Rei Hance (born Heather Donahue; December 22, 1974) is an American businesswoman and retired actress. She is known for her starring roles in the found footage horror film The Blair Witch Project (1999) and the science fiction miniseries Taken (2002). She retired from acting in 2008 and became a medical marijuana grower. She legally changed her name to Rei Hance in 2020.
Early life
Heather Donahue was born on December 22, 1974, in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Joan, an office manager, and James Donahue, a printer. She graduated from Philadelphia's University of the Arts in 1995 with a BFA in theater, and also performed in productions at the Battersea Arts Centre in London, England, where she apprenticed in conjunction with the University of the Arts London. After completing her studies, she worked as an administrative office temp worker while appearing in New York stage productions. She and the two other main cast members Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard were cast as characters that would share their given names. She would come to regret this later in life, changing her name to Rei Hance years after retiring from acting.
For the role, Donahue had to learn how to operate a camera, spending two days in a crash course. She said she modeled her character after a director that she once worked with, citing the character's self-assuredness when everything went as planned, and confusion during crisis. After filming, Donahue and the two other leads were asked not to appear on any television shows or in any films, as the filmmakers made great advertising efforts to portray the events in the film as factual, including the distribution of flyers at festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, asking viewers to come forward with any information about the "missing" students. The IMDb page for the film also listed the actors as "missing, presumed dead" in the first year of the film's availability. The promotion for the film was so convincing that Donahue's mother received sympathy cards from people who believed that her daughter was actually dead or missing. making it one of the most successful independent movies of all time. While being nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Newcomer, and an Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress, Donahue was also nominated for worst actress at the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, and won in the same category at the Golden Raspberry Awards. Donahue later admitted there was a considerable amount of backlash against her because of her association with the film, which led to her having threatening encounters with people, and difficulty finding other employment.
A year after the release of The Blair Witch Project, she appeared in the independent film Home Field Advantage, and alongside Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jason Biggs in the romantic comedy Boys and Girls. In 2001, she appeared in the independent film Seven and a Match and in the short film The Velvet Tigress. In 2002, she had a co-starring role in the science fiction miniseries Taken, for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television. The same year, she appeared in an array of short films and televised films, such as The Walking Hack of Asbury Park, New Suit and The Big Time. In 2005, she guest-starred in an episode of the comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Her last acting role was in the 2008 direct-to-DVD horror film The Morgue.
2008–present: Business and writing ventures
Donahue left acting in 2008 to become a medical marijuana grower. In 2011, she signed a publishing deal for her debut book Growgirl, about her time as a marijuana grower, which was released on January 5, 2012 by Gotham Books. In a 2016 interview in GQ, she discussed the ongoing challenges associated with having used her birth name in The Blair Witch Projecta name she was still using at the time of the interview. The same interview revealed that she was writing for, and intended to produce, a sitcom tentatively called The High Country, based on her experiences in marijuana farming.
In 2020, she formally changed her name to Rei Hance. Hance stated in a 2021 interview that she was paid a sum of money for the use of her likeness in the sequel, but that it had followed eight years of "constant failure" in her life, and so she "took that money and just drove around North America, getting shitfaced for about two years, and hoping I would die. Like I did not want to be alive anymore." She subsequently relocated to Freedom, Maine, and became sober. She is a practicing Buddhist.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1999
| The Blair Witch Project
| rowspan="4"| Heather Donahue
| Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress<br>Nominated – Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Newcomer<br>Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
|-
| Sticks and Stones: An Exploration of the Blair Witch Legend
|
|-
| rowspan="4"|2000
| The Massacre of The Burkittsville 7: The Blair Witch Legacy
| Archival footage only
|-
| Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
| Archival footage only
|-
| Home Field Advantage || Wendy Waitress ||
|-
| Boys and Girls || Megan ||
|-
| rowspan="2"|2001 || Seven and a Match || Whit ||
|-
| The Velvet Tigress || || Short film
|-
| rowspan="3"|2002 || The Walking Hack of Asbury Park || Wendy || Short film
|-
| New Suit || Molly ||
|-
| The Big Time || Heather || Television film
|-
| 2005 || Manticore || Cpl. Keats || Television film
|-
| 2008 || The Morgue || Nan ||
|-
| 2016 || Blair Witch || Heather Donahue || Archival footage only
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 2001 || The Outer Limits || Claire Linkwood || Episode: "The Surrogate"
|-
| 2002 || Taken || Mary Crawford || Main cast (miniseries)<br>Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television
|-
| 2003 || Without a Trace || Linda Schmidt || Episode: "The Friendly Skies"
|-
| 2005 || It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia || Stacy Corvelli || Episode: "Charlie Wants an Abortion"
|}