Elle Fanning Biography

ELLE FANNING

Date of Birth: April 9, 1998

Born in Conyers, Georgia, Elle Fanning comes from an athletic family. Her mother, Joy Arrington, was a professional tennis player and her father, Steve Fanning, was a minor league baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Following in the steps of her older sister, actress Dakota Fanning, Elle made her debut as the younger version of Dakota's character in I Am Sam (2001), opposite Sean Penn. Elle then appeared in Daddy Day Care (2003), her first film independent of her sister and the first performance for which she received a Young Artist Award nomination. Also in 2003, Elle starred in The Door in the Floor, with Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges. The producers had apparently originally planned on using identical twins for the shooting of the film since it was set to be a long, intense project however, they were so impressed by Elle that they chose her for the film.

The young actress has been in several films since and has also done voice work for animated films like Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. She's played guest roles in television series and in mid-2006, was cast in the mini-series The Lost Room.

Her first major role was in 2005 in the Academy Award winning film Babel, in which she appeared opposite Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, playing Blanchett's daughter. She received her second Young Artist Award nomination for her work in the film. In 2008, she had a small but pivotal part in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, again appearing alongside Pitt and Blanchett, but this time playing Blanchett's character as a child.

Although Elle was supposed to appear alongside Dakota again in My Sister's Keeper, the plan fell through when Dakota bowed out after learning she would have to shave her head for the role. However, in 2010, Elle starred as Mary, the lead character in The Nutcracker in 3D and since then she's appeared in starring roles in box office hits such as Super 8 (2011) and We Bought a Zoo (2011), opposite Matt Damon. Next she starred alongside Angelina Jolie in Maleficent (2014), alongside Nicholas Hoult in Young Ones (2014), and alongside Bryan Cranston in Trumbo (2015).

The young actress' latest credits include the Oscar-nominated drama 20th Century Women (2016) with Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig, Ben Affleck's crime drama Live by Night (2017), the period drama Mary Shelley (2018) with Douglas Booth and Maisie Williams and Teen Spirit (2019), in which she provided her own vocals as a teenager who wants to become a professional singer. In 2019, she also reprised her role of Princess Aurora in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Once known as "Dakota Fanning's little sister," Elle Fanning has proved her acting talent, especially when she played a transgender teen in the major motion picture 3 Generations (2017), co-starring Naomi Watts as her mother.

Filmography

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
Teen Spirit (2019)
Galveston (2018)
I Think We're Alone Now (2018)
Mary Shelley (2018)
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2018)
All the Bright Places (2018)
The Beguiled (2017)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)
A Storm in the Stars (2017)
3 Generations (2017)
Ballerina (2017)
Sidney Hall (2017)
Live by Night (2017)
20th Century Women (2016)
The Neon Demon (2016)
Trumbo (2015)
The Boxtrolls (2014)
Low Down (2014)
Maleficent (2014)
Young Ones (2014)
Ginger & Rosa (2012)
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
Twixt (2011)
Super 8 (2011)
Somewhere (2010)
Astro Boy (2009) (voice)
The Nutcracker in 3D (2009)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)
Reservation Road (2007)
The Nines (2007)
Déjà vu (2006)
Babel (2006)
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006)
Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)
My Neighbour Totoro (2005) (voice)
The Door in the Floor (2004)
Daddy Day Care (2003)
I Am Sam (2001)