Dakota Fanning Stages of Stardom

Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on February 23, 1994. Acting was a natural thing for her and at age five she landed her first commercial for Tide detergent. From there she went on to guest star in many TV shows including 'Ally McBeal' and 'The Practice.'

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In 2001, Dakota was cast as Lucy Dawson in the movie 'I Am Sam' opposite Sean Penn. Her performance gained her new fans and respect in Hollywood. She was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role at the 8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2002.

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After 'I Am Sam' Dakota's acting career starting to take off. In 2002 she was cast in the lead child role on Steven Spielberg's science fiction miniseries 'Taken.' She also took on the role of a young Reese Witherspoon in 'Sweet Home Alabama' as seen here.

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In 2003 Dakota had starring roles in 'Cat in the Hat' with Mike Myers and in 'Uptown Girls' with Brittany Murphy. She also started to do voice work for shows like 'Kim Possible' and 'Justice League.'

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Dakota continued to do more and more movies. In 2004 she starred opposite Denzel Washington in 'Man on Fire' and then went on to do 'Hide and Seek' with Robert De Niro. Next was 'Dreamer' with Kurt Russell and more voice work.

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Right after shooting 'Dreamer' in late 2004 she started shooting 'War of the Worlds' with Tom Cruise. Steven Spielberg directed the film and had nothing but praise for Dakota and her talent. Both films did well and had positive reaction from film critics.

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From 'War of the Worlds' Dakota went right to filming 'Charlotte's Web.' She had to travel to Australia to play Fern in the big screen version of the book. She was one busy girl!

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For all her movie performances Dakota received a lot of praise and attention. No matter who she worked with, they all felt she was a star. In 2006, Dakota accepted the award for best young actress for "War of the Worlds" at the 11th Annual Critics' Choice Awards.

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As she has gotten older, Dakota has taken on more mature roles. One was a movie called 'Hounddog' which she filmed in 2007. Here she arrives at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah for a screening of the movie.

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In 2007 she continued to make movies and shot 'Winged Creatures' and 'Push.' In early 2008, Dakota filmed 'The Secret Life of Bees' with Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and Alicia Keys. The movie was released towards the end of 2008.

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