Arielle Holmes (born September 17, 1993) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for starring as a semi-fictionalized version of herself in the film Heaven Knows What (2014), based on an at the time unpublished memoir she wrote at the behest of the film's directors, Josh and Benny Safdie.
Early life
Holmes was born in the United States on September 17, 1993, the daughter of an American mother and Irish father. She grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey. She had her first experience with crack cocaine when she smoked it with her mother at the age of 12. She was raised by relatives in Bayonne after her mother passed away; her father had left the family while she was a baby.[1] She dropped out of school in the 10th grade and moved to New York City to live with her boyfriend, Ilya Leontyev, but the two fell into heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Holmes first tried heroin at the age of 17,[2] and was largely homeless for the next three years.[1][3]
Career
Holmes was scouted by Heaven Knows What (2014) directors Josh and Benny Safdie in Manhattan's Diamond District, while they were working on a different film that would eventually become Uncut Gems (2019).[4] She had been hired as an unpaid intern by a jeweler who saw her sketching on a subway train.[2][5] Intrigued by her life story, Josh hired her to write a memoir, for which she was paid per page. The resulting unpublished book, Mad Love in New York City, served as the basis for the screenplay of Heaven Knows What.[1][6] The film was dedicated to Holmes' ex-boyfriend Leontyev, who was found dead of an overdose in Central Park in April 2015.[7]
