April Terri Winchell est une actrice et scénariste américaine née le 4 janvier 1960 à New York (État de New York, États-Unis).

Biographie

Winchell is the daughter of ventriloquist, actor, and comedian Paul Winchell. In her weblog writings and appearances on radio, she describes her childhood with many references to the great talent of her father as well as the many disturbing incidents owing to his mental health issues. Ms. Winchell did not speak publicly about his mental illness and drug use for many years, due to the "tremendous responsibility" she felt to his fans, and the people who had fond childhood memories of his work from the 1950s through the late 1980s. But her silence ended in March 2004 after her father published his autobiography Winch, in which he openly criticized his ex-wife, Nina, and other family members.

In broadcasts of her KFI show, on her web diary and several other websites, Winchell revealed she and Kevin Spacey dated for a while after high school, during the run of the Gypsy musical, and went to New York together. She and Spacey remained friends ever since. Since 2013, Winchell has been married to John Foley.

On August 19, 2005, she announced on her website that she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent successful surgery and radiation treatment. To promote solidarity during her radiation treatment, she issued her own rubber wristbands. Where Lance Armstrong's wrist bands were yellow, April's were "Glow in the Dark" so one could "glow along" with April. Winchell is also widely known as a supporter of various charity causes, including Project Angel Food, a Los Angeles-based service providing meals for homebound people living with AIDS. Her website, Regretsy, generated charitable funds through selling of Regretsy merchandise. On, April 17, 2011, Winchell created April's Army, one of the largest selling teams on Etsy. The Army's members ran monthly campaigns, and all the profits gathered from their store went to a selected Regretsy member who has encountered hardships. On December 5, 2011, Regretsy began a Secret Santa program, collecting donations for presents for needy children. Regretsy raised so much money so quickly that PayPal froze the Regretsy account – as well as Winchell's unrelated personal account – for six months in order to "investigate." As this move effectively destroyed Christmas for 200 needy families, public outcry was massive, resulting in Regretsy becoming a worldwide trending topic on Twitter. After publicly apologizing, PayPal reinstated Winchell's accounts and donated $20,000 to the families she was raising money for.