Gaby Hoffmann | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Hoffmann in 2025 | |
| Born | Gabrielle Mary Antonia Hoffmann (1982-01-08)January 8, 1982 (age 44) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Bard College (2004) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Partner | Chris Dapkins |
| Children | 1 |
| Parents |
|
Gabrielle Mary Antonia Hoffmann[1][2] (born January 8, 1982)[3] is an American actress. She made her film debut inField of Dreams (1989) and found success as achild actress inUncle Buck (1989),This Is My Life (1992),The Man Without a Face (1993),Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and then later as a teenager withNow and Then (1995),Everyone Says I Love You (1996),Volcano (1997),All I Wanna Do (1998), and200 Cigarettes (1999).
After a hiatus from the industry, Hoffmann returned in 2007, appearing in various independent projects that garnered critical acclaim. This has been described as a career "resurgence",[4] due to her roles inCrystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013),Obvious Child (2014),Wild (2014), andC'mon C'mon (2021). On television, she played April in theFX seriesLouie (2012), Caroline Sackler in theHBO seriesGirls (2014–2017), and Ali Pfefferman in theAmazon Prime seriesTransparent (2014–2019), earning threePrimetime Emmy Award nominations for the latter two.[5]
Hoffmann was born inNew York City[6] to actor parents. Her mother,Viva, is a retired actress, writer and formerWarhol superstar.[7] Her father,Anthony Herrera,[8] was asoap opera actor best known for his role asJames Stenbeck inAs the World Turns.[9] Herrera was raised inWiggins,Mississippi, by his maternal grandparents; his own father, Gaby's paternal grandfather, was ofFrench andSpanish descent.[2] Herrera died in 2011 from cancer.[9] Viva and Herrera were estranged shortly after Hoffmann's birth; she was raised by her mother at theChelsea Hotel in New York. Her father did not have a significant presence in her life.[10][11] Hoffmann's birth is documented in Pat Hackett'sThe Andy Warhol Diaries. An entry dated January 10, 1982, two days after Hoffmann was born, says a friend telephoned Warhol and told him they were going to the Chelsea Hotel to see Viva and her new baby.[citation needed]
Hoffmann attended elementary school in Manhattan at P.S. 3 on Hudson Street in theWest Village, then another school inHell's Kitchen. After she moved to Los Angeles in 1994, she attended theBuckley School, before finally graduating fromCalabasas High School in 1999.[12]
Until July 1993 at age 11, Hoffmann lived in Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel, which she later said she enjoyed. According to Hoffmann, she and her best friend, Talya Shomron, roller-skated in the hallways, spied on the drug dealer across the hall, and persuaded thebellman to go to the neighborhooddelicatessen at night to fetch them ice cream.
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, adrag queen,queer, or a drug addict, then you were the freak.' 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."[13] She also reported in an interview that there had been gunfire and a rape at the hotel shortly before they moved out.[11]
Hoffmann and her mother left the Chelsea Hotel after a long-standing dispute with the management that ended in eviction.[11] Regardless, Hoffmann's connection to the hotel had a significant effect on her future. The idea for the 1994 sitcomSomeone Like Me originated afterGail Berman (former president ofViacom'sParamount Pictures) read aNew York Times article[1] about the hotel which referred to a children's book that Viva and friend Jane Lancellotti wrote,Gaby at the Chelsea (a take onKay Thompson's 1950s classicEloise books). Berman became theshow's producer.
