Anne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career at age 18 on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually obtained supporting roles in feature films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Volcano (both 1997). Her first leading role was in Six Days Seven Nights (1998)—which has remained her most high-profile film role to date. That same year, she starred in the critically acclaimed film Return to Paradise, which was her second (and last) leading role in a theatrical film to date. Following a supporting role in John Q. (2002), she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the TV movie Gracie's Choice (2004). From 2006 to 2008, she starred in her own TV series, Men in Trees. Her most recent film credits include Spread (2009), The Other Guys (2010), and Cedar Rapids (2011). She had a supporting role in the 2009–2011 HBO cable TV series Hung.

As Heche was beginning to establish herself in films during the late 1990s, her career was negatively affected  by her highly publicized same-sex relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, and resulted in Heche losing film offers.  In 2001, a year after her break-up with DeGeneres, Heche married cameraman Coleman Laffoon, with whom she has a son. Since their separation in 2007 (they divorced in 2009), she has lived with actor James Tupper, with whom she also has a son.

Early life
Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio, the daughter of Nancy (née Prickett) and Donald Joe Heche. Heche is the youngest of five children, although three of her four siblings are now deceased.

Heche's family moved eleven times before settling in Ocean City, New Jersey when she was 12. When asked in an interview what her father's source of income was, Heche replied "Well, he was a choir director. But I don't think he made much on that a week. He said that he was involved in a business of gas and oil. And he said that until the day he died. But he never was involved in the business of gas and oil ever." In March 1983, when Heche was 13, her father died of AIDS, although he never came out as a homosexual. "He was in complete denial until the day he died. We knew he got it from his gay relationships. Absolutely. I don't think it was just one. He was a very promiscuous man, and we knew his lifestyle then," Heche said on Larry King Live. Despite her father's homosexuality, Heche has stated that he raped her from the time she was an infant until she was 12, and gave her genital herpes when she was eight. When asked "But why would a gay man rape a girl?" during a 2001 interview with The Advocate, Heche replied "I don't think he was just a gay man. I think he was sexually deviant. My belief was that my father was gay and he had to cover that up. I think he was sexually abusive. The more he couldn't be who he was, the more that came out of him in ways that it did."

Weeks after her father's death, Heche's brother Nathan committed suicide. The remainder of Heche's family subsequently moved to Chicago, Illinois. Heche was a noted actress at the progressive Francis W. Parker School and the Bunche Park soap opera. In 1985, when Heche was 16, she was discovered by a talent agent who secured her an audition for the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Heche flew to New York City, auditioned, and was offered a job. However, both she and her mother felt it best that she finish high school first.

Career
Immediately after her high school graduation, Heche landed the dual role of good and evil twins Vicky and Marley on the daytime soap opera Another World. For that work, Heche received a Daytime Emmy award for "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series." Heche taped her final episode of Another World in 1991 and the following year made her primetime television debut with a small part in the made-for-TV movie O Pioneers! (1992). She made her feature film debut in The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993).

Heche's first substantial role was in a segment of the 1996 made-for-cable anthology film If These Walls Could Talk, in which she played a college student contemplating an abortion. That same year she appeared in the independent film Walking and Talking. She was praised for her performance by critic Alison Macor of Austin Chronicle who said in her review that "[Heche's] acting suggests that she is destined for larger film roles". For her performance as Johnny Depp's wife in the 1997 film Donnie Brasco, critics such as Janet Maslin of New York Times wrote that Heche "does well with what could have been the thankless role". Heche had supporting roles in three other films released that year, appearing in Volcano, Wag the Dog, and I Know What You Did Last Summer.

In 1998, Heche got her first high-profile role in the romantic adventure Six Days Seven Nights, where she starred opposite Harrison Ford. She then co-starred with Vince Vaughn in the critically acclaimed drama Return to Paradise. However, Heche was unable to get another leading role in a major film afterwards. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Heche stated that her agents told her she lost opportunities due to her same-sex relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. Just as she had begun to establish herself in films, Heche's career took a significant downturn. Her next screen appearances were supporting roles in little-exposed independent films and television guest spots.

In 2001, Heche appeared in 7 episodes of Ally McBeal, and starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof on Broadway. In 2004, Heche received an Emmy nomination for her performance in the Lifetime movie Gracie's Choice (2004). She appeared in the well-received independent film Birth, which starred Nicole Kidman, and had a recurring role on the WB drama Everwood during its 2004–2005 season. Heche nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway stage production Twentieth Century. She then took on a recurring role on Nip/Tuck in 2005 as an ex-mob wife and Witness Protection Program subject who requires plastic surgery.

In 2006, Heche began work on her own primetime show, ABC’s dramedy Men in Trees. In the show, Heche starred as a New York author who, after finding out her fiancé is cheating on her, moves to a small town in Alaska, which happens to be abundant with single men and few women. Men in Trees was canceled in May 2008, after a season shortened by the writer’s strike. She then appeared in Spread, a sex comedy co-starring Ashton Kutcher released in 2009, which came out in a limited release and with negative reviews, however, Matthew Turney of View London wrote "There's also terrific support" from Heche.

