Gaby Hoffmann

Gabrielle Mary Hoffmann (born January 8, 1982) is an American film and television actress best known for her roles on Sleepless in Seattle, Transparentand Girls,[3] which garnered her nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015, respectively.[4] Additionally, she is remembered as a child actress from the films Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck, Now and Then, and Volcano.[5]
== Early life ==
Hoffmann was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Viva(born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann),[6] is an actress, writer and former Warhol superstar,[7] and her father, Anthony Herrera,[8] was a soap opera actor best known for his role as James Stenbeck from As the World Turns.[9] Viva and Herrera were estranged shortly after Hoffmann's birth; she was raised by her mother at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Her father did not have a significant presence in her life.[10][11] Hoffmann's birth is documented in Brigid Berlin's The Andy Warhol Diaries. An entry dated January 10, 1982, two days after Hoffmann was born, says that a friend of Warhol's telephoned Warhol and told him that they were going to the Chelsea Hotel to see Viva and her new baby.
Hoffmann's mother was raised in a devout Catholic family[11] on Long Island, the daughter of an attorney.[12][13] She was previously married to director Michel Auder in 1969. Gaby has a half-sister, Alexandra "Alex" Auder, who is 11 years older.[14] Auder teaches yoga in New York City.[15] Hoffmann's father was raised in Wiggins, Mississippi by his maternal grandparents; his own father, Gaby's biological great-grandfather was referenced, viewed, and stated on the PBS series, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Season 4, Episode 8, to be Gaston L Malecot. An instructor at Columbia University and a World War 1 veteran.[1] Herrera died in 2011 from cancer.[9]
Hoffmann attended elementary school in Manhattan at P.S. 3 on Hudson Street in the West Village, then another school in Hell's Kitchen. After she moved to Los Angeles in 1994, she attended the Buckley School, before finally graduating from Calabasas High School in 1999.[2]
=== Life at the Chelsea Hotel ===
Until July 1993, Hoffmann lived in Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel (now a landmark), which Hoffmann later said she enjoyed. According to Hoffmann, she and her best friend Talya Shomron would roller-skate in the hallways, spy on the drug dealer across the hall, and persuade the bellman to go to the neighborhood delicatessen at night to fetch them ice cream.[10]
Hoffmann recalled, "I grew up in downtown New York in the '80s. I have a friend who grew up with me, and she puts it well. She says, 'If you grew up where we grew up, if you weren't an artist, a drag queen, queer, or a drug addict, then you were the freak [unusual one].' I grew up in a world where I guess what is considered unusual or abnormal for the rest of America was very much considered the norm."[3] She also reported in an interview that there had been gunfire and a rape at the hotel shortly before they moved out of it.[11]
Hoffmann and her mother left the Chelsea Hotel after a long-standing dispute with the management that ended in eviction.[11] Regardless, Gaby's connection to the hotel resulted in a significant effect on her future. The idea for the 1994 sitcom Someone Like Me originated after Gail Berman (former president of Viacom's Paramount Pictures) read a New York Times article[14] about the hotel which referred to a children's book that Viva and friend Jane Lancellotti wrote, Gaby at the Chelsea (a take on Kay Thompson's 1950s classic Eloise books). Berman became the show's producer.
