Dakota Fanning Biography And Filmography: 

Dakota Fanning stole the show as the young daughter of a mentally challenged man fighting to retain custody in the family drama "I Am Sam" (2001) starring Sean Penn and Michelle Pfieffer. The young actress had only been acting professionally for about three years year when she won the part which gained her a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She first appeared on a 2000 episode of the television medical drama "ER" with Noah Wyle and George Clooney, in an episode about a young child in need of a bone marrow transplant. 

She was next seen as the five-year-old version of Calista Flockhart title role on "Ally McBeal" and guest appearances on hit television shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Spin City" with Heather Locklear, "The Practice", and "Malcolm in the Middle". Although she had worked on the pilot of the 2002 television sitcom "The Fighting Fitzgeralds", she did not appear on the show as she was already working on "I Am Sam". 

She was next seen as the kidnapped asthmatic daughter of Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend in the thriller "Trapped" (2002), and portrayed the young version of Reese Witherspoon's character in the romantic comedy "Sweet Home Alabama" (2002) with Patrick Dempsey, about a young woman with a white trash background who runs away from her husband in Alabama and reinvents herself as a New York socialite. The young actress was then cast in another leading role portraying a spoiled but overlooked young girl with a fanatical dislike for germs who matures quickly when she's put in the charge of a partying rock star's daughter (Brittany Murphy) in "Uptown Girls" (2003) with Heather Locklear. 

Her amazing mature qualities made her a perfect fit for the role of the young girl, sister Sally, in "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat" (2003) starring Mike Myers, about Conrad and Sally Walden who are home alone with their pet fish. It is raining outside, and there is nothing to do until The Cat in the Hat walks in the front door. He introduces them to their imagination, and at first it's all fun and games, until things get out of hand, and The Cat must go, go, go, before their parents get back.

After successful guest appearances on the television shows "Friends" (2004) with Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox, "The Family Guy" (1999) with Peter Griffin, and "The Ellen Show" (2001), she was cast in a ten episode deal on the sci-fi adventure television series "Taken" (2002). The young actress scored another major hit when she appeared in the action film "Man on Fire" (2004) playing a young girl who makes friends with her bodyguard (Denzel Washington), causing him to begin a deadly journey of revenge when she is kidnapped.

Next she co-starred with Robert De Niro as a child troubled by the loss of her mother who seeks support from an imaginary friend, one who may be a real source of evil, in the thriller "Hide and Seek" (2005). She then took a role in the big summer release of Steven Spielberg's remake of the sci-fi movie "War of the Worlds," playing Rachel, the innocent daughter of a neglectful dad (Tom Cruise), who must step in to protect his children during a horrifying alien invasion. She then lent her voice talents to the animated character Lilo in the sequel "Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch" (2005) starring Tia Carrere, where a malfunction threatens to destroy Stitch and his friendship with Lilo.

She next starred opposite Kurt Russell in "Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story" (2005) as a young girl whose faith and willpower help her father, a horse trainer, train an injured horse to compete in the Breeders' Cup Classic. She then joined the cast of “Nine Lives” (2005) with Holly Hunter, a broken up drama focusing around nine different women connected through their mixture of activates. The actress portrayed the gifted daughter of a widow (Glenn Close) who brings her to picnic at a cemetery where members of their family are buried. 

Next was a return to comedy and family friendly movies as she lent her voice to the animated film "Charlotte's Web" (2006) working alongside other famous voices belonging to Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey and Robert Redford, where Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season because he knows that come that time he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen.

She then starred with Kate Beckinsale and Jennifer Hudson in the crime drama "Winged Creatures" (2008), about a group of strangers who form a unique relationship with each other after surviving a random shooting at a Los Angeles diner. Fanning then took the starring role, again appearing with Jennifer Hudson in the adventure "The Secret Life Of Bees" (2008), set in South Carolina in 1964, the film is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. 

She next worked in an animated project as the lead character Coraline in the family adventure "Coraline" (2008) alongside Terri Hatcher, a story adapted from the Hugo Award-winning and internationally best selling novel, and a spine-tingling tale about a curious girl who unlocks a mysterious door in her family's new home and enters into an adventure in a parallel reality. She wrapped her year in the dramatic "Hurricane Mary" (2008), the remarkable true story of one mother's tireless struggle to fulfill her dream to give her severely disabled twins some semblance of a normal childhood with friendships, learning and cultural experiences provided by a public school education.