Born Mary Elle Fanning, Elle Fanning is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning. She kicked off her acting career at three years old playing the younger version of her sister’s characters Lucy in I Am Sam (2001) and Allie in Taken (2002). Before these two films, though, she and her sister voiced the English dubs of Mei and Satsuki Kusakabe in Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro.

Her first movie solo was Daddy Day Care (2003), and she later appeared as Sweetie Pie Thomas in the film adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie (2005). She played Penelope in I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006). She appeared as Daisy at the age of 7 in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Alice Dainard in Super 8 (2011), Lily Miska in We Bought a Zoo (2011) and Aurora in Maleficent (2014) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019).

In 2017, Fanning portrayed Alicia in Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled (2017) alongside Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell and also Mary Shelley in a film about the author of Frankenstein’s life. In 2020, she appeared as Violet in the film adaptation of Jennifer Niven’s young adult novel All the Bright Places (2020). Notable television shows for Fanning include The Girl from Plainville and Hulu’s The Great, for which she is Emmy-nominated. She portrayed of Sylvie Russo in A Complete Unknown (2024), the Timothée Chalamet-starring Bob Dylan biopic. She plays Rachel Kemp in Sentimental Value (2025), and she stars as Thia in Predator: Badlands (2025) now in theaters.

Upcoming highly anticipated projects for the younger Fanning sister include the Apple TV series Margo’s Got Money Troubles in which she portrays the titular heroine, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026) in which she will play Effie Trinket and the film adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale (2027) in which she will star as Isabelle along side her sister Dakota, who will play Vianne. This project will mark the first time the sisters share scenes portraying a pair of French sisters during World War II.