Amber Heard is Gay: Everything You Need to Know About the Openly Bisexual Actress

Heard was referred to as an “openly lesbian actress” in a press release from GLAAD. She has since clarified that she is bisexual, and the headline has been adjusted to reflect this.


Actress Amber Heard and Tasya Van Ree attend Diesel Black Gold Fall 2010 cocktail reception during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week on February 16, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Duffy-Marie Arnoult/WireImage)

According to the mainstream media, actress Amber Heard “came out” on Friday night at a GLAAD event (Autostraddle was there, stay tuned for our video!). How do you feel about that? I’m guessing your feelings can be broken down into two basic questions:

1. Wasn’t Amber Heard already out?

2. Who is Amber Heard?/Where do I know her from?

Now, I’m way more tuned in to “who’s out” than I am to “movies” or “television,” so I asked myself both “1” and “2.” I feel as though I’ve been casually aware of her existence and her bisexuality for what seems like a while, though I can’t remember why, nor can I remember ever looking into her “work.” I imagined she’d perhaps been on the cover of NYLON at some point or had appeared in an action-adventure movie I’d never seen.

Anyhow, her coming out wasn’t breaking news to the gay community — our invite to GLAAD’s 25th Anniversary Event in Los Angeles even included the following paragraph —

Jonathan Murray, Executive Producer of the Real World and Project Runway, will be presented with the Pioneer Award by Amber Heardthe openly lesbian actress starring with Johnny Depp in Rum Diary and Nicholas Cage in Drive Angry 3D.

But it is breaking news to the community at large, which makes it pretty freaking important. As you may know, hot blonde actresses who look good in bathing suits are our best representatives in the fight for equality.

Especially when they’re smart, well-behaved, confident, talented, and dating a photographer.

Here’s Amber Heard giving her speech at the GLAAD’s 25th Anniversary Event:

On the topic of “coming out” officially, Amber said on Friday night:

“I think when I became aware of my role in the media, I had to ask myself an important question ‘Am I part of the problem?’ And I think that when millions and millions of hard-working, tax paying Americans are denied their rights and denied their equality, you have to ask yourself what are the factors that are an epidemic problem and that’s what this is. Injustice can never be stood for. It always must be fought against and I just was sick of it being a problem. I personally think that if you deny something or if you hide something you’re inadvertently admitting it’s wrong. I don’t feel like I’m wrong.”

So anyhow, because Amber Heard has now officially come out to your grandparents, Maxim‘s subscriber base and everyone else who didn’t already know, you probably wish you knew a little more about her. So, let’s begin. With a photograph:

amber heard on the cover of Maxim magazine

image via ebay

That’s from her first cover for MAXIM. She ranked Number 13 on their 2010 Hot 100. Yup, THE MEN, THEY LOVE HER. She’s posed for GQ, FHM, Maxim, Details and Arena, in addition to every other magazine ever.

Here’s a photo of Amber with her girlfriend Tasya van Ree at the Prop 8 Rally:

Amber’s been fighting for equal marriage rights as well as hitting the town with her girlfriend pretty regularly for most of this year, like at Tasya Van Ree’s Art Exhibition in August. In 2009, some assholes followed her around with a video camera and made a video called “amber heard is a lesbian.” You shouldn’t click on that, I’m just including it so you know I’m not making it up.

In 2009, Amber Heard told Details:

“I’m open to whoever. I think it is absurd to assume that I have to look in a certain category. A person should make choices—about who they want to marry, who they want to spend time with, who they want to fuck—based on a variety of options, and I hope that one day people will be more open-minded about that. It’s silly to look in one category or another. I would never imagine a mate based on a certain sex or race.”

To which Dorothy Snarker pointed out in August:

Of course, actresses saying they’re “open to whoever” is one thing. Having a real girlfriend that you walk the dog with and go to protests with and pose for sexy photoshoots with that’s another.

Earlier this year, Heard was on the cover of Jezebel Magazine. Here’s the opening paragraph from that article:

Having made it onto nearly everyone’s “up-and-comer” list, Amber Heard is a new breed of Young Hollywood. The paparazzi never follow her, there are no rumors about her love life, and she’s not widely recognized by the masses. In fact, she’s one starlet who you rarely see anywhere but on-set or on-camera. Having starred in such films as Pineapple Express, Zombieland, and The Stepfather, Heard is markedly well-spoken and poised, and possesses a conspicuous self-confidence for one so new to the business. But perhaps most notable is that the young actress is strategically formulating and executing her career like a carefully crafted battle plan.”

