Heather Graham

Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress.

Graham's first film appearance was an uncredited cameo in Mrs. Soffel (1984).

Her first credited film appearance was in the television film Student Exchange.

In 1986, she appeared on a special "Teen Week" episode of the NBC game show Scrabble.

Then she appeared in numerous television commercials, and an episode of the sitcom Growing Pains in 1987.

After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy License to Drive (1988), followed by the critically acclaimed film Drugstore Cowboy (1989).

Her first high-profile starring role came in the Corey Haim/Corey Feldman vehicle License to Drive (1988), as a popular girl named Mercedes Lane, who serves as the love interest of Haim's character.

Her efforts won her a Young Artist Award nomination in the Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Fantasy category.

Her strict parents forbade her to accept a role in the black comedy Heathers (1988), which had an expletive-rich script.

The same year, she had an uncredited appearance as Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger's mother in flashbacks in their film, Twins.

In 1989, Graham was featured in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy as Nadine, a young, drug-addicted accomplice of the two main characters (played by Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch).

Her performance gave her career an initial boost and earned her a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She rejected a steady role in a soap opera and a three-picture deal with a major studio because she thought it would be too restrictive.

After Drugstore Cowboy, she appeared in Lawrence Kasdan's dark comedy I Love You to Death (1990), alongside William Hurt and Keanu Reeves, and the rock-and-roll coming-of-age film Shout (1991), for which she received a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Actress Starring in a Motion Picture.

After Graham co-starred with Benicio del Toro in a Calvin Klein commercial directed by David Lynch, the director cast her as Annie Blackburn in Twin Peaks, where she appeared in the final six episodes.

She then played supporting roles on the television series Twin Peaks (1991), and in films such as Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and Swingers (1996).

Following the show's cancellation, Graham reprised the role of Blackburn in the 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

She featured in Diggstown (1992), alongside James Woods; the well-received Six Degrees of Separation (1993), alongside Will Smith; and The Ballad of Little Jo (1993), alongside Ian McKellen before reteaming with Gus Van Sant for the critically panned film adaptation of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, alongside Uma Thurman.

The same year she co-starred as Mary Kennedy Taylor in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

In 1995, she starred as Jackie in the poorly received Desert Winds and guest-starred in an episode of the television series Fallen Angels.

She had a small but important role in Swingers (1996), where she played Lorraine, Jon Favreau's love interest.

She also played a small role as Maggie Bowen in Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story (1996).

She gained critical praise for her role as "Rollergirl" in the film Boogie Nights (1997).

Graham's popularity significantly increased after playing a young porn star in the critically acclaimed film Boogie Nights (1997).

The cast received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

The same year, she also starred in the Gregg Araki film Nowhere, and had a cameo in the horror hit Scream 2 as a fictionalised version of herself, portraying Casey Becker in the film within a film Stab.

She was subsequently cast in Two Girls and a Guy (1998), a film mainly based upon dialogue between the characters, shot in 11 days, which co-starred Robert Downey Jr. and Natasha Gregson; and the sci-fi film Lost in Space, which was met with mostly negative reviews, and grossed $69,117,629 domestically on a production budget of $80 million.

The cast was signed on for sequels that remain unmade.

This led to major roles in the comedy films Bowfinger and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (both 1999).

She starred as Felicity Shagwell in the sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), which was a box-office hit.

Graham had leading roles in Say It Isn't So (2001) and From Hell (2001), and continued to play supporting roles in the films Mary (2005); The Hangover (2009) and its sequel, The Hangover Part III (2013); At Any Price (2012); and Horns (2013).

She has had roles on television series such as Scrubs (2004) and Californication (2014).

Graham is a public advocate for Children International and supported the climate change campaign Global Cool in 2007.

Graham was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The elder of two children, her younger sister Aimee Graham is also an actress and writer.

Her mother Joan (née Bransfield) is a teacher and author of children's books, and her father James Graham is a retired FBI agent.

Her family relocated repeatedly before moving to Agoura Hills, California, when she was nine.

She was introduced to acting during a school production of The Wizard of Oz.

After high school, Graham enrolled in extension classes at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied English for two years.

Against her parents' wishes, Graham withdrew from UCLA to pursue acting full time.