Gabriel LeHeam

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Gabriel LeHeam (born Gabriella D'arcy-LeHeam on May 14, 1969 in Melour, Mestya) is an award-winning Morindiran actress and socialite.

Personal Life

LeHeam was born the daughter of a Ditadorian naval officer who came ashore in Melour and met her mother, a Morindiran schoolteacher. Her father, Amos, later worked in advertising after marrying her mother, June. He died of a heart attack when Gabriel was 10 years old. She has one sister, Geneviève, who is a theatrical designer.

Her long-time girlfriend is Morindiran Chancellor of Finance Yvan Attal, whom she met in 2001 while she was performing in a production of The Songbird. It was not love at first sight, however. "She thought I was aloof and I thought she was arrogant," LeHeam later remarked. "It just shows you how wrong you can be. But once she kissed me that was that."

After making Tomania her home for five years, she returned to her native Morindiria in 2002. LeHeam said in a Riivan magazine interview of November 2003: "Yvan and I realized how much being together meant to us. We saw the community in Valinskya and we felt, well... I have tried to live a few other places, but something really hit me in the gut. It's just a feeling about what home is. It became clear to us, particularly after we decided that we will one day want children, that family and the community of Morindira are a large part of who we are."

Career

LeHeam's secondary education was in Valinskya at the Meta'La College, where she explored her passion for acting. She studied economics and fine art at the University of Valinskya before leaving Morindira to travel. She returned to Morindira and later moved to Tomania to study at the Imperial Academy of the Performing Arts; graduating in 2001 and beginning her career on the stage. Her first major stage role was opposite Tomanian Fëanáro Aldaríon in the 2001 Alassë Felagund play Oleander. She also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 2002-2003 Company C production of Hamlet, directed by Mo Arrah.

Her film debut was as a Morindiran revolutionary captured by the Royalists in the prisoner of war production of Long Road Home directed by Beren d'Ariel.

LeHeam is perhaps best known for her role as Nediva I, last Empress of Morindira, in the 2004 movie Nediva. This role earned her a Morindiran Academy Award for Best Actress.