After graduating high school, Sevigny found work as a model. She appeared in music videos for Sonic Youth and The Lemonheads, and acquired "it girl" status. In 1995, she made her film debut in Kids. A string of roles in small-scale features throughout the late 1990s established her as a prominent force on the independent film scene. She received particular attention for her portrayal of Lana Tisdel in Boys Don\'t Cry (1999). This was followed by appearances in American Psycho (2000), Party Monster, Dogville, Shattered Glass, and The Brown Bunny (all 2003). Sevigny\'s role in the latter caused considerable controversy. Her other credits include Melinda and Melinda (2004), Manderlay; Broken Flowers (both 2005), Zodiac (2007), The Killing Room; My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (both 2009), Mr. Nice (2010), Antibirth (2016), and Lizzie (2018).\n', '
From 2006–11, Sevigny played Nicolette Grant on the HBO series Big Love. Her other television credits include Hit & Miss (2012), American Horror Story: Asylum (2012–13), Portlandia (2013), Those Who Kill (2014), American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–16), and Bloodline (2015–17). She made her directorial debut in 2016 with the short film Kitty.\n', '
Sevigny was born Chloe Stevens Sevigny in Springfield, Massachusetts, the second child of Janine (née Malinowski) and Harold David Sevigny (December 28, 1940—February 12, 1996). She has one older brother, Paul. According to Sevigny, she added the diaeresis to her first name later in life, and it was not on her birth certificate. Her mother is Polish-American, and her father was of French-Canadian heritage, born in Vermont. She was raised in a strict Roman Catholic household in Darien, Connecticut, where her father worked as an accountant, and later a local art teacher. Despite Darien\'s affluence, Sevigny\'s parents had a "frugal" household, and were considered "the poor bohemians in [an] extremely prosperous neighborhood." "My dad worked in insurance and worked very hard to bring us up in that town," she recalled. "He wanted us to grow up in a really safe environment. And I never thanked him for doing that."\n', '