| location = Conyers, Georgia, USA
| deathdate =
| birthname = Hannah Dakota Fanning
| othername =
| homepage =
| notable role = the daughter in I Am Sam & the daughter in War of the Worlds
}}
'''Dakota Fanning''' (born '''Hannah Dakota Fanning''' on February 23 1994) is a well-known American child actress.
Biography
Early career
Dakota Fanning was born in Conyers, Georgia to Steven Fanning (a former baseball player who now works as an electronics salesman in Los Angeles) and Joy, who played tennis professionally. Her mother had wanted to name her "Hannah" and her father wanted to name her "Dakota"; she has always used Dakota among her friends and family. She has a sister, Elle, who is now also an actress. Fanning is of half German descent, and her last name is of Irish origin.
She is a Baptist, having grown up in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Fanning began acting at the age of five, after appearing with legendary musician Ray Charles in a television commercial for the Georgia State Lottery
and being chosen for a Tide commercial. Her first significant acting job was a guest-starring 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 subsequently had several guest roles on established television series, including ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', ''Friends'', ''The Practice'', ''Spin City'' and ''
Malcolm in the Middle''. She also portrayed the title characters of ''Ally McBeal'' and ''The Ellen Show'' as young girls. In 2001, Fanning was chosen to star opposite Sean Penn in ''
I Am Sam'', the story of a mentally impaired man who fights for the custody of his daughter (played by Fanning). This role made Fanning the youngest person (in 2002, at age eight) ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, for her supporting performance. When she won the Best Young Actor/Actress award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the film, she was too short to reach the microphone; presenter Orlando Bloom held her up for the duration of her acceptance speech (which turned out to be quite long).
2002–2003
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 by several film critics, including Tom Shales of ''The Washington Post'', who wrote that Fanning "has the perfect sort of
