Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on of February 23, 1994, in Conyers, Georgia, USA. Since her debut just over a decade ago, she has accumulated more screen credits than many industry veterans Joy and Steve Fanning always believed in their talented child, and shortly after the family's arrival in Los Angeles, Dakota signed with a professional agency, and won a role in the movie, Tomcats (2001). She then went onto film many small projects. But Dakota's big break-through was yet to come. She auditioned for one of the main characters in I am Sam (2001); the director and the rest of the crew were amazed by her extraordinary talent, as well as co-stars Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer. Roles soon followed in The Cat in the Hat (2003) with Mike Myers, the comedy Uptown Girls (2003) alongside Brittany Murphy, and in 2004, Dakota appeared in the violent thriller, Man on Fire (2004), alongside Denzel Washington. After working with Robert De Niro in the mediocre Hide and Seek, Dakota re-teamed with Spielberg in War of the Worlds (2005). Not only did the movie make her a household name, but she got to play the daughter of A-list Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. Dakota Fanning recently made headlines when she appeared in a controversial new movie featuring pedophile scenes. Hounddog, a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, showed Fanning to be in an explicit rape scene. A source close to the film said: "The two taboos in Hollywood are child abuse and the killing of animals. And in this movie, both happen." Fanning's mother, Joy, as well as her Hollywood agent, Cindy Osbrink, see the movie, written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier, as a possible Oscar vehicle for talented actress. But despite Fanning's status as a bankable actress - War of the Worlds earned more than half a billion dollars since 2001 - the alarming material seems to have turned many against Dakota's parents, who many critics believe are opportunistic.