Anne Celeste Heche was 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, following her break-up with DeGeneres, Heche married cameraman Coley 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.