=== Adolescence on the West Coast ===
When Hoffmann was 11, after leaving the Chelsea,[2] Hoffmann and her mother moved to the west coast to a two-bedroom rented house in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, which was badly damaged in the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake. While regrouping their living situation, Gaby and her mother temporarily lived at The Oceana Suites Hotel in Santa Monica, California.[citation needed]
=== College and assorted jobs ===
After she graduated from Calabasas High School in 1999, Hoffmann followed her half-sister Alex's example and entered New York's Bard College to pursue a degree in literature and writing.[11] Around 2001, she temporarily left her acting career to complete her studies and graduated in 2004; her senior thesis was a documentary film.[11]
After college, she spent much of her 20s drifting. She interned with a chef in Italy, and then trained to be a doula after helping deliver Alex's children. For a time, Hoffmann and a boyfriend lived in an old trailer in the Catskill Mountains.[14]
== Career ==
=== Childhood acting career ===
Hoffmann began her acting career at the age of four to help pay the family bills by acting in commercials. In 1989, she starred in her first movie, Field of Dreams,with Kevin Costner. 1989's Uncle Buck followed, working beside John Candy and up-and-coming child star Macaulay Culkin. However, she grew tired of the rigors of screen performance and temporarily retired. Nevertheless, upon hearing that Culkin (whom she disliked when they worked together[11]) was making a lot of money in feature films, her "competitive spirit got the best of her," as she later put it, and she re-entered the profession. She went on to star in This Is My Life(1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) with Tom Hanks and The Man Without a Facewith Mel Gibson (who also directed the film).[16] According to Hoffmann, it was the praise she received for her performance in This is My Life which encouraged her to pursue a full-time acting career in Hollywood as it gave her the confidence she needed to handle major roles.[16]
In 1994, Hoffmann was given the starring role in her own sitcom Someone Like Me (on NBC) about a young girl, Gaby, and her dysfunctional family. Although generally well received, the show only lasted six episodes. Publicity work for the show included personal appearances by Hoffmann on late night talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman.
After Someone Like Me, Hoffmann won the lead role opposite Shelley Long in the 1995 TV film Freaky Friday, a remake of the 1976 film of the same namestarring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris. In the same year as Freaky Friday, Hoffmann starred as Young Samantha (the childhood counterpart to Demi Moore's character) in the coming-of-age feature film, Now and Then.
In 1995, Hoffmann played Andrea Eagerton in the CBS TV film Whose Daughter Is She?.
=== Teen and college years: 1996–2003 ===
Between 1996 and 2001, Hoffmann landed roles in several films including Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Volcano (1997), Snapped (1998), The Hairy Bird(1998), 200 Cigarettes (1999), Coming Soon (1999), Black & White (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), and Perfume (2001).
=== Theatre work in New York: 2003–2007 ===
Between 2003 and 2007, Hoffmann largely concentrated on a theatre career in New York. Roles included 24 Hour Plays (as Denise at the American Airlines Theatre), The Sugar Syndrome (Williamstown Theatre Festival – July/August 2005), and Third (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater/Lincoln Center Theater – September – December 2005). In late 2005, she starred in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She also appeared in the Broadway play Suburbia, alongside Kieran Culkin and Jessica Capshaw at the Second Stage Theatre on 43rd Street in New York City, which ran from September to October 2006. Hoffmann then returned to the 24 Hours Plays where she acted alongside Jennifer Aniston.
=== Return to film work: 2007–present ===
Since 2007, Hoffmann has made a gradual return to film acting. In 2007, she starred in the film Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America. In 2008, she appeared in Guest of Cindy Sherman, a documentary on art-scene commentator Paul Hasegawa-Overacker's relationship with enigmatic photographer Cindy Sherman. Later in 2008, Hoffmann appeared in the documentary Chelsea on the Rocks, which is a tribute to the Chelsea Hotel where she grew up. Directed by Abel Ferrara, the documentary highlights the many personalities and artistic voices that have emerged from the legendary residence.
In 2009, Hoffmann had a supporting role in Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime, and the thriller 13 with Mickey Rourke (released in 2010).
