Chloe Sevigny

Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American actress and director known for her work in independent films featuring experimental or controversial themes. Throughout her career, she has earned critical recognition, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. Outside of her screen acting, she has also established a career in fashion design and has gained a reputation as a style icon for her alternative fashion sense.

Sevigny was born on November 18, 1974, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Janine and Harold David Sevigny. Raised alongside her older brother in a strict Catholic household in Darien, Connecticut, she attended Darien High School and spent summers participating in YMCA theater camp plays. As a teenager, she sewed her own clothes, took trips into Manhattan, and experimented with drugs before relocating to an apartment in Brooklyn in 1993 to work as a seamstress.

Her career in the public eye began in the early 1990s after she was spotted by a fashion editor for Sassy magazine, leading to modeling work and an internship. She subsequently modeled for the fashion label X-Girl and appeared in music videos for Sonic Youth and The Lemonheads. Following a 1994 New Yorker article by Jay McInerney that dubbed her the new "it girl," she established a notable presence in New York City's underground scene.

Sevigny made her feature film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids, portraying an HIV-positive teenager, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination. She followed this with roles in Trees Lounge (1996), Gummo (1997)—on which she also worked as a fashion designer—and The Last Days of Disco (1998), as well as an Off-Broadway role in Hazelwood Jr. High. In 1999, Sevigny achieved widespread acclaim for her performance as Lana Tisdel in Boys Don't Cry, earning nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, Sevigny appeared in a wide array of independent films. Her credits included Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), American Psycho (2000), Demonlover (2002), Party Monster (2003), and Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003). In 2004, she starred in The Brown Bunny, which generated significant public controversy due to a graphic unsimulated scene.

Sevigny also built an extensive body of work in television. From 2006 to 2011, she starred as Nicolette Grant on the HBO series Big Love, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2010. Her other television projects include Hit & Miss, Portlandia, American Horror Story, and Bloodline, along with film roles such as David Fincher's Zodiac (2007). In 2024, her performance in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

In addition to acting, Sevigny expanded into directing. She made her directorial debut in 2016 with the short film Kitty. Her third short film, White Echo, competed for the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.