boys.

8. In addition to being allergic to dairy, eggs, wheat and gluten, Zooey is completely teetotal.

9. As well as her musical and acting abilities, this young star is a classic triple threat having also modelled – she took over from Kate Moss as the current face of Rimmel London.

10. Before she became famous, Zooey appeared in The Offspring’s music video for their single ‘She’s Got Issues’.