David Duchovny has revealed that his success in the acting profession is a complete surprise to him, because he originally wanted to be a professor.

The actor attended Harvard university in the US, before finally deciding to try his hand at acting.

"I thought I'd teach, be a professor and I'd write in my downtime," Breakingnews.ie quote Duchovny as saying. "That was kind of the plan.

"And then I thought, 'If I'm gonna write plays, I should probably learn what it is to be on stage and speak those words.'"