Elle Fanning

• 1. Introduction

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  Elle Fanning was three years old when she first appeared on screen, playing a younger version of a character that belonged to her sister Dakota. It was a small job, and it defined how her career began. For her first few years, Elle was the stand-in for someone else's story. Today her name sits on major award nominations and on casts led by directors known for demanding, unusual films. How does a child who started out as a smaller copy of her sister become an actress in her own right? Which roles turned a busy young performer into someone festivals and critics sought out? And what does a career built across film, television, the stage and even a video game look like when it starts at such an early age?

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• 2. Georgia Roots

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  Mary Elle Fanning was born on the 9th of April 1998 in Conyers, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Her mother is Heather Joy, born Arrington, and her father, Steven J. Fanning, played for Minor League Baseball teams affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.

  Her maternal grandfather, Rick Arrington, played American football, and her aunt Jill Arrington works as a reporter for ESPN. The Arrington family tree also includes the planter William Farrar. On her father's side, her grandmother was a German immigrant.

  The family follows a tradition in which children go by their middle names. That is why Mary Elle is known as Elle, and why her sister Dakota is called by her own middle name too. The sisters were raised in the Southern Baptist Convention.

  Dance was one of several physical activities Fanning did as a child, and she credits it with preparing her for acting. When Dakota's acting career took off, the family moved from Georgia to Los Angeles. Fanning finished high school at Campbell Hall School in 2016, by which time her list of film credits was already long.

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• 3. Small Parts, Big Sets

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  In 2002, at the age of four, Fanning won her first role that did not depend on her sister. It was in the comedy Daddy Day Care. Two years later she was cast as Ruth in The Door in the Floor, opposite Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger. The producers had planned to hire identical twins to cope with the punishing shooting schedule. Fanning impressed them so much that they used only her.

  Late in 2003 she took the small part of Sweetie Pie Thomas in Because of Winn-Dixie. In 2004 she voiced Mei in the English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film My Neighbor Totoro. Dakota voiced Satsuki, the older sister of Elle's character, so the two girls played sisters on the soundtrack.

  Early 2005 brought a job that audiences never saw. Fanning filmed scenes in Charlotte's Web as the future granddaughter of Fern Arable, who was played by Dakota. Those scenes did not make the final cut.

  In mid-2005 she played Debbie in Babel, the daughter of Richard and Susan Jones, who were played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. In 2006 she filmed scenes for The Nines and Deja Vu and worked on the science-fiction miniseries The Lost Room. She also guest-starred on television, as a patient's daughter in the House episode called Need to Know and as Tracey in the Criminal Minds episode The Boogeyman.

  By the end of 2006 she had started booking lead roles. The first was Emma Learner in Reservation Road, a grieving daughter whose brother dies in a tragic car accident.

  In early 2007 she rejoined Pitt and Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, playing the younger version of Blanchett's character. Later that year she filmed the title role in Phoebe in Wonderland, alongside Felicity Huffman. It was released in March 2009. From July through October 2007 she also appeared as Mary in The Nutcracker in 3D, which reached audiences in late 2010.

  In March 2008 she and Dakota were scheduled to star together in My Sister's Keeper. The plan collapsed when Dakota learned she would have to shave her head, and Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva took the parts instead.

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• 4. The Breakthrough Years

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  Variety reported in April 2009 that Fanning would star in Somewhere, a film by screenwriter and director Sofia Coppola. The story follows a bad-boy actor who has to reassess his life when his daughter, played by Fanning, turns up unexpectedly. Somewhere was released during the 2010 awards season. At its first festival, the 67th Venice Film Festival, it won the Golden Lion.

  Late in 2010 Fanning began work on Twixt, a film by Francis Ford Coppola that he based on a dream. She played a young ghost known as V.

  In 2011 she played Alice Dainard in J. J. Abrams' science-fiction drama Super 8, released on the 10th of June 2011. The film follows a group of children who must face strange events in their small town. The Telegraph named Fanning as one of its best features, and the Hollywood Film Festival gave her a Spotlight Award.

  December 2011 brought Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo. Fanning played Lily, a 13-year-old who works at the zoo's restaurant and lives on the property. Her only parental figure is Kelly, played by Scarlett Johansson.

  In September 2012 she starred as Ginger in Sally Potter's drama Ginger & Rosa, opposite Alice Englert as Rosa. The story is set in London in 1962, and the film was released on the 19th of October 2012. A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that she "shows a nearly Streepian mixture of poise, intensity, and technical precision. It is frightening how good she is and hard to imagine anything she could not do." Ty Burr of The Boston Globe praised her "luminous naturalism that seems the opposite of performance." Her next film would put her in front of a far larger international audience.

