Evan Rachel Wood Bio

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Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress and singer.

Wood began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again. She made her debut as a leading film actress in 2002's Little Secrets and became well-known after her transition to a more adult-oriented Golden Globe-nominated role in the critically acclaimed film Thirteen, (2003) co-written by Wood's co-star, Nikki Reed.

Wood continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion (2005), Down in the Valley (2006), Running with Scissors (2006), and in the big studio production Across the Universe (2007). Wood's acting has drawn critical praise, and she has been described by The Guardian newspaper as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation." In their Spring 2009 issue, Venus Zine awarded Wood the top spot in their 25 Under 25 rankings. Her relationship with singer Marilyn Manson, whom she dated from December 2006 through October 2008, received considerable news coverage.

Evan Rachel Wood: Early life and family

Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, the daughter of Sara Lynn Moore (6 Mar 1958), an actress, director and acting coach, and Ira David Wood III (19 Nov 1947), an actor, singer, theater director and playwright. Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor. Wood has another brother, Dana. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, is a Hollywood production designer.

Wood is Jewish. Wood and her brothers were actively involved in Theatre in the Park, a community theater directed by her father, while growing up; she played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions of A Christmas Carol at the theater, and later starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (who played Annie Sullivan) in a production of The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction.

Evan Rachel Wood: Career

Evan Rachel Wood - Early works, 1994-2000

Wood began her career appearing in several made-for-television films from 1994 onward, also playing an occasional role in the television series American Gothic. In 1996, Wood's parents separated and later divorced, and Wood moved with her mother to her mother's native Los Angeles County, California. After a one-season role on the television drama Profiler, Wood was cast in the supporting role of Jessie Sammler on the television show Once and Again.

Wood's first major screen role was in the low-budget 1998 film Digging to China, which also starred Kevin Bacon and Mary Stuart Masterson. The film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. Wood remembers the role as initially being hard, but notes that it "eventually led to her decision that acting is something she might never want to stop doing." She also had a role in Practical Magic, a family fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, that same year.

Evan Rachel Wood - 2001-2005

Wood made her teenage debut as a leading film actress in 2002's Little Secrets, directed by Blair Treu. She played aspiring 14-year-old concert violinist Emily Lindstrom, and she was nominated for Best Leading Young Actress at the Young Artist Awards. That same year, Wood played a supporting role in the Andrew Niccol-directed science fiction satirical drama film,S1m0ne, which starred Al Pacino.

Wood's breakthrough movie role followed with the "controversial" 2003 film Thirteen. She played the role of Tracy Louise Freeland, one of two young teens who sink into a downward spiral of hard drugs, sex, lies, and petty crime. Her performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress - Drama and for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Actress. During the time of Thirteen's release, Vanity Fair named Wood as one of the It Girls of Hollywood, and she appeared, along with the other actresses, on the magazine's July 2003 cover. A supporting role opposite Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones in Ron Howard's The Missing, in which she played the kidnapped daughter, Lilly Gilkeson, in a Searchers-style western, followed the same year. Also in 2003 she played the part of Nora Easton in the Tv series C.S.I. episode Got Murder?

In 2005, Wood appeared in the Mike Binder-directed The Upside of Anger, opposite Kevin Costner and Joan Allen, a well-reviewed film in which Wood played Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer, one of four sisters dealing with their father's absence. Her character also narrated the film.

Wood's next two starring roles were in dark "independent" films. In the 2005 Grand Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival nominee Pretty Persuasion, a black comedy/satirical focusing on themes of sexual harassment and discrimination in schools and attitudes about females in media and society, Wood played Kimberly Joyce, a villainous, sexually-active high-schooler. One critic commented, "Wood does flip cynicism with such precise, easy rhythms and with such obvious pleasure in naughtiness that she's impossible to hate."

In Down in the Valley, which was directed by David Jacobson, Wood's character, Tobe, falls in love with an older man, a cowboy who is at odds with modern society (Edward Norton). Of her performance, it was written that "Wood conveys every bit of the adamant certainty and aching vulnerability inherent in late adolescence." Wood has commented on her choice of sexually themed roles, saying that she is not aiming for the "shock factor" in her film choices.

In 2005, Wood starred in the music videos for Bright Eyes' "At the Bottom of Everything" and Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends".

Evan Rachel Wood - 2006-present

In September 2006, Wood received Premiere magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent." Also in 2006, she was described by The Guardian as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation."

Later in 2006, Wood appeared with an all-star ensemble cast as Natalie Finch in the Golden Globe-nominated 2006 comedy-drama film Running with Scissors. Directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Annette Bening, the film was based on the memoir by Augusten Burroughs, which is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood in a dysfunctional family. Wood was awarded the 2007 Cannes Film Festival Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation for her performance.

