Dakota Fanning life and biography

Evoking public amazement with her incredible acting skills, Hannah Dakota Fanning has truly established herself as the most popular child actress in the Hollywood film industry. Four awards and seven nominations she had received so far have proven that she is indeed worthy to deserve the title. It is likely because of her immense love to acting that she is always able to give brilliant performances in each movie she starred in. This infatuation has grown at her very young age, looking upon her interest to conduct some role-plays repeatedly at home. “I've always played the mom and I play my sister as the daughter,” she admitted. “I wanted to be an actress on television and movies instead of just around the house.”

Realizing Dakota's enthusiasm to act, her parents, Steve and Joy Fanning, brought her to a playhouse near their residence where she could perform every week with other children in front of the parents. The playhouse's instructors quickly spotted her talent, thus advised her parents to put her in an agency. The agent later suggested the family to look for an opportunity in L.A. to develop Dakota's potentiality. A promising chance approached in 1999 as this charming little girl surprisingly was selected out of thousands to be in Tide dishwashing liquid commercial. Born on February 23, 1994 in Conyers, Georgia, she was barely five years old at that time. By the following year, she had performed in an episode of the notable TV series, such as “ER”, “Ally McBeal”, and “CSI.”

In order to support Dakota's career, Steve and Joy decided to settle in Los Angeles while also signed her with a professional agency. In 2001, she made her big screen debut in a comedy flick entitled “Tomcats” (2001). However, it was through “I am Sam” (2001) that she successfully drew public attention with her magnificent acting. Portraying the daughter of a mentally retarded man played by Sean Penn, she received positive responses from both critics and the audience. Furthermore, this led her to gain a nomination of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role at Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2002. It created sensation for the eight-years-old actress became the youngest person to obtain such achievement.

This early attainment undoubtedly boosted Dakota's career as she was involved in more film projects in 2002. She appeared in “Trapped”, alongside Charlize Theron and Kevin Bacon, then starred in a romantic comedy movie, “Sweet Home Alabama” which was one of the box-office hits of the year. Her star shone more radiantly when she was included in the cast of “Taken,” a TV mini-series created by the prominent director of Hollywood, Steven Spielberg. She afterwards showed up in “The Cat in the Hat” and “Uptown Girls” in the following year. Brittany Murphy, her co-star in the latter one, genuinely gave a high praise toward her. “…Extremely wise, and so bright, sharp, and intelligent. She's just one of the greatest, most balanced, grounded humans I've ever met in my entire life.”

Dakota once more received critical acclaim for her role in Tony Scott's “Man on Fire” (2004). She made an excellent performance as Pita Ramos, a rich girl who is abducted and later is saved by a retired assassin worked as her bodyguard played by Denzel Washington. She continued to exhibit her top-notch acting consistently in “Hide and Seek” (2005) as well as in the summer blockbuster movie of Spielberg entitled “War of the Worlds” (2005). Her other film projects in 2005 were "Nine Lives" and “Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story,” together with Kurt Russell, Elisabeth Shue, and Kris Kristofferson. Still in the same year, she also contributed her sweet voice to direct-to-video feature “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” followed by “My Neighbor Totoro”, a 1988 Japanese animated feature released in U.S. on DVD in March 2006 by Disney.

Getting extremely busy with her activities in acting does not cause Dakota abandoned her study. Being home-schooled, she always has her tutor around in all the film sets she starred so that she could learn everything she needs to know. “Acting is what I love to do,” she commented. “I wouldn't trade it for the world. I don't think of it as work. It's really fun for me. And home-schooling works out perfectly.” Fixed on this decision, the girl cheerfully kept moving on to maintain her path in the show business, appearing in “Charlotte's Web” (2006) then “Hounddog” (2007), which ignited a spark of controversy due to a scene depicting her character gets raped. Nevertheless, she went unaffected to afterwards star in “Winged Creatures” (2008), “Hurricane Mary” (2008), and “The Secret Life of Bees” (2009) while once again lending her voice, this time to Focus Features' animated flick “Coraline.”

In August 2012, she played the lead role of a wealthy financial eco-terrorist Dena Brauer, in a thriller film Night Moves opposite actors Jesse Eisenberg and Peter Sarsgaard. The film was directed by Kelly Reichardt. Night Moves tells the story of three Eco-terrorists who work at an organic farm and collaborate on a plot to blow up a hydroelectric dam.

In January 2013, she was cast as Beverly Aadland in the Errol Flynn biopic The Last of Robin Hood. Later that year in September, Fanning was cast as Olivia in Franny. In November, she was cast in Viena and the Fantomes as Viena; about a roadie traveling across America with a punk rock band in the 1980s. The film was originally set to be released in 2015, but as of 2019 has yet to hit theaters.

In February 2014, she recorded a voice role for the animated movie Yellowbird.

In May 2015, Every Secret Thing, based on the 2004 novel by Laura Lippman, co-starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Danielle Macdonald, Colin Donnell and Nate Parker was released in the U.S.

Also in 2015, Martin Koolhoven confirmed that Jack Roth joined the cast of the film Brimstone. In June 2015, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Fanning and Kit Harington had replaced Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson in the film, respectively. The set of primary recording began June 15 and will be held in Romania, Spain, and Germany.

In July 2016, it was announced Fanning was cast in a film adaptation of The Bell Jar as Esther Greenwood.

In 2017, Fanning starred in Neill Blomkamp's Zygote, as part of Blomkamp's series of experimental short films released through Oats Studios.

Fanning had a cameo role in the heist comedy Ocean's 8, which was released in 2018. The same year starred as Sara Howard in the TNT historical television series The Alienist based on novel of the same name. In August 2018, TNT ordered a sequel series based upon the follow-up novel The Angel of Darkness, with Fanning set to return to reprise the role of Sara Howard. In 2019, Fanning played Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, for which she and the cast of the film were nominated for the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In December 2019, it was announced that Fanning and her sister Elle Fanning would star together in an adaption of Kristin Hannah's 2015 novel, The Nightingale, which is set to be directed by Mélanie Laurent. More recently, both Dakota and her sister Elle started Lewellen Pictures with a first look deal at Civic Center Media.


Filmography

2022: The Nightingale (filming)
2020: Viena and the Fantomes
2019 : Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sweetness in the Belly
2018 : Ocean's 8
2017 : Zygote, Please Stand By
2016 : Brimstone, American Pastoral, The Escape
2015 : The Benefactor
2014 : Effie Gray, Every Secret Thing, Yellowbird
2013 : Night Moves, The Last of Robin Hood, Very Good Girls
2012 : The Twilight Saga's Breaking Dawn Part II, If I Stay
2010 : The Twilight Saga's Eclipse
2010 : Betsy and the Emperor
2010 : The Runaways
2009 : Coraline
2009 : Fragments
2009 : The Twilight Saga's New Moon
2008 : The Secret Life of Bees
2008 : Push
2007 : The Secret Life of Bees
2006 : Charlotte's Web
2005 : Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch

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