Guide Note

Actress Heather Matarazzo won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for her role as "Dawn Weiner" in the 1995 coming-of-age film Welcome to the Dollhouse. In 1997, she played DJ's girlfriend on the sitcom Roseanne. She is frequently typecast as the "best friend" or geeky sidekick.

Fast Facts

1. Born: November 10, 1982
2. Full name: Heather Amy Matarazzo
3. Breakout role was Welcome to the Dollhouse as Dawn
4. Played "Lilly" in Disney's The Princess Diaries
5. First role in local production of The Miracle Worker
6. Openly Gay
7. Announced her engagement to Carolyn Murphy on August 1, 2008

1. The Devil's Advocate (1997) Barbara (girl on witness stand)
2. The Princess Diaries (2001) Lilly Moscovitz
3. Scream 3 (2000) Martha Meeks
4. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) Lilly Moscovitz
5. The L Word (2006) Stacey Merkin, reporter
6. Hostel: Part II (2007) Lorna

Matarazzo grew up on Long Island, New York. Matarazzo revealed that she was a lesbian in August of 2004. The following year she spoke at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in Boston. During the conference she talked about the difficulties she went through in accepting her sexual orientation. On August 1, 2008, Matarazzo announced her engagement to musician Carolyn Murphy. The two had been dating a little over a year.¹

"For me I'd always known I liked women, I'd always known it as long as I could remember... [but] I never really knew the name for it... But when I was doing "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and that scene where they're like, 'Lesbo! Lesbo!' and I finally found out what lesbian meant, I was like, 'Actually, yeah, I am a lesbian."