After leaving the Chelsea when Hoffmann was 12,[12] she and her mother moved to the west coast to a two-bedroom rented house inWoodland Hills,Los Angeles,California, which was badly damaged in the January 17,1994 Northridge earthquake. While regrouping their living situation, Hoffmann and her mother temporarily lived at The Oceana Suites Hotel inSanta Monica, California.[citation needed]
After she graduated fromCalabasas High School in 1999, Hoffmann followed her half-sister Alex's example and entered New York'sBard College to pursue a degree in literature and writing. Around 2001, she temporarily left her acting career to complete her studies and graduated in 2004; her senior thesis was adocumentary film.[citation needed]
After college, she spent much of her 20s drifting. She interned with a chef in Italy, then trained to be adoula after helping deliver Alex's children. For a time, Hoffmann and a boyfriend lived in an old trailer in theCatskill Mountains.[1]
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Hoffmann began acting in commercials at the age of four[14] to help pay the family bills. In 1989, she starred in her first movie,Field of Dreams, withKevin Costner, playing his character's daughter, Karin.[15] 1989'sUncle Buck followed, working besideJohn Candy and child starMacaulay Culkin.[16] AfterUncle Buck, Hoffmann grew tired of the rigors of screen performance and temporarily retired. Upon hearing of co-star Culkin's income from his following feature films,[11] she reentered the profession.[17] She starred inThis Is My Life (1992),Sleepless in Seattle (1993) withTom Hanks, andThe Man Without a Face withMel Gibson.[18] According to Hoffmann, the reception fromThis is My Life gave her confidence and solidified her desire to return to acting full-time.[18]
In 1994, Hoffmann starred in her own sitcomSomeone Like Me (onNBC) about a young girl, Gaby, and her dysfunctional family. Although generally well received, the series lasted only six episodes.[19] AfterSomeone Like Me, Hoffmann led alongsideShelley Long in the 1995 TV filmFreaky Friday, a remake of the1976 film of the same name starringJodie Foster andBarbara Harris. In the same year asFreaky Friday, Hoffmann starred as Young Samantha, the childhood counterpart toDemi Moore's character, in the coming-of-age feature filmNow and Then.[20] The same year, Hoffmann played Andrea Eagerton in theCBS TV filmWhose Daughter Is She?. Between 1996 and 2001, Hoffmann landed roles in several films includingEveryone 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), andPerfume (2001).
Between 2003 and 2007, Hoffmann concentrated on theater in New York. Roles included24 Hour Plays (as Denise at the American Airlines Theatre),The Sugar Syndrome (Williamstown Theatre Festival – July/August 2005), andThird (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater/Lincoln Center Theater – September – December 2005). In late 2005, she starred in an episode ofLaw & Order: Criminal Intent. She also appeared in the Broadway playSubUrbia, alongsideKieran Culkin andJessica Capshaw at the Second Stage Theatre on 43rd Street in New York City, which ran from September to October 2006. Hoffmann then returned to the24 Hours Plays where she acted alongsideJennifer Aniston.
Since 2007, Hoffmann has made a gradual return to film acting. In 2007, she starred in the filmSevered Ways: The Norse Discovery of America. In 2008, she appeared inGuest of Cindy Sherman, a documentary on art-scene commentator Paul Hasegawa-Overacker's relationship with enigmatic photographerCindy Sherman. Sherman was married to Hoffmann's stepfather, Michel Auder, from 1984 to 1999.[21] Later in 2008, Hoffmann appeared in the documentaryChelsea on the Rocks, which is a tribute to theChelsea Hotel where she grew up. Directed byAbel Ferrara, the documentary highlights the many personalities and artistic voices that have emerged from the hotel.[22][10] In 2009, she had a supporting role inTodd Solondz'sLife During Wartime, and the thriller13 withMickey Rourke (released in 2010).[23]
Several years later, Hoffmann starred alongsideMichael Cera in the adventure comedy filmCrystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013) directed bySebastián Silva. While shooting the film inChile, she and Cera tookmescaline for her performance,[24] which was nominated for theIndependent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.[25] In 2013, she joined theWeb series entitledLyle, created by Stewart Thorndike andJoey Soloway. As the series was shot in NYC, she subsequently acquired an apartment in Brooklyn'sFort Greene section.[1] In October 2013, she starred in the 1910s installment ofVanity Fair'sThe Decades Series, "The First March", directed by Gilly Barnes.[26]
