Published Apr 26, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT How Assistant Director Skinner became an integral part of The X-Files 30 years ago, a forgotten X-Files episode changed the course of the show Image: 20th Century Fox When Assistant Director Skinner, played by Mitch Pileggi, arrived at the end of The X-Files season 1, nobody liked him. While Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) had managed to convince Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) of the validity of the X-Files, the rest of the FBI still regarded Mulder as a pariah within the agency. So when Skinner was introduced as their direct supervisor, he appeared to be yet another bureaucrat intent on undermining their work, which was only underlined by the unspeaking presence of the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man in Skinner’s very first scene. Over time, that changed. Skinner began to understand the X-Files were not just Mulder’s fanciful crusade into paranormal subject matter; they were real cases worth investigating.…