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• 5. Princess and Provocateur

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  Angelina Jolie played the title character in the 2014 Disney film Maleficent, directed by Robert Stromberg, and Fanning played Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty. The part brought her international attention.

  The same year she appeared in the science-fiction Western Young Ones. She also starred in Low Down, a biographical film about the jazz pianist Joe Albany. Fanning played his daughter Amy-Jo, and the story is told from her point of view. She voiced Winnie in the animated film The Boxtrolls, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

  In 2015 she played Nikola, the daughter of Dalton Trumbo, in Jay Roach's Trumbo. Bryan Cranston played Trumbo himself. She also starred in 3 Generations, previously titled About Ray, alongside Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon. Her character was a young transgender man.

  In May 2016 Nicolas Winding Refn's psychological thriller The Neon Demon had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, with Fanning as Jesse. It reached theaters on the 24th of June 2016 and did poorly at the box office.

  Mike Mills' 20th Century Women, with Greta Gerwig and Annette Bening, premiered at the New York Film Festival on the 8th of October 2016. Its limited release began on the 28th of December 2016. Ben Affleck's Prohibition-era drama Live by Night, in which she also co-starred, had opened three days earlier, on the 25th of December 2016.

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• 6. The Festival Circuit

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  The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, a drama by Shawn Christensen, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on the 25th of January 2017, with Fanning in the cast. She had a crowded year. She appeared in How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron Mitchell's science-fiction romantic comedy based on a short story by Neil Gaiman. She reunited with Sofia Coppola in The Beguiled, joined the British romantic tragedy Mary Shelley, directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, and appeared in the music video for Grouplove's single Good Morning.

  Sundance came around again on the 21st of January 2018, when I Think We're Alone Now premiered. Reed Morano directed, Fanning starred opposite Peter Dinklage, and Momentum Pictures released it on the 14th of September 2018.

  On the 10th of March 2018, Galveston had its world premiere at South by Southwest. Mélanie Laurent directed it, and Fanning starred opposite Ben Foster. In September 2018 the Toronto International Film Festival hosted the premiere of Teen Spirit, directed by Max Minghella. The film was released on the 5th of April 2019.

  In May 2019 Fanning was named a jury member for the international competition at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. She became the youngest juror in the festival's history. That year she also starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy A Rainy Day in New York, alongside Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez. In October 2019 she returned as Aurora in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, the sequel to the film that had made her internationally known.

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• 7. Television and Theater

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  In 2020 Fanning starred in All the Bright Places, directed by Brett Haley and based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Niven. Justice Smith played opposite her. That year she also worked again with Sally Potter on The Roads Not Taken, alongside Javier Bardem and Salma Hayek.

  In May 2020 Hulu premiered The Great, a historical comedy series in which Fanning played Catherine the Great opposite Nicholas Hoult. She also served as an executive producer. The series ran from 2020 to 2023 and earned her critical acclaim. She received a Golden Globe nomination in 2021 for best actress in a television musical or comedy. The role also brought her first Primetime Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

  In 2022 Hulu released The Girl from Plainville, a miniseries based on the death of Conrad Roy. Fanning played Michelle Carter.

  In December 2023 she made her official Broadway acting debut in Appropriate, a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. She acted in it alongside Sarah Paulson and Corey Stoll.

  Fanning and Dakota also founded Lewellen Pictures, which has a first look deal at MRC. In 2024 the sisters served as executive producers on Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer for Hulu.

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• 8. Recent Work

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  In 2024 Fanning began filming A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic directed by James Mangold, in which she portrayed Sylvie Russo. In September she started shooting Rosebush Pruning, directed by Karim Ainouz, a remake of Marco Bellocchio's Fists in the Pocket.

  Hideo Kojima's 2025 video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach cast her as the character Tomorrow. She also appears on the game's soundtrack, in collaboration with the French singer-songwriter Woodkid.

  Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, made in 2025, put her opposite Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgard. She plays Rachel Kemp, an ambitious Hollywood actress. The film debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix. Fanning received Critics' Choice and Golden Globe nominations for the role, along with her first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.

  On the 7th of November 2025, Dan Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands reached theaters. Fanning co-starred as Thia and Tessa, android sisters who work for Weyland-Yutani. Critics reviewed it generally positively.

  From 2018 to 2023 she was in a relationship with the English actor Max Minghella. Since late 2023 she has been with Gus Wenner, the CEO of Rolling Stone. Around 2025, when filming began on the miniseries Margo's Got Money Troubles, she moved into a Los Angeles rental of her own. She and Wenner divide their time between Los Angeles and an apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City.

  Still ahead is Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. She will also appear alongside Dakota in The Nightingale, based on Kristin Hannah's book of the same name.

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