Wood had roles in two films released in September 2007. King of California, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, a story of a bipolar jazz musician (Michael Douglas) and his long-suffering teenage daughter, Miranda (Wood), who are reunited after his two-year stay in a mental institution and who embark on a quixotic search for Spanish treasure. One review praised Wood's performance as "excellent."

Across the Universe, a Julie Taymor-directed musical that was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award and was set in Liverpool, New York City, and Vietnam, focused on the tribulations of several characters during the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960s. It was set to the songs of The Beatles. Wood, who has described the music of The Beatles as a major part of her life, played Lucy, who develops a relationship with Jude (Jim Sturgess). The film featured her singing musical numbers. One critic wrote that "Wood brings much-needed emotional depth."

Wood provided the voice of an alien named Mala, a mechanically-inclined free-thinker, in Battle for Terra, a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film about a peaceful alien planet that faces destruction from colonization by the displaced remainder of the human race. The film won the 2008 Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The film showed at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where she received an award at the Midnight Awards along with Elijah Wood.

Wood starred in 2008's Vadim Perelman-directed The Life Before Her Eyes, based on the Laura Kasischke novel of the same name, about the friendship of two teens of opposite character who are involved in a Columbine-like shooting incident at their school and are forced to make an impossible choice. Wood played the younger version of Uma Thurman's character, Diana. One critic cited her performance as "hands-down extraordinary." Wood stated that she intended the film to be the last one in which she played a teenager.

In the same year, she also co-starred in director Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about Randy "Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a professional wrestler from the 1980s who is forced to retire after a heart attack threatens to kill him the next time he wrestles. Wood played Stephanie, Randy "Ram" Robinson's estranged daughter. Of her performance, one critic wrote, "Once her character stops stonewalling her father and hears him out, Wood provides a fine foil for Rourke in their turbulent scenes together."

Wood has a role in Woody Allen's Whatever Works, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. She plays the young wife of Larry David's Ebenezer Scrooge-like character. In May 2009 she played Juliet in six fundraising performances of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Theater In The Park. The production was directed by her brother, who also starred.

On August 30, 2009 and September 6, 2009 she will appear as Sophie-Anne Leclerq in the last two episodes of the second season of True Blood on HBO, playing a powerful vampire. On December 22, 2008, YouTube announced that Wood will return to television for the first time since April 15, 2002, the day the last Once and Again episode aired on ABC, this time, a regular lead role in a TV series.

Evan Rachel Wood - In production

On June 26, 2009 it was officially confirmed that Wood will play Mary Jane Watson on Broadway in the new musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which will premiere on Feb. 25, 2010. Her Across the Universe co-star Jim Sturgess is reported to be involved in the upcoming Julie Taymor directed play. Music for the show was composed and written by Bono and The Edge of the band U2, the members of which participated in rehearsals, backing up Wood and Sturgess.

Wood is attached to play writer Anne Brontí« in the film Brontí«, the title character in Flora Plum and will be involved in the film Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll.

She prefers music to movies and is planning to launch a singing career. On October 24, 2007, Entertainment Weekly announced that Wood planned to sign a record deal with Interscope Records. As of 2008, she is currently working on her debut album.

Evan Rachel Wood: Personal life

Evan Rachel Wood in 2005

Wood was home-schooled and received her high school diploma at age 15. She has a black belt in taekwondo.

Wood has described herself as being "laid-back" and "not a party girl," citing her choice to stay away from what is considered a typical Hollywood lifestyle. In 2006, Wood, who was described by The Guardian as an "Anglophile," dated her "Wake Me Up When September Ends" music video co-star, English actor Jamie Bell. She is also a friend of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Wood at the Toronto Film Festival, 2007

In 2007, Wood's relationship with Marilyn Manson became public. The two met at a party at the Chateau Marmont Hotel; Wood has stated that she was attracted to Manson's frequent use of black eye liner and once described their relationship as "healthy and loving." Two portraits of Wood, painted by Manson, have been exhibited at the Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art. Wood is also the inspiration behind Manson's song "Heart-Shaped Glasses," and she appeared with Manson in the song's music video. Manson has said that Wood's appearance in the film was the highest-paid music video role ever. In November 2008, Wood issued a statement saying "Manson and I both decided to take some time apart so we could concentrate on work."

Wood has since been linked to actor Mickey Rourke. She played his daughter in the film The Wrestler, but she denies that they had any kind of romantic relationship. In a December 2008 interview, Wood said, "People thought we were dating because we got so close in a family kind of way. That's why we felt comfortable enough to put our arms around each other. We were just buds."