Where are the cast and crew of 'The Blair Witch Project' now?

20 years ago pop culture was shook by the arrival of an independent movie into cinemas.

The Blair Witch Project was presented as a documentary depicting the lost footage of three filmmakers searching for evidence of a supernatural folk story and it hoodwinked many people.

Of course the movie was entirely a work of fiction, made for just $60,000 (£47,886), but it went on to make $248.6 million (£197 million) following its release on 14 July, 1999.

Here’s what the actors and filmmakers are up to now.

Heather Donahue

Donahue answered an ad placed in Backstage magazine to audition for the movie in 1999 and was picked thanks to her strong improvisational ability.

Though the film was critically acclaimed her performance earned mixed reviews; she was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favourite Actress – Newcomer and an Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress but won worst actress at the Golden Raspberry Awards.

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The actor’s career didn’t really pick up after securing roles in independent film Home Field Advantage, Boys and Girls and the TV series Taken.

Her last acting role was in the 2008 direct-to-DVD horror film The Morgue and became a medical marijuana grower. She released a book about her new career path called Grow Girl in 2012.

Michael C. Williams

After appearing in The Blair Witch Project, Williams went on to appear in a few films and TV shows but no role was as high profile as his debut.

The actor had guest roles in Law & Order Without a Trace and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and most recently appeared in an episode of the TV series FBI.

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He is the owner of The Big Blue Door Theatre in Hawthorne, New York and often attends horror conventions across the country to meet Blair Witch fans.

Joshua Leonard

Leonard has arguably had the most successful Hollywood career after appearing in the 1999 horror. The Houston native has starred in Madhouse (2004), The Shaggy Dog (2006), Higher Ground (2011), If I Stay (2014), and Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane (2018).

Leonard will next be seen in the horror Depraved, which is a modern adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein written and directed by Larry Fessenden, and has a recurring role in the web series Startup.

He is married to American Horror Story: Cult and The Newsroom star Alison Pill.

Daniel Myrick

Myrick went on to direct Solstice (2008) and The Objective (2008) but had a bit of a gap before his next film project Under the Bed, a TV movie, which was released in 2017.

The filmmaker’s next project is Skyman which tells the story of Carl Merryweather, a man who believes he experienced an alien encounter as a child and is now trying to reconnect with the UFO at the same location.

Eduardo Sánchez

The Cuban-born American director took a bit of a break in movie making after Blair Witch came out as his next feature film was Altered in 2006.

He's made three more movies since then - Seventh Moon (2008), Lovely Molly (2011) and Exists (2014) but has directed several episodes of high profile TV series including Supernatural,From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Lucifer and Queen of the South.