In 2012 she portrayed April, a love interested and neurotic ex-girlfriend of the title character portrayed byLouis C.K. in theFX seriesLouie.[27][28] Hoffmann took a recurring role portraying Caroline Sackler, the sister of Adam Sackler (Adam Driver) on theLena Dunham createdHBO seriesGirls from 2014 to 2017.[29][13] Her performance was well-received[30] and earned her a nomination for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015.[31]
Joey Soloway, who had watched Hoffman in the third season ofLouie, would subsequently write the role Hoffmann plays inTransparent.[32] In 2016, she appeared in pre-recorded video as an onstage "stand-in" duringSia'sNostalgic for the Present concert tour, for the song "Unstoppable."[33] Her performance is featured on the song's official music video, released in 2021.[34] In 2021, she acted in theMike Mills dramaC'mon C'mon. She acted oppositeJoaquin Phoenix playing his estranged sister, Viv, whose husband is going through mental problems. She was nominated for theGotham Independent Film Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance.[35] From 2022 to 2023, she appeared in the HBO seriesWinning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.[36] In 2024, she co-led the Netflix miniseriesEric alongsideBenedict Cumberbatch.[37]
Hoffmann has a daughter,[38] born in 2014, with longtime boyfriend, cinematographer Chris Dapkins.[39][40][41]
She lives in theFort Greene neighborhood ofBrooklyn.[42]
| † | Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Field of Dreams | Karin Kinsella | |
| Uncle Buck | Maizy Russell | ||
| 1992 | This Is My Life | Opal Ingels | |
| 1993 | Sleepless in Seattle | Jessica | |
| 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 | |
| Snapped | Tara | ||
| 1999 | 200 Cigarettes | Stephie | |
| Coming Soon | Jenny Simon | ||
| 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 | |
| The Surrogate Mary | Sally | ||
| 2012 | Nate & Margaret | Darla | |
| 2013 | Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus | Crystal Fairy | |
| All That I Am | Susan | ||
| Goodbye World | Laura | ||
| 2014 | Obvious Child | Nellie | |
| Veronica Mars | Ruby Jetson | ||
| Wild | Aimee | ||
| Lyle | Leah | ||
| Manhattan Romance | Emmy | ||
| 2021 | C'mon C'mon | Viv | |
| 2024 | Little Death | Martin 2.0 | |
| 2025 | For Worse | Liz | |
| The Mastermind | Maude | ||
| Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere | Adele Springsteen |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Someone Like Me | Gaby Stepjak | 5 episodes |
| 1995 | Freaky Friday | Annabelle Andrews | Television film |
| 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 | Unsold television pilot |
| 2010 | Private Practice | Emily | Episode: "Just Lose It" |
| 2011 | The Good Wife | Rhonda Cerone | Episode: "Killer Song" |
| Homeland | CNN Producer | Episode: "Clean Skin" | |
| 2012 | Louie | April | Episode: "Something Is Wrong" |
| 2014–2017 | Girls | Caroline Sackler | Recurring role (seasons 3–6), 8 episodes |
| 2014–2019 | Transparent | Ali Pfefferman | 42 episodes |
| 2016 | High Maintenance | Gaby | Episode: "Tick" |
| 2022–2023 | Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty | Claire Rothman | 17 episodes |
| 2024 | Eric | Cassie Anderson | Miniseries[43] |
| 2025 | Zero Day | Monica Kidder | Miniseries |
| Poker Face | Fran Lamont | Episode: "The Taste of Human Blood"[44] |
| Year | Title | Role | Playwright | Venue | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | The Sugar Syndrome | Dani | Lucy Prebble | Williamstown Theatre Festival | [45] |
| Third | Emily Imbrie | Wendy Wasserstein | Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre,Lincoln Center | [46] | |
| 2006 | SubUrbia | Sooze | Eric Bogosian | Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway | [47] |
| 2007 | The Machine | Ensemble | Betty Shamieh | The Duke On 42nd Street, Off-Broadway | [48] |
| 2010 | The 24 Hour Plays | Performer | Various | American Airlines Theatre, Broadway | [49] |
| Year | Title | Artist(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | "Unstoppable" | Sia |
...actor Gaby Hoffmann in 1982 (age 36)
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