Chloe Stevens Sevigny (born November 18, 1974) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated American actress and former model. Sevigny became well known for her fashion impresario and starring in a string of critically acclaimed independent films in the 1990s before her first mainstream role as Brandon Teena's girlfriend, Lana Tisdale, in Boys Don't Cry. For her role, Sevigny received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Sevigny has continued acting in mostly independent, but critically acclaimed roles in art house films and has recently enjoyed success playing Nicki Grant, on the American television series Big Love, playing a woman married to a polygamist. Sevigny was born Chloe Stevens Sevigny in Darien, Connecticut to H. David Sevigny, an accountant turned interior painter, and Janine Malinowski. Sevigny's mother is a Polish American who grew up in Roxborough and her father is of French Canadian heritage; he died from cancer in 1996. She has an older sibling, Paul, who is now a New York DJ. Sevigny was raised in a strict Catholic household, and attended Darien High School. While in high school, she babysat Topher Grace on several occasions. Sevigny moved into her own apartment at age 18 in Brooklyn. Here, in 1993, after hanging out with Manhattan skateboarders, she was spotted on an East Village street by a fashion editor of Sassy Magazine, who was so impressed by Sevigny's style that she asked her to intern at the magazine. She later modeled in the magazine as well as for x-girl, the fashion label of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. During that time, author Jay McInerney saw her around New York City and wrote a seven-page article about her for The New Yorker, in which he dubbed her the new "it-girl". She appeared on the album cover of The Gigolo Aunts' 1994 recording Flippin' Out.