Elle Fanning Bio
Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998) is an American actress whose career began in childhood and has expanded across major studio films, independent features, prestige television, stage work, and video games. The younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning, she first appeared on screen as the younger version of her sister’s character in the 2001 drama I Am Sam, and went on to build one of the most versatile résumés of her generation. She is widely recognized for her leading turn as Catherine the Great in the Hulu series The Great (2020–2023) and for playing Princess Aurora in Disney’s Maleficent films.
Over more than two decades in the industry, Fanning has worked with directors such as Sofia Coppola, J. J. Abrams, Nicolas Winding Refn, Mike Mills, Sally Potter, Joachim Trier, and James Mangold. Her projects have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. In 2019, she became the youngest juror in the history of the Cannes Film Festival’s main competition.
Early Life and Background
Mary Elle Fanning was born on April 9, 1998, in Conyers, Georgia, to Heather Joy Arrington and Steven J. Fanning, a former minor league baseball player who spent time in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Her maternal grandfather, Rick Arrington, was a professional American football player, and her aunt is the sports journalist Jill Arrington. The Arrington family traces part of its lineage to the colonial-era gentleman farmer William Farrar, a documented ancestor of note.
Fanning is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning. Following a family tradition, both sisters go by their middle names professionally rather than their given first names. The siblings were raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, and Fanning graduated from Campbell Hall School in 2016. Growing up alongside an older sister already working in Hollywood gave her an early window into acting, and she was only three years old when she first appeared on screen.
Her path into the craft was shaped less by formal training and more by proximity to film sets. Family members in the entertainment world, combined with a household that welcomed visits from industry friends, created an environment in which performing felt natural from a very young age. By the time she was a teenager, Fanning had already accumulated more experience than most actors twice her age.
Path to Acting
Fanning began her professional career at three years old, playing younger versions of her sister Dakota’s characters in the Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries Taken and in the 2001 drama I Am Sam, in which she appeared alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn. Her first role cast independently of her sister came in 2003, when she appeared in the Eddie Murphy comedy Daddy Day Care. Producers of later projects were often struck by her ability to carry demanding schedules without a stand-in, a quality first noted during the production of The Door in the Floor (2004).
Throughout her childhood, Fanning balanced mainstream Hollywood productions with smaller, more personal films. She worked on the Alejandro González Iñárritu drama Babel (2006) with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, voiced a role in the English-language version of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro, and appeared in the science-fiction miniseries The Lost Room. By the end of 2006, she had begun booking lead roles, including the grieving daughter Emma Learner in Reservation Road.
Her transition into more mature roles came with Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere (2010), in which she played the daughter of a troubled actor at a Chateau Marmont-set drama that won the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice Film Festival. The performance signaled that she was no longer a child actress, and the 2011 science-fiction film Super 8, directed by J. J. Abrams, confirmed her arrival as a leading young performer, earning her a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.
Elle Fanning Career
Early Career (2001–2013)
Fanning’s earliest years were marked by a steady accumulation of credits across film and television. She played Phoebe in the title role of Phoebe in Wonderland (2008), a drama that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release in 2009. She also appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt (2011) and in Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo (2011), in which she played a 13-year-old working at a zoo restaurant opposite Scarlett Johansson.
In 2012, she starred in Sally Potter’s period drama Ginger & Rosa, a London-set story about two friends in 1962. Critics including A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised her poise and intensity, with Scott writing that she showed a nearly Streepian mixture of technical precision and emotional range. These early projects established Fanning as a serious dramatic actress willing to take on unusual material.
Breakthrough (2014–2019)
Fanning’s international profile expanded sharply when she was cast as Princess Aurora opposite Angelina Jolie in Disney’s Maleficent (2014), a reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty story. The film’s commercial success led to a sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which she reprised the role in 2019. Between the two Disney productions, she built a striking body of independent work, including the Cannes-premiering psychological thriller The Neon Demon (2016), Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women (2016) with Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig, and Sofia Coppola’s Civil War drama The Beguiled (2017), which won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
She also played Nikola Trumbo in the Hollywood blacklist drama Trumbo (2015), Amy-Jo Albany in the jazz biopic Low Down, and the young lead in Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit (2018), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In May 2019, she was appointed a jury member of the main competition at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, becoming the youngest juror in the festival’s history.
Notable Works and Milestones
Her most recognizable projects from this era include the Maleficent films, The Neon Demon, 20th Century Women, and The Beguiled, each of which premiered at a major international festival. Her selection as a Cannes juror in 2019 marked a turning point at which she was viewed not just as a rising performer but as an industry peer.
Continued Expansion (2020–present)
In 2020, Fanning took on her most celebrated television role as Catherine the Great in the Hulu historical satire The Great, appearing opposite Nicholas Hoult. She also served as an executive producer on the series, which ran for three seasons through 2023. The performance earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
She expanded into limited television with the Hulu miniseries The Girl from Plainville (2022), portraying Michelle Carter in a dramatization of a real-world texting-suicide case. In December 2023, she made her official Broadway debut in the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play Appropriate, sharing the stage with Sarah Paulson and Corey Stoll. Alongside her sister Dakota, she co-founded the production company Lewellen Pictures under a first-look deal with MRC, executive producing the Hulu documentary series Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer (2024).
Her recent film work includes James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (2024), Dan Trachtenberg’s science-fiction action film Predator: Badlands (2025), in which she plays twin Weyland-Yutani synthetics Thia and Tessa, and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (2025), a dramedy that competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. She also stars as the character Tomorrow in Hideo Kojima’s video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (2025) and contributed to its soundtrack in collaboration with Woodkid. In 2024, she began filming Karim Ainouz’s remake of the Italian film Fists in the Pocket, retitled Rosebush Pruning.
Elle Fanning Award Nominations
Elle Fanning has received nominations from major American awards bodies for her work in television, including a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for The Great in 2021. She has also earned two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for the same role, in 2021 and 2022.
Elle Fanning Awards Won
Fanning received a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival in recognition of her work in J. J. Abrams’ Super 8 (2011), an honor given to performers identified as emerging talents to watch. Additional verified career honors include selection as a jury member for the main competition at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in 2019, an appointment that itself functioned as a milestone recognition of her standing within the international film community.
Elle Fanning Family
Fanning is the daughter of Steven J. Fanning, a former minor league baseball player, and Heather Joy Arrington. Her maternal grandfather, Rick Arrington, played professional American football, and her aunt, Jill Arrington, is a sports reporter for ESPN. She shares a close working relationship with her older sister, Dakota Fanning, with whom she co-founded the production company Lewellen Pictures.
Personal Life
From 2018 to 2023, Fanning was in a relationship with English actor Max Minghella, whom she met on the set of his directorial debut Teen Spirit. Since late 2023, she has been in a relationship with Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner, and the two made their red carpet debut at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2024. Fanning and Wenner have since appeared together at the Met Gala and at various industry events.
Upcoming Projects
Fanning is set to play Effie Trinket in the 2026 film The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, a prequel based on Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name. She will also continue her producing work with Lewellen Pictures alongside her sister Dakota, building on the production company’s first-look deal with MRC.
