Dakota Fanning

Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994) is an American actress. Fanning is known for her roles in blockbuster films and independent features, both as a child actor and as an adult. Her accolades include nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Fanning received recognition at the age of seven for starring in the drama film I Am Sam (2001), being nominated for the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and becoming the youngest nominee in SAG history. She then starred in the miniseries Taken (2002), and in the films Uptown Girls (2003), Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Charlotte's Web (2006), and The Secret Life of Bees (2008). She transitioned to mature roles with The Twilight Saga (2009–2012) and the independent films The Runaways (2010) and a co-starring role in Night Moves (2013).

Fanning has appeared in films such as Ocean's 8 (2018), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and The Equalizer 3 (2023). Since 2018, she has starred in television series The Alienist (2018), The First Lady (2022), and The Perfect Couple (2024). She has also had a starring role in The Watchers (2024) and received renewed critical recognition for the miniseries Ripley in the same year, earning nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nomination.

Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on February 23, 1994, in Conyers, Georgia. She attended a Montessori School in Covington. Her mother, Heather Joy (née Arrington), played tennis professionally and her father, Steven J. Fanning, played minor league baseball and later worked as an electronics salesman in Los Angeles. Her maternal grandfather was former American football player Rick Arrington, and her aunt is former ESPN reporter Jill Arrington. Her ancestors include William Farrar. Dakota is the elder sister of actress Elle Fanning; both of them use their middle names as their given names due to family tradition. They grew up as Southern Baptists.

Fanning first acted at the Towne Lake Arts Center in Woodstock, Georgia, starring in small plays at the age of five. In 1999, she began her professional acting career, appearing in a Tide television commercial. Her first significant acting job was a guest role in the NBC primetime drama ER. Fanning then had several guest roles on television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, and Spin City. She also portrayed the title characters of Ally McBeal and The Ellen Show as adolescents.

In 2001, Fanning was chosen to star opposite Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in the film I Am Sam, as the daughter of a mentally challenged man who is fighting for child custody. Her role in the film made Fanning the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, being seven years of age at the time. She also won the Best Young Actor/Actress award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her performance. Fanning's performance would later be incorporated into the music video for Rufus Wainwright's cover of the Beatles' "Across the Universe"; the song itself was included in I Am Sam.

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 from 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 kidnapping 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 film Hansel and Gretel. A year later, she starred in two prominent films, playing the uptight child to an immature nanny played by Brittany Murphy in Uptown Girls and as Sally in The Cat in the Hat. In addition, Fanning did voice-over work for four animated projects during this period, including voicing Satsuki in Disney's English-language release of My Neighbor Totoro, starring alongside her younger sister Elle Fanning, who voiced Mei; a little girl in the Fox series Family Guy; and a young Wonder Woman in the episode "Kids Stuff" from Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited.

In 2004, Fanning appeared in Man on Fire as Pita, a nine-year-old who wins over the heart of a retired mercenary (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." In 2004, she made an appearance on season 10 of the television series Friends, playing the role of Mackenzie, a young girl who is moving out of the house Monica and Chandler are buying. Hide and Seek was her first release in 2005, opposite Robert De Niro. The film was generally panned, but 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."