Gaby Hoffman

Gabrielle Mary Antonia Hoffmann, born January 8, 1982, in New York City, is an American actress whose career spans film, television, and theater. The daughter of retired actress and former Warhol superstar Viva and soap opera actor Anthony Herrera, who was best known for portraying James Stenbeck on As the World Turns, Hoffmann was raised primarily by her mother at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan following her parents' estrangement shortly after her birth. Her father, who had French and Spanish ancestry on his paternal side and was raised in Wiggins, Mississippi, died of cancer in 2011. Hoffmann's birth is recorded in Pat Hackett's The Andy Warhol Diaries, in an entry dated January 10, 1982, two days after she was born, noting that a friend called Warhol to report visiting Viva and her newborn at the Chelsea Hotel.

Hoffmann spent her early childhood at the Chelsea Hotel, attending elementary school at P.S. 3 on Hudson Street in Manhattan's West Village before enrolling at another school in Hell's Kitchen. She lived at the Chelsea until July 1993, when she was eleven, departing after a dispute with hotel management ended in eviction. Her connection to the hotel had lasting cultural significance: a New York Times article about the Chelsea referenced a children's book titled Gaby at the Chelsea, written by Viva and Jane Lancellotti, which led producer Gail Berman to develop the 1994 NBC sitcom Someone Like Me. Following the move from the Chelsea, Hoffmann and her mother relocated to Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, where their rented house sustained damage in the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake. They temporarily stayed at The Oceana Suites Hotel in Santa Monica while reorganizing their living situation. Hoffmann subsequently attended the Buckley School before graduating from Calabasas High School in 1999.

After high school, Hoffmann enrolled at Bard College in New York to study literature and writing, following the example of her half-sister Alex. She temporarily stepped away from acting around 2001 to complete her degree, graduating in 2004 with a senior thesis that took the form of a documentary film. During her twenties she held a variety of positions outside the entertainment industry, including an internship with a chef in Italy and training as a doula after assisting with the delivery of Alex's children. For a period she and a boyfriend lived in an old trailer in the Catskill Mountains.

Hoffmann began her acting career at the age of four, appearing in commercials to help support the family. Her film debut came in 1989 with Field of Dreams, in which she played Kevin Costner's character's daughter, Karin. That same year she appeared in Uncle Buck alongside John Candy and Macaulay Culkin. She went on to appear in This Is My Life (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) with Tom Hanks, and The Man Without a Face (1993) with Mel Gibson. In 1994, she starred in the NBC sitcom Someone Like Me, which ran for six episodes. The following year she appeared opposite Shelley Long in the television film Freaky Friday and played Young Samantha in the coming-of-age film Now and Then. Between 1996 and 2001, her credits included Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Volcano (1997), The Hairy Bird (1998), 200 Cigarettes (1999), and You Can Count on Me (2000), among others.

Between 2003 and 2009, Hoffmann concentrated on theater work in New York, a period that encompasses her Broadway activity. Her Broadway credits include The 24 Hour Plays 2003 and The 24 Hour Plays 2004, in which she played Denise at the American Airlines Theatre. She also appeared in a production of SubUrbia alongside Kieran Culkin and Jessica Capshaw at the Second Stage Theatre on 43rd Street, which ran from September to October 2006, and later returned to the 24 Hour Plays, performing alongside Jennifer Aniston. Outside of Broadway during this period, her theater work included The Sugar Syndrome at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July and August of 2005 and Third at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center Theater from September through December of 2005. In late 2005 she also appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Beginning in 2007, Hoffmann made a gradual return to film and television. Her screen credits from this period include Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (2007), the documentary Guest of Cindy Sherman (2008), the documentary Chelsea on the Rocks (2008) directed by Abel Ferrara, and a supporting role in Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime (2009). Her film resurgence gained wider recognition through Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013) with Michael Cera, Obvious Child (2014), Wild (2014), and C'mon C'mon (2021). On television, she played April in the FX series Louie in 2012, Caroline Sackler in the HBO series Girls from 2014 to 2017, and Ali Pfefferman in the Amazon Prime series Transparent from 2014 to 2019. Her work on Girls and Transparent earned her three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.