In 2009, Heche was cast in the HBO series Hung, a dark comedy that centers on a well-endowed but struggling high school basketball/baseball coach. Thomas Jane plays the lead character, Ray. Heche plays Ray's ex-wife, who is remarried. The actress replaces Kristin Bauer, who played the role in the pilot. The series was canceled in 2011.

In 2011, Heche appeared in the independent romantic comedy film Cedar Rapids, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is about a naive middle-aged man (played by The Hangover actor Ed Helms) who ventures out of his sheltered existence for the first time when he’s forced to attend an insurance conference. Since its release Cedar Rapids has received many good reviews in which Heche's performance was well received; David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter stated that "while Heche shines brightest in more brittle mode, as in HBO's Hung, she strikes a sweet balance between Joan's mischievous and maternal sides".

Media
Throughout her career, she has appeared in several magazine covers including Entertainment Weekly, Mirabella and Observer Magazine. Heche was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1998. She became a significant subject of widespread media interest while dating comedian Ellen DeGeneres. With her look in films like Six Days Seven Nights, she has exuded a certain sex appeal.

Personal life
Relationships

Heche at the 49th Primetime Emmy Awards (September 1997)

Heche's same-sex relationship with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and the events following their breakup became subjects of widespread media interest. The couple started dating in 1997, and at one point, said they would get a civil union if such became legal in Vermont. They broke up in August 2000. Heche has stated that all of her other relationships have been with men.

Heche married cameraman Coleman 'Coley' Laffoon on September 1, 2001. Their son, Homer, was born on March 2, 2002. Laffoon filed for divorce on February 2, 2007 after five years of marriage. In May 2007, Laffoon filed court papers accusing Heche of being an unfit parent and exhibiting "bizarre and delusional behavior".Heche lost custody of their son in June 2007. In May 2008, following the cancellation of her TV series Men in Trees, Heche said she could no longer afford to pay child support. Heche and Laffoon finally reached a divorce settlement on March 9, 2009. A court order was issued requiring them to hire a “parenting coordinator” to manage their relationships with son Homer. This arrangement remained in effect until May 1, 2011.

Heche reportedly left her husband for Men in Trees co-star James Tupper. The couple moved in together in August 2007. On December 5, 2008, it was confirmed by Heche's representative that the actress was pregnant with Tupper's child. Their son, Atlas Heche Tupper, was born on March 8, 2009. This is the second child for Heche and the first for Tupper.
 
Family
Heche has two sisters: Susan Bergman, who died in January 2006; and Abigail.

Heche and her mother, Nancy, have been estranged ever since Heche confronted her about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Since her husband's death from AIDS, Nancy Heche has been a Christian therapist and motivational speaker who lectures on behalf of James Dobson's Focus on the Family about "overcoming" homosexuality. In 2009, Heche told the New York Times:

My mother’s had a very tragic life. Three of her five children are dead, and her husband is dead. That she is attempting to change gay people into straight people is, in my opinion, a way to keep the pain of the truth out. People wonder why I am so forthcoming with the truths that have happened in my life, and it’s because the lies that I have been surrounded with and the denial that I was raised in, for better or worse, bore a child of truth and love. My mother preaches to this day the opposite of that core of my life. It is no mistake that she still stands up against love. And one wonders why I’m not rushing to have her meet my children.

In 2011, Heche told The Daily Telegraph that she doubts she and her mother will ever repair their relationship.

Psychological problems
On August 19, 2000, Heche drove from Los Angeles to Cantua Creek, a rural area outside Fresno, California, and parked her Toyota SUV along a dusty roadside. Wearing only a bra and shorts, Heche walked 1½ miles through the desert before knocking on the door of a stranger's ranch house. When the home's resident, Araceli Campiz, opened the door, she immediately recognized Heche from the film Six Days Seven Nights. "I was thinking, 'Oh my God, we're in the middle of nowhere,' " recalled Campiz, "and she walks in." Heche gulped down glass upon glass of water, "took off her Nikes and said she needed to take a shower," said Campiz, who obliged, offering her a towel. Refreshed, Heche, who, as far as Campiz could tell was neither drunk, drugged nor ill (although Heche later admitted she had taken ecstasy), plunked down in the living room, requested a pair of slippers (and suggested Campiz don the same) and settled in. "She wanted to watch a movie," said Campiz, "but the VCR was broken." Bemused at first, Campiz grew uneasy when Heche showed no sign of leaving—calling neither friends nor a garage—after half an hour had passed. "I didn't know what to do," Campiz said. "So I called the sheriff's department." When deputies arrived, Heche told them that she was "God, and was going to take everyone back to heaven in a spaceship," according to a police report that was aired on NBC. The deputies summoned an ambulance, which ferried Heche the 50 miles to Fresno's University Medical Center, from which she was released after a few hours.

Heche says that she was insane for the first 31 years of her life due to the trauma of being sexually abused by her father during her infancy and childhood. In a series of interviews given in 2001, Heche stated that she created a fantasy world called the "Fourth Dimension" to make herself feel safe, and had an alter ego named "Celestia," an alien from another planet who could speak to God and was the half-sister of Jesus Christ. Heche said that the incident in Cantua Creek snapped her out of her insanity and put her alter ego behind her.