Who

A British expat who made a splash chronicling her life as a single Manhattanite, Heller is the author of 2005's What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal, which was turned into a movie in 2006.

Backstory

Heller became notorious in '90s Britain for her regular Sunday Times column in which—before Carrie Bradshaw or Bridget Jones—she offered a no-holds-barred account of her life as a single girl in Manhattan. The column was hugely popular, and launched Heller's career as a critic and feature writer. Her first novel, 2000's Everything You Know, the darkly comic story of a misanthropic aging screenwriter who receives his dead daughter's diaries in the mail, got mixed reviews, but the follow-up, 2005's What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal, about a teacher's affair with a student, was universally praised and short-listed for the Booker Prize. The movie adaptation starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench came out in 2006. Heller's next novel The Believers, a New York-set story about a secular Jewish couple whose daughter becomes a "born-again Jew," will be published in late 2008.

Family ties

Contrary to frequent assumption, she's no relation to Joseph Heller. Her family does have writing genes, though: Her father was Lukas Heller, legendary screenwriter of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? and The Dirty Dozen.

Personal

Heller's husband is Larry Konner, a screenwriter 16 years her senior; they got married on Heller's 40th birthday. They live in Tribeca with their two daughters, Frankie and Louella.

No joke

She once had her husband's initials tattooed on her inside upper arm, then had it turned into a wreath during what proved to be a temporary break-up.