More recently, Hoffmann has starred alongside Michael Cera in Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013). While shooting the film in Chile, she and Cera took mescaline for her performance in a climactic scene.[17]
Recent guest appearances have been in the television series Louie and Girls in Season 3.[18] Hoffmann said that she will be coming back in season 4 of Girls.[3]
In 2013, she completed work on the lead role of a Web series entitled Lyle, created by Stewart Thorndike and Jill Soloway. It was shot in NYC. She subsequently acquired an apartment in Brooklyn's Fort Greene section.[14] In October 2013, she starred in the 1910s installment of Vanity Fair's The Decades Series, "The First March", directed by Gilly Barnes.[19]
Hoffmann has discussed her full frontal nude scenes in a few of her recent projects including Crystal Fairy, Girls and the Amazon series Transparent.[20] On nudity, Hoffmann said: "People are obsessed with actresses being hairless, fatless Barbie dolls. They can’t imagine that people would want to be anything other than that. When they are, it's looked at as almost a political statement. Look at Lena Dunham. She is a gorgeous woman and people can't stop talking about how brave she is to show herself naked, which I find totally condescending and ridiculous. If Angelina Jolie was naked onscreen no one would say she was brave. The implication is that Lena's brave because she doesn't look the way she's supposed to look. I think that's a shame."[21]
Jill Soloway wrote the role Hoffmann plays in Transparent for her after seeing her performance on Louis C.K.'s third season of Louie.[22]
In 2016 she appeared in video as an onstage "stand-in" during the Nostalgic For the Present concert tour of Australian singer Sia Furler for her song, "Unstoppable."[23]
== Personal life ==
Hoffmann has a daughter, Rosemary,[24] born in November 2014, with longtime boyfriend, cinematographer Chris Dapkins (born on November 19, 1980).[25][26][27] She lives in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.[21]
Hoffmann endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[28]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1989	Field of Dreams 	Karin Kinsella 	
1989	Uncle Buck 	Maizy Russell 	
1992	This Is My Life 	Opal Ingels 	
1993	Sleepless in Seattle 	Jessica 	
1993	The Man Without a Face 	Megan Norstadt 	
1995	Now and Then 	Samantha "Sam" Albertson	
1996	Everyone Says I Love You 	Lane Dandridge 	
1997	Volcano 	Kelly Roark 	
1998	All I Wanna Do 	Odette Sinclair 	
1998	Snapped 	Tara 	
1999	200 Cigarettes 	Stephie 	
1999	Coming Soon 	Jenny Simon 	
1999	Black and White 	Raven 	
2000	You Can Count on Me 	Sheila Seidleman 	
2001	Perfume 	Gabrielle Mancini 	
2007	Severed Ways 	Orn's Wife 	
2009	Life During Wartime 	Wanda 	
2010	13 	Clara Ferro 	
2011	Wolfe with an E 	Karen 	
2011	Confidante 	Sam 	Short film
2011	The Surrogate Mary 	Sally 	
2012	Nate & Margaret 	Darla 	
2013	Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus	Crystal Fairy 	
2013	All That I Am 	Susan 	
2013	Goodbye World 	Laura 	
2014	Obvious Child 	Nellie 	
2014	Veronica Mars 	Ruby Jetson 	
2014	Wild 	Aimee 	
2014	Lyle 	Leah 	
2015	Manhattan Romance 	Emmy 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1994 	Someone Like Me 	Gaby Stepjak 	6 episodes
1995 	Freaky Friday 	Annabelle Andrews 	Television film
1995 	Whose Daughter Is She? 	Andrea Eagerton 	Television film
2005 	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Rachel Burnett 	Episode: "The Good Child"
2009 	The Eastmans 	Dr. Sally Eastman 	Pilot
2010 	Private Practice 	Emily 	Episode: "Just Lose It"
2011 	The Good Wife 	Rhonda Cerone 	Episode: "Killer Song"
2011 	Homeland 	CNN Producer 	Episode: "Clean Skin"
2012 	Louie 	April 	Episode: "Something Is Wrong"
2014–2017 	Girls 	Caroline Sackler 	8 episodes
2014–present	Transparent 	Alexandria "Ali" Pfefferman	Series regular
2016 	High Maintenance 	Gaby 	Episode: "Tick"
== Awards and nominations ==
Year	Award 	Category 	Production 	Result
1990	Young Artist Award 	Best Young Actress Supporting Role in a Motion Picture 	Field of Dreams 	Won
1993	Young Artist Award 	Best Young Actress Under Ten in a Motion Picture 	This Is My Life 	Nominated
1994	Young Artist Award 	Best Youth Actress Co-Starring in a Motion Picture Drama 	The Man Without a Face 	Nominated
1995	Young Artist Award 	Best Youth Comedienne in a TV Show 	Someone Like Me 	Nominated
1996	Young Artist Award 	Best Performance by a Young Ensemble – Feature Film or Video	Now and Then 	Nominated
1997	YoungStar Award 	Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film 	Everyone Says I Love You 	Nominated
2014	Independent Spirit Award 	Best Female Lead 	Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus	Nominated
2015	Primetime Emmy Awards 	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series 	Girls 	Nominated
2015	Primetime Emmy Awards 	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series 	Transparent 	Nominated
2016	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series 	Transparent 	Nominated
2016	Primetime Emmy Awards 	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series 	Transparent 	Nominated