Chloë Sevigny

Biography

Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American actress, fashion designer, director, and former model. In 1994, she attracted the attention of novelist Jay McInerney, who wrote a seven-page article about her for The New Yorker, in which he called the then 19-year-old Sevigny the “coolest girl in the world”.

Sevigny made her film debut with a lead role in the controversial film Kids (1995), written by her then-boyfriend Harmony Korine and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her performance. A long line of roles in generally well-received and often experimental films throughout the decade established Sevigny as a mainstay in the independent film community. In 1999, Sevigny gained recognition outside of the independent film world for her role as Lana Tisdel in the fact-based drama Boys Don’t Cry, earning her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Other roles that followed included in American Psycho (2000), Party Monster (2003) and Dogville (2003).

From 2006 to 2011, Sevigny played the polygamist Nicolette Grant in the HBO television series Big Love, for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in 2010. She then appeared in several television projects, including lead roles in Hit & Miss (2012) and American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016), and recurring roles on American Horror Story: Asylum (2012–2013), Portlandia (2013) and Bloodline (2015–2017). She made her directorial debut with the short film Kitty, which closed the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Sevigny has only had long-term relationships with men, though in 2006 she stated to the New York Post Gossip column: “I’ve questioned issues of gender and sexuality since I was a teenager, and I did some experimenting.” In a later interview, she stated that she “wouldn’t call herself bisexual,” and that she could never see herself in a relationship with a woman. Nonetheless, she has been popular with the gay community throughout her career.