1995–2008: The Blair Witch Project and acting Donahue's first screen appearance, and best known role, is in the 1999 found-footage horror film
The Blair Witch Project. Her role in the film originated in 1997, when she read about an audition that was being advertised in
Backstage magazine for actors with strong improvisational abilities, which were needed for an independent horror film. She auditioned at the Musical Theater Works in
New York City and was cast in one of the three principal roles. She and the two other main cast members
Michael C. Williams and
Joshua Leonard were cast as characters that would share their given names. She would come to regret this later in life, changing her name to Rei Hance years after retiring from acting. For the role, Donahue had to learn how to operate a camera, spending two days in a crash course. She said she modeled her character after a director that she once worked with, citing the character's self-assuredness when everything went as planned, and confusion during crisis. After filming, Donahue and the two other leads were asked not to appear on any television shows or in any films, as the filmmakers made great advertising efforts to portray the events in the film as factual, including the distribution of flyers at festivals such as the
Sundance Film Festival, asking viewers to come forward with any information about the "missing" students. The
IMDb page for the film also listed the actors as "missing, presumed dead" in the first year of the film's availability. The promotion for the film was so convincing that Donahue's mother received sympathy cards from people who believed that her daughter was actually dead or missing. making it one of the most successful independent movies of all time. While being nominated for a
Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Newcomer, and an
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress, Donahue was also nominated for worst actress at the
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, and won in the same category at the
Golden Raspberry Awards. Donahue later admitted there was a considerable amount of backlash against her because of her association with the film, which led to her having threatening encounters with people, and difficulty finding other employment. A year after the release of
The Blair Witch Project, she appeared in the independent film
Home Field Advantage, and alongside
Freddie Prinze, Jr. and
Jason Biggs in the romantic comedy
Boys and Girls. In 2001, she appeared in the independent film
Seven and a Match and in the short film
The Velvet Tigress. In 2002, she had a co-starring role in the
science fiction miniseries
Taken, for which she was nominated for a
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television. The same year, she appeared in an array of short films and televised films, such as
The Walking Hack of Asbury Park,
New Suit and
The Big Time. In 2005, she guest-starred in an episode of the comedy series ''
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Her last acting role was in the 2008 direct-to-DVD horror film The Morgue''.
2008–present: Business and writing ventures Donahue left acting in 2008 to become a
medical marijuana grower. In 2011, she signed a publishing deal for her debut book
Growgirl, about her time as a marijuana grower, which was released on January 5, 2012 by
Gotham Books. In a 2016 interview in
GQ, she discussed the ongoing challenges associated with having used her birth name in
The Blair Witch Projecta name she was still using at the time of the interview. The same interview revealed that she was writing for, and intended to produce, a sitcom tentatively called
The High Country, based on her experiences in marijuana farming. In 2020, she formally changed her name to Rei Hance. Hance stated in a 2021 interview that she was paid a sum of money for the use of her likeness in the sequel, but that it had followed eight years of "constant failure" in her life, and so she "took that money and just drove around North America, getting shitfaced for about two years, and hoping I would die. Like I did not want to be alive anymore." She subsequently relocated to
Freedom, Maine, and became
sober. She is a practicing
Buddhist. ==Filmography==