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Perhaps you remember Amber from the 2008 film Pineapple Express?

Or the 2009 film Zombieland?

If you’re still thinking “where do I know her from, I swear I’ve seen her in something,” these are your options: Jack & Bobby (TV), Friday Night Lights (movie), The Mountain (TV), The O.C. (TV, only one episode), Drop Dead Sexy, North Country, Price to Pay, The Prince (TV movie), Alpha Dog, Criminal Minds, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, Spin, Remember the Daze, Hidden Palms (TV), Californication (TV), Never Back Down, Pineapple Express, The Informers, ExTerminators, The Joneses, Zombieland, The Stepfather, And Soon the Darkness, The River Why, The Ward. Her current projects include Drive Angry 3D and The Rum Diary.

Here she is in The Stepfather with Penn Badgley:

Here she is posing for her first MAXIM cover:

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Amber was born in 1986 and grew up in Austin, Texas, where she attended private Catholic schools all her life. Amber says she always found “a way to rebel.” Amber speaks Spanish fluently. She isn’t a big party girl and has kept her private life very private since she first entered the limelight.

Probably the most important piece of info to you dorks will be this list of “Things That Make Amber’s Home a Home,” (via her Scene & Heard interview earlier this year):

THINGS THAT MAKE AMBER’S HOME A HOME:

1. My kitchen is not complete without Emeril’s copper-lined pots and pans — the best.
2. Fresh flowers — I never have an empty vase in my house. Roses are my favorite.
3. Scents — Aquiesse candles and Voluspa incense reminds me of the importance of scent.
4. My parents’ first record player — it’s my treasure — and a collection of the best vintage vinyl that nine years of flea market and thrift store shopping has to offer.
5. The most practical item in my home (and therefore the most valued) — my Cuisinart Coffeemaker and Coffee-Mate Hazelnut Creamer.
6. Cookbooks by Padma Lakshmi, Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali, Maria Khalife
7. Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Geranium Cleaning and Laundry products.
8. My travel journals (where I keep all my travel plans and notes) is always a black leather Moleskine notebook.

Her first gig was a brief spot in the pilot for Jack & Bobby but her breakout role was playing Maria in Friday Night Lights in 2004 — the film inspired the TV series by the same name.

Amber in Friday Night Lights

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In 2005’s SideFX, Amber kissed a girl, but according to the Lesbian Scene Guru from ELMS, “This is just a mild scene compared to the other scenes in this movie. Heard starts to kiss Phillips on the forehead in one of those consoling kind of ways. That of course leads to a kiss, but since it is shot at a weird angle, you don’t quite get to see it.”

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Here’s Amber’s guest spot on Criminal Minds (2006):

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Interview/clips from All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

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Amber played Greta on the 2007 CW series, Hidden Palms:

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As Maja in Never Back Down (2008):

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Now here’s a movie I would’ve seen if I knew it existed: The Joneses, in which Amber Heard co-stars with Demi Moore and David Duchovny, from 2009:

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A 2009 Interview with Current:

Amber’s Big Gay Life:

Who is Heard’s girlfriend (since 2008), Tasya van Ree? She’s an artist, photographer and filmmaker based in LA.

Recently Tasya founded the I Equals You project to promote equal rights for homos. Furthemore Tasya enjoys making short black-and-white films set to music, usually starring Amber Heard. You can see these on Tasya’s YouTube page, and right now you can watch this one, titled “Amber Heard for Equality”:

Hey-o! Look Tasya recently made a video starring The Real L Word‘s Tracy Ryerson:

So there you go. Now Portia De Rossi will have some serious competition on those men’s magazine polls about which lesbian its readers would like to bang.

Oh and writing this article, I finally figured out where I know Amber Heard from. She was on the cover of MISSBEHAVE, my favorite magazine which has since folded:

I bet you feel really really smart now. Here’s another photo, from May 2010:

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3164 articles for us.

42 Comments

  1. FOUR FOR YOU AMBER HEARD, YOU GO AMBER HEARD

    I knew there was a reason I couldn’t stop checking her out in Never Back Down… and Pineapple Express…and Zombieland…and Remember the Daze.

