Heather Langenkamp

Heather Langenkamp

Person • Jul 17, 1964

Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress, businesswoman, and radio personality. Langenkamp found mainstream success with her breakthrough role as the resourceful heroine Nancy Thompson in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, which led to Langenkamp being labeled as a "scream queen" by film critics. Langenkamp also became known for playing Marie Lubbock on the ABC sitcom Just the Ten of Us (1988-1990). Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Langenkamp began her acting career after being cast as an extra in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Tulsa-shot drama films The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983), the latter of which she had a line of dialogue which got her into the Screen Actors Guild. While her scenes were cut from both films, Langenkamp decided she wanted to pursue acting as a career. Langenkamp appeared in the drama film Nickel Mountain (1984) and television film Passions (1984) before her breakthrough role as Nancy in Wes Craven’s landmark slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Langenkamp later notably appeared on the television sitcom Growing Pains (1988-1990) in two different guest roles before landing a main role as Marie in the spin-off Just the Ten of Us for three seasons. Langenkamp reprised her role as Nancy in the Craven-written and Chuck Russell directed sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). In 1994, Langenkamp portrayed a fictionalized version of herself in the critically acclaimed meta horror film Wes Craven's New Nightmare and the professional ice skater Nancy Kerrigan in the satirical television film Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story. After these films, Langenkamp took a hiatus from acting to focus on raising her family. Langenkamp served as the executive producer and narrator for the documentary film Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010), followed by making another documentary, I Am Nancy (2011). Following her return to acting, Langenkamp has starred in The Butterfly Room (2012), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Portal (2019), the Netflix series The Midnight Club (2022), The Life of Chuck (2024), and Last Chance Motel (2026). Langenkamp co-runs the visual effects studio AFX Studio with her husband David LeRoy Anderson, where she has worked as a special make-up effects coordinator for films such as Dawn of the Dead (2004), Cinderella Man (2005), Evan Almighty (2007), and The Cabin in the Woods (2012). She has been a disc jockey for the Malibu radio station KBUU-LP since the 2010s. (Via Wikipedia)