Dakota Fanning Bio

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Dakota Fanning Biography

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This Dakota Fanning biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Dakota Fanning bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.

Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994) is an American child actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As of 2007, her most well-known films have been War of the Worlds and Charlotte's Web. She has won numerous awards, and is currently the youngest person ever to have been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Dakota Fanning: Biography

Dakota Fanning - Early life

Fanning was born Hannah Dakota Fanning in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Joy (née Arrington), who played tennis professionally, and Steve J. Fanning, who played minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and now works as an electronics salesman in Los Angeles. Her maternal grandfather is football player Rick Arrington and her aunt is ESPN reporter Jill Arrington. Fanning is the older sister of Elle Fanning, also an actress. Fanning's mother had wanted to name her "Hannah" and her father wanted to name her "Dakota"; she has always used Dakota among her friends and family. Fanning is of half German descent and Irish origin. Fanning and her family are members of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dakota Fanning - Early career

Fanning began acting at the age of five after appearing with legendary musician Ray Charles in a television commercial for the state lottery and being chosen for a Tide commercial. Her first significant acting job was a guest-starring role in the NBC prime-time drama, ER, which remains one of her favorite roles ("I played a car accident victim who has leukemia. I got to wear a neck brace and nose tubes for the two days I worked.")

Fanning subsequently had several guest roles on established television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Friends, The Practice, Spin City and Malcolm in the Middle. She also portrayed the title characters of Ally McBeal and The Ellen Show as young girls. In 2001, Fanning was chosen to star opposite Sean Penn in I Am Sam, the story of a mentally impaired man who fights for the custody of his daughter (played by Fanning).

This role made Fanning the youngest person (in 2002, at age eight) ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, for her supporting performance. When she won the Best Young Actor/Actress award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the film, she was too short to reach the microphone; presenter Orlando Bloom held her up for the duration of her acceptance speech.

Dakota Fanning - 2002-2003

In 2002, director Steven Spielberg cast Fanning in the lead child role of Allison "Allie" Clarke/Keys in the science fiction miniseries Taken. By this time, she had received positive notices by several film critics, including Tom Shales of The Washington Post, who wrote that Fanning "has the perfect sort of otherworldly look about her, an enchanting young actress called upon ... to carry a great weight."

In the same year, Fanning appeared in three films: As a kidnap victim who proves to be more than her abductors bargained for in Trapped; as the young version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Sweet Home Alabama, and as Katie in the movie Hansel and Gretel.

Fanning was featured even more prominently in two films released in 2003: Playing the uptight child to Brittany Murphy's immature nanny in Uptown Girls, and as Sally in The Cat in the Hat.

Fanning did voice-over work for four animated projects during this period: As Satsuki in Disney's English language release of My Neighbor Totoro, as Kim Possible in preschool in the Disney Channel series Kim Possible, as a little girl in the Fox series Family Guy, and as young Wonder Woman in an episode of Cartoon Network's Justice League.

Dakota Fanning - 2004-2005

In 2004, Fanning appeared in Man on Fire as Pita, a nine-year-old who wins over the heart of the retired assassin (Denzel Washington) hired to protect her from kidnappers. Roger Ebert wrote that Fanning "is a pro at only 10 years old, and creates a heart-winning character."

Hide and Seek, was her first release in 2005, opposite Robert De Niro. The film was generally panned, and critic Chuck Wilson called it "a fascinating meeting of equals-if the child star [Fanning] challenged the master [De Niro] to a game of stare-down, the legend might very well blink first." Fanning voiced Lilo (succeeding Daveigh Chase) in the direct-to-video film Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. She also had a small part in the Rodrigo Garcia film Nine Lives (released in October 2005), in which she shared an unbroken nine-minute scene with actress Glenn Close, who had her own praise for Fanning: "She's definitely an old soul. She's one of those gifted people that come along every now and then."

Fanning in War of the Worlds; Director Steven Spielberg praised her ability to show "how she would really react in a real situation".

Fanning completed filming on Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (opposite Kurt Russell) in late October 2004. Russell declared he was astonished by his co-star's performance in the film. Russell, 54, who plays as Dakota's father in the movie, declared she is the best actress he worked with in his entire career and that he was astonished by her acting ability and well-rounded attitude. Russell says, "I guarantee you, (Dakota) is the best actress I will work with in my entire career." Kris Kristofferson, who plays her character's grandfather in the movie, said that she's like Bette Davis reincarnated.

While promoting her role in the movie Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, Dakota became a registered member of Girl Scouts of the USA at a special ceremony, which was followed by a screening of the film for members of the Girl Scouts of the San Fernando Valley Council. Dakota is not a member of a troop, but rather registered as a "Juliette" (GSUSA's title for independently registered girls).

She then went directly to the set of War of the Worlds, starring alongside Tom Cruise. Released in reverse order (War in June of 2005 and Dreamer in the following October), both films were critical successes. War director Steven Spielberg praised "how quickly she understands the situation in a sequence, how quickly she sizes it up, measures it up and how she would really react in a real situation."

After filming was completed on War of the Worlds, Fanning moved straight to another film, without a break: Charlotte's Web, which she finished filming in May 2005, in Australia. Released on December 15th, 2006, Web met generally warm critical acclaim. Producer Jordan Kerner said, "...when she was so caught up in War of the Worlds, we had to end up going on a search for other young actresses. They would have been nothing compared to her." Fanning also provided voice work for Coraline, scheduled for release sometime in 2008.

Dakota Fanning - 2006-2007

Over the summer of 2006, Fanning worked on the film Hounddog, described in press reports as a "dark story of abuse, violence and Elvis Presley adulation in the rural South." Fanning's agent noted that the script is "challenging" to Fanning as an actress. Fanning's parents have been criticized for allowing her to film a scene in which her character is raped; Fanning called that an "attack." "It's not really happening," she told Reuters. "It's a movie, and it's called acting." Director Deborah Kampmeier addressed the controversy in the January 2007 edition of Premiere: "The assumption that [Dakota] was violated in order to give this performance denies her talent."

In March and April of 2007, she filmed Winged Creatures, alongside Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Josh Hutcherson, and Academy Award winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson. Dakota plays Anne Hagen, a girl who witnesses her father's shooting murder and who turns to religion in the aftermath.

In July 2007, Dakota filmed for three days a short film titled Cutlass, one of Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments" based on readers' personal essays. Cutlass was directed by Kate Hudson. Available online.

From September to December 2007, Dakota filmed Push which centers on a group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities who hide from a U.S. government agency in Hong Kong and band together to try to escape the control of the division." Dakota plays Cassie Holmes, a thirteen-year-old futureteller.

Dakota Fanning - 2008-present

In January 2008, Dakota will begin filming the movie adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Set in South Carolina in 1964, the story centers on Lily Owens (Fanning), who escapes her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father by running away with her caregiver and only friend (played by Jennifer Hudson) to a South Carolina town where they are taken in by an eccentric trio of beekeeping sisters (played by Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Alicia Keys).

Another potential future project is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle which Danny DeVito will direct. The movie will be an adaptation of the children's pirate tale The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, set on a ship in 1832.

Dakota Fanning - Personal life

Fanning is an avid reader, and includes among her hobbies knitting, swimming, piano, violin, ballet, and horseback riding.

Dakota also wears ceramic orthodontic braces and a palatal expander.

In 2006, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the youngest person ever at the age of 12.