Heather Langenkamp was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. She got her start in acting when she was cast as an extra in the Francis Ford Coppola films Die Outsider - Rebellen ohne Grund (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983), which were both filmed in Tulsa. Her scenes were deleted from the final cut of both films. While studying at Stanford University, she rose to international prominence when Wes Craven cast her as Nancy Thompson in Nightmare: Mörderische Träume (1984). After a string of television guest appearances, she returned as Nancy in the 1987 sequel Nightmare 3 - Freddy lebt (1987). Subsequently, she became known for her role as the moralistic Marie Lubbock on the ABC television series Chaos hoch zehn (1987), a spin-off of the popular ABC situation comedy Unser lautes Heim (1985) (on which she guest-starred), from 1988 to 1990. In 1994, she portrayed fictionalized versions of herself in Freddy's New Nightmare (1994) and the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in Die Eisprinzessin und das Biest - Die wahre Geschichte von Tonya und Nancy (1994). The following year, she had a supporting role as the reporter Christy Carruthers in the horror film The Demolitionist (1995). She served as executive producer and narrator for the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010), followed by roles in Butterfly Room - Vom Bösen besessen (2012), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Truth or Dare (2017). She has since starred in a variety of independent films. She co-owns AFX Studio, a company responsible for the special effects for films such as Dawn of the Dead (2004) and The Cabin in the Woods (2011). She has been married to David LeRoy Anderson since 1990. They have two children. She was previously married to Alan Pasqua.
