Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994), better known simply as
Dakota Fanning, is an
American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in
I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she developed her craft in such high-profile films as
Man on Fire,
War of the Worlds, and
Charlotte's Web. Fanning began transitioning to more adult roles with
Hounddog and
The Secret Life of Bees. She has won numerous awards, and is currently the youngest person ever to have been nominated for a
Screen Actors Guild Award.
Personal life
Fanning was born in
Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Joy (
née Arrington), who played
tennis professionally, and Steve Fanning, who played
minor league baseball for the
St. Louis Cardinals and now works as an electronics salesman in
Los Angeles.
[Fanning's Genealogy at Ancestry.com] Her maternal grandfather is
football player
Rick Arrington and her aunt is
ESPN reporter
Jill Arrington.
Dakota is the older sister of
Elle Fanning, also an actress.
Fanning's father had wanted to name her "Dakota" and her mother wanted to name her "Hannah".
