Daryl Hannah was born in Chicago in 1960. Her mother’s second husband was the brother of cinematographer Haskell Wexler, which gave her a familiarity with the film world. She was a shy girl, who was later diagnosed with autism, but ended up at the University of Southern California, studying acting. Her film debut was in Brian De Palma’s 1978 horror film The Fury.

Hannah has had a long career and memorable roles in many movies, some of the most notable being replicant Pris in Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction classic Blade RunnerRon Howard’s Splash in 1984 as the mermaid; and Ayla in The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986). She appeared in Wall Street (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (Vol. 1) (2003), among many others. Also, an accomplished theater actress, she played Marilyn Monroe’s role in The Seven Year Itch in London’s West End in 2000.

Hannah was one of the many women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. She was married to musician Neil Young in 2018.

Aside from her film career, Hannah is also a well-known environmentalist. She became an early vegetarian due to her empathy with animals and is now vegan. Her green home runs on solar power and she drives a car that runs on biodiesel. Soon, she plans to have a wind turbine and will change her cooking stove to burn cleaner alcohol fuel. Her weekly video blog DHLoveLife focuses on sustainable living and offers ideas on a green lifestyle.

Hannah grew up on the 42^nd story of a building in downtown Chicago. When she was 7, her parents sent her to camp in the Colorado Rockies which awakened her deep feelings for Mother Nature and for cultures that hold a reverence and respect for Her.

She has been arrested several times for her activism — in 2006 for protesting the razing of a large urban farm for poor people in South Central Los Angeles; for a 2009 protest over mountaintop removal in West Virginia; and for a 2011 protest outside of the White House against the Keystone oil pipeline running from Alberta, Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. In 2012, she was jailed in Wood County, Texas while protesting that pipeline, and again during a climate change protest (again at the White House) in 2013 over the same pipeline. She was executive producer of a 2012 documentary against climate change called Greedy Lying Bastards.

Hannah supports the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance to encourage renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels like oil. She is on the boards of the Environmental Media Association and Sylvia Earl’s Mission Blue, dedicated to preserving the world’s natural resources and fighting pollution.

According to her, we need to stop global warming, clean up our oceans and plant more trees, as well as get more involved in local politics to pass legislation that bans fracking and other toxic practices. We need to recycle, buy organic food, and get plastics out of our lives.

It seems like an impossible list of goals, but Hannah thinks that environmental concerns, humanitarian concerns, and the welfare of other species are all inextricably linked; that we are deeply interconnected, and with the global crises we currently face, we all need to be proactive and aware.

She believes it’s simple if you just look at environmentalism as protecting what you love.