Marielle Heller trivia: 41 amazing facts about the director

Marielle Heller is an American writer and director. She has made an impact in the American cinema with only three films under her belt.

So let’s find out some trivia and facts about her life and career.

1. Her full name is Marielle Stiles Heller
2. She was born in October 1, 1979
3. She is an American writer, director, and actor
4. She is best known for writing and directing the comedy-drama film The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
5. And directing the biographical drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
6. In 2019, she directed the Fred Rogers drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
7. Marielle Heller was born in Marin County, California
8. Her father is Steve Heller, a chiropractor
9. Her mother is Annie, an artist and art teacher
10. She grew up in nearby Alameda
11. Along with her younger brother and sister, Nate and Emily
12. Heller started off as an actor, calling acting her “first love”
13. As a child, she was part of the Alameda Children’s Musical Theater
14. There she participated in as many as four plays a year
15. Including the roles of Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh, Templeton the rat in Charlotte’s Web, and Polly in The Magician’s Nephew
16. With time, she graduated to community theater
17. As well as productions at Saint Joseph Notre Dame
18. There she attended high school
19. She graduated in 1997
20. She studied theatre at UCLA
21. And then at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London
22. Additionally, she was honored with a Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship and The Maryland Film Festival Fellowship
23. Heller has said she is drawn to stories about people “trying to talk about something that people are uncomfortable talking about” and “human beings trying to navigate through the world”
24. Drawn to storytelling, she progressed from an actor, to a writer
25. Finally beginning to direct when she dreaded turning her screenplay for Diary to someone else
26. She has said that becoming a mother made her change the kind of stories she tells, because she wants ” to do good in the world”
27. Heller is married to comedian Jorma Taccone
28. They met at UCLA while studying acting
29. Together they have a son, Wylie Red Heller Taccone, born in December 2014
30. They live in Brooklyn, New York
31. Heller’s brother, Nate, is a musician and composed the score for Diary and Can You Ever Forgive Me?
32. Her sister, Emily, is a stand-up comic, as well as a producer and writer for the HBO comedy Barry
33. Her brother-in-law, Asa Taccone, is the lead singer of the band Electric Guest
34. And her father-in-law, Tony Taccone, is a theater director
35. When asked about her greatest source of inspiration, she answered, “Every member of my family, each of whom is completely their own person, and works on being thoughtful and creative every day. And I find inspiration in all of my friends, and my husband, all of whom are working toward living life as an artist every day”
36. Heller’s writing credits include screenplays, theatrical plays, and pilots for ABC and 20th Century Fox
37. Such as the ABC pilot The Big Apple
38. And a film for Disney, titled Renegade X
39. After returning to the US, she worked as an actor at the Magic Theatre, the American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the La Jolla Playhouse
40. She was in the world premiere of David Edgar’s Continental Divide directed by Tony Taccone
41. She also acted in shows Spin City and Single Dads