After a hiatus from the industry, Hoffmann returned in 2007, appearing in various independent projects that garnered critical acclaim. This has been described as a career "resurgence",[4] due to her roles in Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013), Obvious Child (2014), Wild (2015), and C'mon C'mon (2021). On television, she played April in the FX series Louie (2012), Caroline Sackler in the HBO series Girls (2014–2017), and Ali Pfefferman in the Amazon Prime series Transparent (2014–2019), earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the latter two.[5]
Early life
Hoffmann was born in New York City[6] to actor parents. Her mother, Viva, is a retired actress, writer and former Warhol superstar.[7] Her father, Anthony Herrera,[8] was a soap opera actor best known for his role as James Stenbeck in As the World Turns.[9] Herrera was raised in Wiggins, Mississippi by his maternal grandparents; his own father, Gaby's paternal grandfather, was of French and Spanish descent.[2] Herrera died in 2011 from cancer.[9] Viva and Herrera were estranged shortly after Hoffmann's birth; she was raised by her mother at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Her father did not have a significant presence in her life.[10][11] Hoffmann's birth is documented in Pat Hackett's The Andy Warhol Diaries. An entry dated January 10, 1982, two days after Hoffmann was born, says a friend telephoned Warhol and told him they were going to the Chelsea Hotel to see Viva and her new baby.[citation needed]
Hoffmann's mother, the daughter of an attorney, was raised in a conservative and devoutly Catholic family in New York State.[11][12][13] Viva was previously married to director Michel Auder in 1969, by which union Gaby Hoffmann has an elder half-sister, Alexandra "Alex" Auder, who teaches yoga in New York City.[1][14]
Hoffmann attended elementary school in Manhattan at P.S. 3 on Hudson Street in the West Village, then another school in Hell's Kitchen. After she moved to Los Angeles in 1994, she attended the Buckley School, before finally graduating from Calabasas High School in 1999.[15]
Life at the Chelsea Hotel
Until July 1993, Hoffmann lived in Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel, which Hoffmann later said she enjoyed. According to Hoffmann, she and her best friend Talya Shomron roller-skated in the hallways, spied on the drug dealer across the hall, and persuaded the bellman to go to the neighborhood delicatessen at night to fetch them ice cream.
Hoffmann recalled, "I grew up in downtown New York in the '80s. I have a friend who grew up with me, and she puts it well. She says, 'If you grew up where we grew up, if you weren't an artist, a drag queen, queer, or a drug addict, then you were the freak.' I grew up in a world where I guess what is considered unusual or abnormal for the rest of America was very much considered the norm."[16] She also reported in an interview that there had been gunfire and a rape at the hotel shortly before they moved out.[11]
Hoffmann and her mother left the Chelsea Hotel after a long-standing dispute with the management that ended in eviction.[11] Regardless, Hoffmann's connection to the hotel had a significant effect on her future. The idea for the 1994 sitcom Someone Like Me originated after Gail Berman (former president of Viacom's Paramount Pictures) read a New York Times article[1] about the hotel which referred to a children's book that Viva and friend Jane Lancellotti wrote, Gaby at the Chelsea (a take on Kay Thompson's 1950s classic Eloise books). Berman became the show's producer.
After she graduated from Calabasas High School in 1999, Hoffmann followed her half-sister Alex's example and entered New York's Bard College to pursue a degree in literature and writing. Around 2001, she temporarily left her acting career to complete her studies and graduated in 2004; her senior thesis was a documentary film.[citation needed]
After college, she spent much of her 20s drifting. She interned with a chef in Italy, then trained to be a doula after helping deliver Alex's children. For a time, Hoffmann and a boyfriend lived in an old trailer in the Catskill Mountains.[1]
Hoffmann began acting in commercials at the age of four[17] to help pay the family bills. In 1989, she starred in her first movie, Field of Dreams, with Kevin Costner. She portrayed the daughter, Karin, which is often cited in pop culture for her character whom almost chokes to death on a wiener.[18] 1989's Uncle Buck followed, working beside John Candy and child star Macaulay Culkin.[19] After Uncle Buck, Hoffmann grew tired of the rigors of screen performance and temporarily retired. Upon hearing of co-star Culkin's income from his following feature films,[11] she reentered the profession.[20] She starred in This Is My Life (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) with Tom Hanks, and The Man Without a Face with Mel Gibson.[21] According to Hoffmann, the reception from This is My Life gave her confidence and solidified her desire to return to acting full-time.[21]
Between 2003 and 2007, Hoffmann concentrated on theater in New York. Roles included 24 Hour Plays (as Denise at the American Airlines Theatre), The Sugar Syndrome (Williamstown Theatre Festival – July/August 2005), and Third (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater/Lincoln Center Theater – September – December 2005). In late 2005, she starred in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She also appeared in the Broadway play SubUrbia, alongside Kieran Culkin and Jessica Capshaw at the Second Stage Theatre on 43rd Street in New York City, which ran from September to October 2006. Hoffmann then returned to the 24 Hours Plays where she acted alongside Jennifer Aniston.
Return to film work: 2007–present
Hoffmann (bottom left) with fellow cast members of Transparent in 2015
Since 2007, Hoffmann has made a gradual return to film acting. In 2007, she starred in the film Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America. In 2008, she appeared in Guest of Cindy Sherman, a documentary on art-scene commentator Paul Hasegawa-Overacker's relationship with enigmatic photographer Cindy Sherman. Sherman was married to Hoffmann's stepfather, Michel Auder, from 1984 to 1999.[24] Later in 2008, Hoffmann appeared in the documentary Chelsea on the Rocks, which is a tribute to the Chelsea Hotel where she grew up. Directed by Abel Ferrara, the documentary highlights the many personalities and artistic voices that have emerged from the hotel.[25][10] In 2009, she had a supporting role in Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime, and the thriller 13 with Mickey Rourke (released in 2010).[26]
^Fine, Marshall (August 31, 2012). "Gaby Hoffmann: Now playing adults". Hollywood & Fine. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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