biography of Dakota Fanning

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Jun 2, 2025 - 19:36

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Fanning in 2020
Born	Hannah Dakota Fanning February 23, 1994 (age 31) Conyers, Georgia, U.S.
Alma mater	New York University (BA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1999–present
Works	Full list
Relatives	Elle Fanning (sister) Rick Arrington (grandfather) Jill Arrington (aunt)
Awards	Full list

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 Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy 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), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Coraline (2009). She transitioned to mature roles with The Twilight Saga (2009–2012) and the independent films The Runaways (2010), Now Is Good (2012) and Effie Gray (2014).

Fanning appeared in films such as Ocean's 8 (2018), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and The Equalizer 3 (2023), and the television series The Alienist (2018), The First Lady (2022) and The Perfect Couple (2024). In 2024, Fanning received renewed critical recognition for starring in the thriller miniseries Ripley, which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Early life :

Fanning was born 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.^[5] 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.

Career :

1990s

When Dakota Fanning was a small child, she was an actress at the Towne Lake Arts Center in Woodstock, Georgia, starring in small plays. In 1999, at the age of five, she began her professional acting career, appearing in a Tide television commercial. Her first significant acting job was a guest 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 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 young girls.

2000s :

In 2001, Fanning was chosen to star opposite Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer and her younger sister Elle Fanning in the film I Am Sam, as the daughter of a mentally challenged man who fights for custody of her. 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."^[14] 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.

MINI BIO :

Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on the 23rd of February 1994, in Conyers, Georgia, USA, to Heather Joy (Arrington) and Steven Fanning. Her mother played professional tennis, and her father, now an electronics salesman, played minor league baseball. She is of German, Irish, English, French, and Channel Islander descent. Before her debut into the cinematic world, Dakota did her own acting around her house. She was very active for her age, and often put a blanket under her shirt and pretended to be having a baby, using her younger sister, Elle Fanning, who is also an actress now, as the baby. Dakota went to a playhouse near her home, where the children that attended put on a play every week to show to their parents. But the people running the playhouse noticed that Dakota stood out, and advised her parents to take her to an agency. They believed that she was extremely talented.

The Fanning family were advised to spend six weeks in Los Angeles, a long way from their home in Georgia. But there Dakota managed to get her first work; to star in a national Tide commercial. She was chosen out of many, many other children.

The family then decided to move to Los Angeles permanently, for it looked like Dakota's career was looking very good. After they moved, Dakota signed with a professional agency, and soon won a role in the movie Tomcats (2001). She then went onto a small project called Father Xmas (2001) as Clairee.

But Dakota's big break-through was yet to come. She auditioned for one of the main characters in I Am Sam (2001), and the director and the rest of the crew were amazed by her extraordinary talent. Dakota was cast, and starred in the movie as Lucy Diamond Dawson, alongside major Hollywood stars Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer.

After I Am Sam (2001) her talent was immediately recognized around the world. She went straight onto Trapped (2002) as Abby Jennings, alongside Charlize Theron, then played the younger version of Reese Witherspoon in 2002's Sweet Home Alabama (2002) But Dakota still had two more movies to come in 2002. Firstly she got a huge role in Steven Spielberg's Taken (2002), the mini-TV series, and narrated the ten whole episodes, as well as having a part. This was a little more challenging, as she was playing a troubled alien child, but she managed to do brilliantly. Her last movie for 2002 was the children's movie Hansel & Gretel (2002) as Katie.

2003 was also a brilliant year for Dakota, as she starred in a number of exciting projects. Firstly, it was as Sally Walden in The Cat in the Hat (2003) with Mike Myers, then she played Lorraine "Ray" Schleine, a bratty little girl, in the sweet comedy Uptown Girls (2003) alongside Brittany Murphy. She then voiced preschool Kim in Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time (2003).

In 2004, Dakota appeared in the violent thriller, Man on Fire (2004), alongside Denzel Washington. Her reviews were excellent.

First in 2005 was Nine Lives (2005), as Maria, then the chilling Hide and Seek (2005) alongside Robert De Niro. By now, she was the busiest child actress in Hollywood, with a resume to die for. Her younger sister, (Elle Fanning), had also been discovered a few years earlier.

After Hide and Seek (2005) came War of the Worlds (2005), which was one of her major movies out of everything she'd worked in. Not only did it make her more popular, but she got to play the daughter of A-list Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. They had four very successful premieres; the first in Tokyo, Japan, the second in France, the third in London, England and the fourth in New York, USA. The reviews were outstanding, especially Dakota's. She then voiced Lilo in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005).

