Former actress Heather Donahue shot to fame in the late 90s thanks to her starring role in the 1999 horror classic, The Blair Witch Project.
Heather, now 51, starred alongside Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard in the found-footage film, which followed a group of students who venture into the Appalachian Mountains to shoot a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch.
© AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty/Alamy Stock PhotoBut less than ten years after taking Hollywood by storm, Heather decided to step away from acting to become a medical marijuana grower. While fans of the film will remember Heather as the brunette, beanie-wearing teen, she looks so different in recent photos.
Keep reading to find out more about Heather's life after Hollywood.
Heather Donahue's retirement from acting
In 2008, Heather decided to retire from acting.
She previously told the Philadelphia Inquirer that she "took all my stuff into the desert related to my acting career and burned it all," sparing just one thing: the blue ski cap from the Blair Witch poster.
© Alamy Stock Photo"I figured if things got really bad, I could always sell it on eBay," she said.
Explaining why she decided to leave the bright lights of Hollywood behind, Heather said in a Q&A on her website: "The acting projects I was lucky enough to work on weren't always things that I felt good about putting out into the world."I didn't see that getting better as I got older. I wanted to change my life, see what else was out there for me, what else I might become."
Heather's new career
Heather, who legally changed her name to Rei Hance in 2020, became a medical marijuana grower after retiring from acting.
She released a memoir in 2012 about her new career called Growgirl, which tells of a year she spent growing medical marijuana in Northern California.
© AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty/Alamy Stock PhotoExplaining how she found her path into the career, she told Reuters: "I went to a meditation retreat after burning all of my acting-related stuff in the desert, and I met this guy there who lived in this town that I had been to several years prior."
She continued: "He sat down next to me, invited me to a hot spring, invited me to his house in this town. And I said, 'What do you do for work?' Because that was really the hold-up for me moving there. I had no idea what people did for work. And he grew pot and I said, 'Well, let's check it out.'
Heather's comments about the Blair Witch reboot
Earlier this month, Heather set the record straight about her involvement in the upcoming Blair Witch reboot, which is being reimagined by filmmaker Dylan Clark for Lionsgate.
After producer James Wan appeared to allude that Heather would join her co-stars Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard as executive producers, Heather clarified that she would not be participating in the film.
© Alamy Stock Photo"There seems to be some willful confusion about my involvement with the reboot, given the use of my image and the quote above from James Wan. I want to clarify that I am not participating," she wrote on social media.
She continued: "I was offered an agreement that, for me personally, raised difficult long-term questions about rights, future technological use of identity and voice, the ability to speak freely, and compensation. Ultimately, it just wasn't something I felt comfortable signing.
"I genuinely wish everyone involved well. But preserving my autonomy mattered more to me."
