Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994), better known simply as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she developed her craft in such high-profile films as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web. Fanning began transitioning to more adult roles with Hounddog and the film adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. She has won numerous awards, and is currently the youngest person ever to have been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Dakota Fanning began acting at the age of five after appearing with 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.")
Dakota Fanning subsequently had several guest roles on established television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, Spin City. 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 retarded man who fights for the custody of his daughter (played by Fanning).
This role made Dakota 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.
In January 2008, Dakota Fanning began 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). The film features Fanning's second on-screen kiss with Tristan Wilds who played her love-interest in the film; her first kiss being with Thomas Curtis in Sweet Home Alabama. Production wrapped in February 2008.
Dakota Fanning began acting at the age of five after appearing with 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.")
Dakota Fanning subsequently had several guest roles on established television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, Spin City. 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 retarded man who fights for the custody of his daughter (played by Fanning).
This role made Dakota 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.
In January 2008, Dakota Fanning began 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). The film features Fanning's second on-screen kiss with Tristan Wilds who played her love-interest in the film; her first kiss being with Thomas Curtis in Sweet Home Alabama. Production wrapped in February 2008.