Personal life :

In June 2011, Fanning graduated from Campbell Hall School in Studio City, California, where she participated on the varsity spirit cheerleading squad and was twice voted homecoming queen. From 2011 to 2014, she attended the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University majoring in women's studies, with a focus on the portrayal of women in film and culture.

Filmography and accolades :

TRIVIA :

When she received the Best Young Actor/Actress award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her performance in I Am Sam (2001), she was too short to reach the microphone to give her acceptance speech. Presenter Orlando Bloom held her up to the mike for the duration of her speech, which turned out to be quite long.
Started recording the voice of Coraline (2009) when she was just 10 years old, but this movie was not released until she was fourteen, almost fifteen.
Loves to knit and has knitted scarfs for Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Tim Robbins.
For the 'sad' scenes in I Am Sam (2001), she thought of her pet goldfish, Flounder, dying.
On her 10th birthday, Robert De Niro gave her a doll that looked like Dakota's character in Hide and Seek (2005), with the brown hair and blue eyes.
Her father named her Dakota, her mother named her Hannah. She then was named Hannah Dakota Fanning.
After filming Dreamer (2005), Kurt Russell, who plays her father, bought her a palomino horse, whom she named Goldie. Goldie lives on a ranch near Dakota's home where she can visit him often.
She began her acting career at the age of five when she was picked for a Tide detergent commercial.
For Dakota's 16th birthday, Cherie Currie (who Dakota portrayed in the movie The Runaways (2010)) gave her a custom made guitar.
At the age of eight, she became the youngest person to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award - for her supporting acting in the movie I Am Sam (2001).
Her favorite movie, which made her cry, is What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
Looks up to Meryl Streep and Hilary Swank, "not just because they're great actresses, but because they are amazing people".
She chose her costumes and looks in Push (2009). Some of the clothes were actually her own.
For her, the hardest thing at the end of a movie is saying goodbye to the cast.
Her favorite scary movie as a child was The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Her scene in Nine Lives (2005) was done in just one take. She was only required to work on this movie for one day.
Is learning to speak French. She also learned to speak some Spanish for her role in Man on Fire (2004).
Her first word was "Momo", which was the family cat's name.
Has mentioned in numerous interviews that she would love to work with her sister, Elle Fanning.
While she was filming Man on Fire (2004) in Mexico, her sister Elle Fanning was filming The Door in the Floor (2004), so their parents had to go to and from their daughters' destinations.
Plays the piano and the violin, knits, collects dolls, ride horses and dances ballet.
She was friends with her late Uptown Girls (2003) co-star Brittany Murphy.
She was a cheerleader and was voted homecoming queen in high school.
Often wears pieces from the "Elizabeth and James" clothing line, designed by Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen.
Has said she would love to be a director.
Her favorite films include Gone with the Wind (1939), Steel Magnolias (1989) and Titanic (1997).
On her eleventh birthday, her War of the Worlds (2005) co-star Tom Cruise gave her her very first a cell phone, a Motorola Razor.
Because of rape scenes that she was involved in, her movie Hounddog (2007) was banned in many cities.
Dakota was schooled at home and on sets by her tutor, but she joined high school in her freshman year.
She was the youngest member of the "Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences", which admitted her in 2006.
Carried a book of baby names with her wherever she went as a child.
Dakota began attending New York University in 2011 intermittently, as her schedule allowed. It inspired her sister Elle Fanning to attend college. Dakota graduated in 2018.
She helped in raising 2,206 toys for the Less Fortunate Kids as part of the 2005 Toy Mountain Campaign with Rocky Stone.
She became close friends with Tom Cruise after working with him on War of the Worlds (2005).
She donated many signed items to Rocky Stone to be given away as prizes in a Dakota Fanning Contest to benefit less fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign 2005 and Toy Mountain Campaign 2006.
She graduated with honors from North Hollywood's Campbell Hall Episcopal High School on June 6, 2011.
Missed the premiere of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) to go to Mexico while her sister Elle Fanning filmed Babel (2006).
Announced that she would begin her first semester of college at New York University in fall 2011.
Fanning is an Anglicised form of the Gaelic Fionn, meaning "fair", and may have Norman roots from the Viking invasion of northern France. Her mother's maiden name Arrington has links to the east of England, notably Cambridgeshire.
Her favorite book is "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White, and her favorite book series are "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Daniel Handler, and "Nancy Drew" by Mildred Wirt Benson.
During filming of War of the Worlds (2005), Tom Cruise gave her an iPod.
Has been in three productions with her sister Elle Fanning, yet they have never shared scenes. Elle played the younger version of Dakota's characters in I Am Sam (2001) and Taken (2002), and the two girls voiced sisters in a dub for My Neighbor Totoro (1988).

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