Speakers & VIPs

Daryl Hannah

Daryl Hannah’s career has spanned a 20-year period and included appearances in over 40 feature films. From her early start as a teenager in Chicago in Brian De Palma’s The Fury starring Kirk Douglas, she set a pattern of working with some of the most talented and accomplished actors and directors of our time. Some of those include her turn as a gymnastic punk android in Ridley’s Scott’s cult classic Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford, to playing the innocent mermaid in Ron Howard’s Splash co-starring Tom Hanks and John Candy. Hannah has also worked with Woody Allen, Neil Jordan, Oliver Stone, Robert Altman and John Sayles to name a few.

Some of her most memorable films, which have stood the test of time, include Roxanne with Steve Martin, Steel Magnolias with Shirley MacLlaine and Dolly Parton, The Pope of Greenwich Village with Mickey Rourke, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men with the beloved Walter Mattheau and the great Jack Lemmon.

In addition to working in big studio films, Daryl has become a strong supporter and advocate of independent cinema, not only with her acting, but also by producing many films. She played a sad comic stripper in the fully improvised Dancing at the Blue Iguana directed by Michael Radford, a hermaphrodite angel in the Polish Brother’s Northfolk co-starring Nick Nolte and James Woods, and a women struggling with adoption in John Sayles Casa de los babies.

Hannah can be seen in Quinton Tarantino’s highly successful Kill Bill Vol. I & Vol. II, in which she played the one-eyed samurai assassin Elle Driver. She recently completed John Sayles’ political satire Silver City co-starring Richard Dreyfuss and Chris Cooper.

In 2001, Hannah made her stage debut in George Axelrod’s Seven Year Itch, directed by Michael Radford at the Queens Theatre in London’s famed West End. Hannah wrote, directed, and produced a 12-minute short entitled The Last Supper, which received the Berlin International Film Festival’s Jury Award for Best Short. Hannah also directed, produced and shot the documentary Strip Notes, which was inspired while researching her role for Dancing At The Blue Iguana and was shown on HBO and UK’s Channel 4.

Hannah is an environmental activist who walks the walk by living on solar power, adopting animals, and driving a clean burning vehicle.