Dollar for dollar, The Blair Witch Project is one of the most profitable movies ever. Widely considered one of the scariest movies of all time, the 1999 found-footage supernatural horror film was made on a tiny budget of $60,000 but raked in a whopping $248.6 million worldwide.
It made the two directors very rich. Daniel Myrick’s net worth is around $2 million, and Eduardo Sánchez is worth around $3 million. However, the movie’s three stars haven’t benefited much from its profits.
Heather Donahue has a modest net worth of around $200,000 and there’s no record of Michael C. Williams’ earnings, as he’s largely faded into obscurity. Joshua Leonard has made the biggest success of his subsequent career, amassing a net worth of approximately $4 million, but very little of that has come from The Blair Witch Project.
The trio have long-standing beef with Artisan Entertainment who own the rights to the film. In the early 2000s, they sued the company for using their likeness in the sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, without obtaining permission. More recently, they took to Facebook to publish a statement about their wish to receive “retroactive and future residual payments” for their roles in the original movie.
But what have Donahue, Williams, and Leonard been doing since they appeared in The Blair Witch Project a quarter of a century ago (yes, it’s really been that long)? Let’s take a look!
What happened to Heather Donahue?
Heather Donahue is now called Rei Hance, having legally changed her name in 2020.
She retired from acting in 2008, having added several credits to her filmography. Roles in films after The Blair Witch Project included 2000’s Homefield Advantage and Boys and Girls, 2001’s Seven and a Match, 2002’s New Suit, and 2008’s The Morgue. She has also appeared in numerous short films, television movies, and subsequent Blair Witch installments using archived footage.
Television show roles have included a 2001 episode of The Outer Limits, a key role in the 2002 series Taken, a 2003 episode of Without a Trace, and a 2005 episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Following her retirement from acting, she became a medicinal marijuana farmer. As per E! Online, she took to her now-defunct official website in 2011 and wrote, “I had no idea what to do next, and growing pot was what presented itself. I felt better about putting medical marijuana in the world than I did about making another terrible movie.”
What happened to Michael C. Williams?
Michael C. Williams is still acting — albeit not particularly prolifically since his role in The Blair Witch Project.
His movie credits include 2000’s Sally, 2002’s Twelve City Blocks and Long Story Short, 2006’s Altered, 2007’s Montclair, 2008’s The Objective, 2022’s Satanic Hispanics, 2024’s Ghost Game, and the upcoming HIS. Like Donahue, he has also appeared in some short films.
Credits in television series include a 2000 episode of Law & Order, a 2003 episode of Without a Trace, a 2009 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and a 2018 episode of FBI.
A 2024 Daily Mail article suggests Williams is now a high school guidance counselor — something he was studying towards as far back as 2009.
As per a December 2023 interview with Westchester, Williams and his wife, Toni, are also now theater co-directors at Westlake High School and Middle School in Thornwood, New York.
What happened to Joshua Leonard?
Joshua Leonard is, by far, the most prolific and successful actor to come out of The Blair Witch Project. In fact, he’s now a writer, producer, and director on top of his acting.
He’s appeared in over 40 movies since 1999, including 2000’s Men of Honor, 2003’s Scorched, 2006’s Hatchet, 2008’s Prom Night, 2011’s Shark Night, 2014’s If I Stay, 2018’s Unsane, 2019’s Depraved, 2020’s Four Good Days, and 2021’s The Same Storm.
Movies he’s written, produced, or directed include 2011’s The Lie, 2018’s Dark Was the Night, 2020’s Fully Realized Humans, and 2022’s The Drop.
Leonard has also appeared in over 20 television shows, including a 2000 episode of The Outer Limits, a 2004 episode of NYPD Blue, three 2005 episodes of CSI: Miami, a 2006 episode of Bones, a 2011 episode of Criminal Minds, a 2014 episode of True Detective, six 2015 episodes of Bates Motel, a recurring 2017 in Startup, and a 2020 episode of MacGyver.
In a 2018 interview with IndieWire, he spoke of his love for variation in the business, saying, “It is fun being able to go back and forth between things. In the end, I will always gravitate towards the process.”
We wish all three stars of The Blair Witch Project the best in their future endeavors and hope they get the financial reward they deserve for their part in the iconic horror movie’s success.