  2. I was a woman possessed. I spent about 80% of my time talking about Amber Heard, and the other 20% of the time, I was praying for someone else to bring her up so I could talk about her more. I could hear people getting bored with me, but I couldn’t stop. It just kept coming up like word vomit.

    • O, I know her now!!! Her best friend was in love/obsessed with her.. O that episode has all sorts of new meaning, but I’m gona go watch it now to see if thers any sexual tension between her n paget brewster.. real or imagined in my head…even tho I’m totes a jj/emily nerd Lol

      also hi5’s all round for everyone that’s used mean girl references ! I swear, sometimes y’all are soo gay I’m surprised u cn function!

      • If u look at first few mins of the episode, it kinda mirrors ambers life. Amber is in a Art gallery… there is a lesbian artist.

  3. /melts

    anyways, is she actually lesbian as opposed to bisexual for sure? i was looking this up like 3 days ago and it seems like she was all “i wouldnt date based on gender” so wouldnt that qualify as bisexual…?

    not that i have anything against that, i just dont like when its automatically assumed theyre lesbian vs bisexual when they have a girlfriend (but havent specifically stated their flat out gay a la portia)

  4. I had NO IDEA who this girl was until I saw the pic of her from Pineapple Express. Then I was like “OOHHHH YEAH HER,” like out loud, even though I am alone in my house. Awkward.

  5. “As you may know, hot blonde lesbians who look good in bathing suits are our best representatives in the fight for equality.”

    my sarcasm meter is reading OVER 9000!!!

  6. Am I the only one who misses the Autostraddler of the Day? Cause that used to be the highlight of my day.

    • like most things, i became obsessive about it and would take 2 hrs to find the perfect autostraddler of the day, and then we had a redesign, and then alex made another redesign in may and we are still waiting for that to get coded, but maybe when that happens, there will be a space for it, for the autostraddler of the day.

      no but what really happened was we ran out.

      • it’s cool, I don’t want you to feel like you’re being pressured into bring it back or anything, I was just feeling nostalgic, as awesome as the site is now I still think fondly of that original design.

  7. This post pretty much wins at life. Gotta go back to read it again and play. all. the. clips.

    On a more serious note, Miss Heard is glamorous, seems to have her shit together, and has a resume that i suppose most Hollywood wannabe stars and/or foolios her age could only dream of or be ready to sell their soul for. I hope this is truly only the beginning for her. And us / the world – in terms of having out & proud Hollywood actors one can look to as a positive influence, eye candy, and perhaps just as an example/lesson in kickass-itude for girls in showbiz. Well done, Heard. Well-done, AS Team. As per usual.

    I have faith she’ll stay awesome and classy. Here’s hoping she keeps getting lots of work in quality projects big or small as well. (Heck, she’d probably be a great SuperWoman from what i can tell. There’s never been a better time to wake up and grow some balls, Hollywood. [/digression])

  8. OK, so this is a really random comment, but has anyone heard that Jodie Foster is going to be staring in a movie called “The Beaver”? I kid you not.

    • Indeed. I don’t know if it’s even better/worse, terrible/awesome that the titular “beaver” is a hand puppet.

  9. mixed feelings. on the one hand, OMG SHE’S REALLY HOT! AND GAY!

    on the other hand, it seems like she’s really only famous for being hot. The only roles she’s had as an “actress” are all in stupid boy comedies where the only requirements for female characters are that they have a smokin’ bod and be scantily clad as much as possible.

    I hate it when people get a lot of attention just for being attractive. And I hate it even more when people try to cover up the fact that an actress is getting attention for being hot by saying “she’s also really smart and cool!” I’m sure that’s true, but you know that’s not the reason she’s on everyone’s radar right now.

    • shes an actress, which unfortunately(?) is pretty visually based, so unless you are one of those niche personality-quirk hotties its pretty much assumed that its look good now, let people get to know your personality later. atleast she has looks AND smarts *coughnotmeganfoxcough*

  10. Watching Zombieland now in honor of this new announcement…
    seriousy, home sick and just love zombie movies but this is a huge bonus!

  11. I have so much respect for amber heard right now. she isn’t even as famous as ellen page or kristen stewart yet (and gets cast for very different roles than theirs) but is already out, open about it and political.
    you go, girl!

  12. I am the one person who spent the summer of 2007 watching Hidden Palms and I am very pleased I can now retroactively call that a political action of solidarity.

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  14. Breaking the news that Amber Heard is gay to my obsessed male work friends was one of the most satisfying moments in my life.

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