Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress, director, writer, producer, and disc jockey.

Langenkamp played Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven's slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which earned her recognition as a scream queen and in popular culture.

She appeared as an extra in the Francis Ford Coppola productions The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983), and had a leading role in the little-seen Nickel Mountain (1984).

Langenkamp runs AFX Studio with her second husband David LeRoy Anderson, where she has worked as a special make-up effects coordinator for films such as Dawn of the Dead (2004), Cinderella Man (2005), Evan Almighty (2007), and The Cabin in the Woods (2012).

At age eighteen, Langenkamp worked for the Tulsa Tribune where she saw an advertisement looking for extras for Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders in the summer of 1982.

[9] Casting director Annette Benson was familiar to Langenkamp as she had brought her in to read for the lead role in Night of the Comet (1984); the part ultimately went to Catherine Mary Stewart.

She won the Best Actress Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival for her role as Nancy,[11] and Empire magazine wrote that "Heather Langenkamp [is] an appealing high school lead.

[14] Craven approached Langenkamp to reprise her role of Nancy in the sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), about the survivors of Freddy Krueger's previous attempts;[15] it opened to box office success in 1987 grossing over $44 million.

[16] Later, she had a guest appearance as Tracy in the television series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter and Monica on the soap opera Hotel (both in 1987).

[20] Langenkamp returned to the Elm Street franchise with Wes Craven's New Nightmare,[21] which is a standalone film, and follows the journey Freddy Krueger takes to the real world.

[22] She instead starred as a fictionalized version of herself, based on a stalking incident she was subject to that involved a fan angry over the cancellation of her show, Just the Ten of Us.

As a partner in her husband's Special FX Make-up company, AFX Studio, she worked on the horror-comedy film The Cabin in the Woods.

In 2013, Langenkamp appeared as herself in the documentary Fantasm[32] and had a small role of an alien in the film, Star Trek Into Darkness in which her husband David LeRoy Anderson designed all of the Special FX make-up.

[37] Langenkamp had a cameo role in the short horror comedy film The Sub (2017) and appeared as herself in the documentary Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary (2017).

[41] Langenkamp portrays Dr. Georgina Stanton, an enigmatic doctor who runs Brightcliffe Hospice, the primary setting of the series.

[44] On October 25, 2023, Flanagan confirmed that Langenkamp would have a role in his forthcoming drama film The Life of Chuck (2024), an adaptation of the Stephen King novella of the same name.

[45] Langenkamp will have a supporting role as Ellenor in Spider One's upcoming horror film Little Bites, which is executive-produced by Cher and Chaz Bono.