Heller was born inMarin County, California,[2] to Steve Heller, a chiropractor, and Annie Stiles-Heller, an artist and art teacher.[3][4] She grew up in nearbyAlameda, along with her younger brother and sister, Nate andEmily.[5] Her father hails from aJewish family in New York.[6][7] Heller started off as an actor, calling acting her "first love."[8] She was part of the Alameda Children's Musical Theater, where she participated in as many as four plays a year, including the roles of Rabbit inWinnie the Pooh,Templeton the rat inCharlotte's Web, and Polly inThe Magician's Nephew.[3]
With time, she graduated to community theater, as well as productions at Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School.[3] She graduated in 1997.[9] She studiedtheatre atUCLA and then at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[10] Additionally, she was honored with a Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship and The Maryland Film Festival Fellowship.[11]
The Diary of a Teenage Girl was Heller's debut film, that she both wrote and directed. It is based on the 2002graphic novel titledThe Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures byPhoebe Gloeckner,[14] which she received as a Christmas present from her sister in 2006.[3] The story's protagonist, Minnie, is a 15-year-old girl living in theSan Francisco Bay Area in 1976 who begins an affair with her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend, Monroe. Heller was taken with Minnie's character, a young woman who is confident in her sexuality and, noting the lack of films that represent young women in such a way, she set to adapting the graphic novel to play. With Gloeckner's blessing, she worked the script into a screenplay.[15] The film premiered at theSundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015, and later received alimited release in August 2015.[16] The film starsBel Powley as Minnie. Previously, Heller was selected as a 2012Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and 2012 Sundance Directing Fellow,[17] where she had submitted the script for the Sundance writer and director workshop. She then proceeded to direct a teaser for the film using grant money from the writer's workshop. The film received critical acclaim at Sundance, and was in competition in the U.S. Dramatic category. The film also won the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus at theBerlin International Film Festival in 2015.[18] In 2016, the film was named best first feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.[3]
Heller's writing credits include screenplays, theatrical plays, and pilots forABC and20th Century Fox, such as the ABC pilotThe Big Apple and a film forDisney, titledRenegade X.[10]
Heller next directedCan You Ever Forgive Me? about literary forger and writerLee Israel, based on the author's memoir.[19] She teamed up again with Archer Gray, who she first worked with onDiary.[20] With a limited budget, filming a movie set in the 1990s was a challenge.[19] She castMelissa McCarthy in the title role based on the actress's performance in the 2014 filmSt. Vincent.[21] They shot on location in bookstores where Israel had sold her forgeries, including the Argosy Bookstore and Westsider Rare & Used Books.[3] The film premiered at theToronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018.[21] It was released on October 19, 2018, byFox Searchlight.[19][8]
In January 2018, it was announced that Heller would directA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a film that chronicles an interviewTom Junod conducted with child entertainerFred Rogers forEsquire magazine, and how the encounter impacted the journalist's life.[19] The screenplay was written by Emmy-nominated producers Micah Fitzerman-Blue andNoah Harpster.[22]Tom Hanks, who portrays Mr. Rogers, agreed to join the project once Heller signed on as director, as they had met previously through Hanks' son,Colin.[23][3] It was filmed inPittsburgh.[3]
Heller played a breakout acting role in the Netflix showThe Queen's Gambit as Alma Wheatley.[24][25] Heller is friends with the directorScott Frank and was going to play the part of Beth's biological mother, until the original actress fell out.[25]
Heller has said she is drawn to stories about people "trying to talk about something that people are uncomfortable talking about" and "human beings trying to navigate through the world."[8] Drawn to storytelling, she progressed from an actor to a writer, finally beginning to direct when she dreaded turning her screenplay forDiary over to someone else.[13] She has said that becoming a mother made her change the kind of stories she tells, because she wants "to do good in the world".[8]
In 2020, she was listed, among others, as one of the several female directors snubbed for Academy Awards and Golden Globes nominations for Best Directing, as only men were nominated. Fellow directorGreta Gerwig, who also was not nominated, included Heller in her list of women who could have been competing for the Golden Globe. ActressNatalie Portman, as a sign of protest, wore a dress embroidered with the names of these women, including Heller, on the 2020 Oscars red carpet.[26]
Filming days forA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood adhered to a shooting schedule of ten-hour days that did not break for lunch so that Heller and other cast and crew members could potentially still have nights with their children. She believes sustainable working hours on film sets will allow more female directors to continue working after they have families.[27]
Heller's brother, Nate, is a musician who composed the scores for all four of her feature films.[3] Her sister,Emily Heller, is a stand-up comic, as well as a producer and writer for the HBO comedy seriesBarry.[3] Her brother-in-law,Asa Taccone, is the lead singer of the bandElectric Guest, and her father-in-law,Tony Taccone, is a theater director. When asked about her greatest source of inspiration, she answered: "Every member of my family, each of whom is completely their own person, and works on being thoughtful and creative every day. And I find inspiration in all of my friends, and my husband, all of whom are working toward living life as an artist every day."[12]
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