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Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994 in Conyers, Georgia) is an American actor.

She has been nominated for many awards, and whenever a female child actor starts gaining attention, she is referred to as "[[FollowTheLeader the next Dakota Fanning]]." She attended New York University, and continues to work on film projects in her adulthood.

Her sister Creator/ElleFanning is also an actor.
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!Roles
* ''Series/{{ER}}'' (2000) as Delia Chadsey
* ''Series/AllyMcBeal'' (2000) as 5-year-old Ally [=McBeal=]
* ''Series/StrongMedicine'' (2000) as Edie's Girl
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' (2000) as Brenda Collins
* ''Series/PrivatePractice'' (2000) as Alessa Engel
* ''Series/SpinCity'' (2000) as Cindy
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' (2001) as Emily
* ''Film/{{Tomcats}}'' (2001) as Little Girl in Park
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (2001) as Little Girl (voice)
* ''Film/IAmSam'' (2001) as Lucy Diamond Dawson
* ''Film/SweetHomeAlabama'' (2002) as Young Melanie Carmichael
* ''Series/{{Taken}}'' (2002) as Allison "Allie" Keys
* ''Film/UptownGirls'' (2003) as Laraine "Ray" Schleine
* ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' (2003) as Sally Walden
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible [[Recap/KimPossibleASitchInTimeS2E14 A Sitch in Time]]''(2003) as Pre-K Kim.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' (2004) as Mackenzie
* ''Film/ManOnFire'' (2004) as Lupita Ramos
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' (2004) as Young ComicBook/WonderWoman (voice)
* ''Film/HideAndSeek'' (2005) as Emily Callaway
* ''Film/{{War of the Worlds|2005}}'' (2005) as Rachel Ferrier
* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch'' (2005) as Lilo Pelekai (voice)
* ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' (2005) as Satsuki Kusakabe (voice; Disney's English dub)
* ''[[Film/CharlottesWeb2006 Charlotte's Web]]'' (2006) as Fern Arable
* ''Literature/TheSecretLifeOfBees'' (2008) as Lily Owens
* ''Film/{{Push}}'' (2009) as Cassie Holmes
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' (2009) as Coraline Jones (voice)
* The ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' series (2009-10, 2012) as Jane
* ''Film/TheRunaways'' (2010) as Cherie Currie
* ''Film/{{Night Moves|2013}}'' (2013) as Dena
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Yellowbird}}'' (2014) as Delf (voice)
* ''Film/{{Brimstone}}'' (2016) as Liz
* ''Literature/AmericanPastoral'' (2016) as Meredith "Merry" Levov
* ''Film/{{Zygote}}'' (2017) as Barklay
* ''Film/PleaseStandBy'' (2017) as Wendy
* ''Series/TheAlienist'' (2018, 2020) as Sara Howard
* ''Film/OceansEight'' (2018) as Penelope Stern
* ''WebAnimation/GenLock'' (2019, 2021) as Miranda Worth (voice)
* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' (2019) as Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme
* ''Series/TheFirstLady'' (2022) as Susan Ford
* ''Film/TheEqualizer3'' (2023) as Emma Collins
* ''{{Series/Ripley}}'' (2024) as Marge Sherwood
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!Tropes about her:
* ActorSharedBackground: She had ballet training, like her character Ray in ''Uptown Girls''.
* BillingDisplacement: In ''Film/TheRunaways'' she is billed second - despite Cherie being the protagonist - because Creator/KristenStewart was at the height of her popularity from ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga''.
* ChronicallyKilledActor: She has a reasonably high death count for her age. She dies of cancer in ''Now Is Good'', strangled to death in ''Film/NightMoves'' and drowns herself in ''{{Film/Brimstone}}''. In ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'', her character is already an undead, yet gets a gory death scene nevertheless (although it ends up being a vision).
* ContractualPurity: She ought to shake off her wholesome child star image in ''Hounddog'' - where her character gets raped. And in ''Film/TheRunaways'', where she plays a teenage girl who gets made into a sex symbol and turns to drugs and alcohol.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Most of her characters, particularly from when she was a kid.
* MethodActing: For ''Film/ManOnFire'' she learned to swim, play piano and speak Spanish.
* MoneyDearBoy: Inverted. She apparently took a pay cut to get equal billing alongside Creator/RobertDeNiro on ''Hide & Seek''.
* PlayingAgainstType:
** A CreepyChild (complete with brown hair!) in ''Hide & Seek''.
** A sadistic vampire in ''Twilight''.
** And Manson family member Lynette Fromme in ''Once Upon A Time In Hollywood''.
* RealLifeRelative: Ellen Fanning plays her younger self in ''Film/IAmSam'' and ''{{Series/Taken}}'' - as well as voicing sisters together in the 2005 English dub of ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro''.
* RealitySubtext: For the argument in the studio during ''Film/TheRunaways'', the actors were all exhausted from how long the scene took to film. The natural exhaustion led to them just shouting at each other during the takes.
* StarMakingRole: ''Film/IAmSam'', making her the youngest person to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
* ThoseTwoActors: She and Kristen Stewart star in the ''Twilight'' movies (though Dakota doesn't appear in the first one) and ''The Runaways''. In fact, she took the role of Jane because she already knew they would be starring in ''The Runaways'' together - and wanted to establish the relationship between Cherie Curie and Joan Jett.
* ThrowItIn:
** She lost her front teeth right before filming ''Film/ManOnFire''. Although filmmakers made fake teeth for her, they decided not to use them.
** Cherie Curie lent her a belt to wear while filming ''Film/TheRunaways''. Joan Jett recognized it and on the DVD commentary states that Cherie wore it many times while touring with the band.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** She and her sister Elle were going to play the sisters in ''Film/MySistersKeeper''. She backed out because she didn't want to shave her head for the part, and this led to Sofia Vassilieva and Abigail Breslin playing the roles.
** Offered the role of Leslie Burke in ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts.
** ''{{WesternAnimation/Coraline}}'' was originally planned as a live action film. Dakota still would have played the lead. It was changed to animation, with Dakota providing the voice of the titular girl.