Elle Fanning has been on screen for nearly her entire life, but she has never been content to stay in one lane. Born Mary Elle Fanning on April 9, 1998 in Conyers, Georgia, she stepped in front of a camera as a toddler and has spent the decades since building one of the more interesting careers in modern Hollywood: child actor, indie darling, blockbuster princess, television empress and now an Academy Award nominee.
Her path is inseparable from her family. She is the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, who became a major child star first. The family moved to Los Angeles when Elle was small so that Dakota could pursue acting, and Elle soon followed onto sets herself.
Early life and the family business of acting
Fanning grew up in a household shaped by performance and sports. Her father, Steven Fanning, was a former minor league baseball player, and her mother, Heather Joy Arrington, was a former tennis player. Dakota was already working steadily when Elle was born, and the family’s move to Los Angeles put both sisters close to the industry.
Elle’s first screen appearance came in I Am Sam (2001), playing a younger version of her sister’s character. It was a practical arrangement more than a planned career launch: the production needed a child who looked like Dakota, and Elle fit.
That early experience proved formative. She has spoken about watching her sister work and wanting to do the same, describing childhood play as dressing up and making up scenes around the house. She was homeschooled for a time before enrolling in regular school in fourth grade, which gave her a more ordinary social life than many child performers have.
Child roles and a steady climb
Through the 2000s Fanning worked constantly. She appeared in Daddy Day Care (2003), The Door in the Floor (2004), Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel (2006). Television guest spots on shows such as CSI: Miami, CSI: NY and House kept her in front of audiences. She also voiced Mei in the 2005 English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro.
Her first leading role came as the title character in Phoebe in Wonderland (2008), which drew praise for its restraint. That same year she played a younger version of Cate Blanchett’s character in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Somewhere, Super 8 and the transition out of child stardom
Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere (2010) marked a turning point. Fanning played the daughter of a Hollywood actor, and critics noticed the subtlety of her work. A year later J.J. Abrams cast her in Super 8, a science fiction blockbuster that introduced her to a much wider audience. Abrams later said she was transfixing from the moment she came in to read.
She kept working at a remarkable pace: Twixt and We Bought a Zoo in 2011, Ginger & Rosa in 2012, and then a role that changed her public profile entirely.
Maleficent and the princess years
In 2014 Fanning played Princess Aurora in Disney’s Maleficent, opposite Angelina Jolie. The film was a global hit, and for many younger viewers it became the defining image of her career. She had grown up loving the animated Sleeping Beauty, and the role gave her a mainstream platform that child roles had not.
She returned to the character in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), by which point she was also taking on darker and more adult material.
Indie risk-taking: The Neon Demon, 20th Century Women and Mary Shelley
Fanning used her blockbuster visibility to support smaller, stranger films. In 2016 she played a teenager on the cusp of adulthood in 20th Century Women and an aspiring model in Nicolas Winding Refn’s horror thriller The Neon Demon. The following year she starred as Mary Shelley in a biographical drama about the writing of Frankenstein, and reunited with Coppola for The Beguiled.
She also showed a different kind of range in Teen Spirit (2018), playing a Polish teenager in Britain who enters a singing competition. The role put her vocal abilities on display and confirmed that she was willing to try almost anything.
The Great and the move to television
In 2020 Fanning took her first leading television role as Catherine the Great in Hulu’s The Great. The series was a bawdy, deliberately inaccurate comic history, and it gave her a character with real bite. She earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the role, and the show ran for three seasons before its cancellation in 2023.
During that period she also starred in The Girl from Plainville (2022), a true-crime miniseries for Hulu, showing a willingness to take on difficult, less glamorous material.
Broadway, Bob Dylan and an Oscar nomination
After The Great ended, Fanning made her Broadway debut in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate, alongside Sarah Paulson. The production won three Tony Awards, including best revival of a play.
In 2024 she appeared in A Complete Unknown as Sylvie Russo, a character based on Bob Dylan’s early girlfriend Suze Rotolo, opposite Timothee Chalamet. The following year she starred in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, playing an American actress who travels to Norway to work with a revered filmmaker. The performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for best supporting actress.
She has also expanded into other media. In 2025 she performed a motion-capture role in Hideo Kojima’s video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and appeared in the science fiction film Predator: Badlands. It was announced in May 2025 that she would join the cast of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, taking on the role of Effie Trinket.
Production, fashion and public life
Fanning is not only an actor. She and Dakota co-founded Lewellen Pictures, a production company that has secured a first-look deal with MRC. The venture lets the sisters work together behind the camera and develop their own material.
She has been a global ambassador for L’Oreal Paris since 2017 and for Cartier, and she has become a fixture at Cannes and the Met Gala. Her red carpet style, often built around vintage references and a distinctly feminine aesthetic, has made her a muse for designers and a regular subject of fashion coverage.
She has also used her platform to support emerging filmmakers, particularly through her work with L’Oreal Paris and the Lights on Women’s Worth prize at Cannes.
Personal life
Fanning keeps much of her private life private. She has been linked publicly to Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner, with the pair making appearances together at major events in recent years. She has spoken warmly about her family, crediting her parents and her sister for keeping her grounded through a career that began before she could remember.
What is Elle Fanning’s net worth?
Fanning’s exact earnings are not public. She has worked continuously since childhood and has led a major television series, appeared in global blockbusters and taken on endorsement work, but no verified figure for her personal wealth has been released.
A summary of published estimates, which are unverified, appears below. They should be treated as rough figures from third parties, not confirmed accounts.
Summary table of estimates
| Source | Published estimate | Date | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bored Panda | $8 million | Undated profile page | Unverified; no methodology provided |
Because only one reliable published estimate was located for this profile, the table is brief. Any figure should be read with caution: net worth estimates for actors often rely on incomplete information about fees, residuals and endorsements.
Frequently asked questions
How old is Elle Fanning?
She was born on April 9, 1998, which makes her 28 as of late 2026.
Is Elle Fanning related to Dakota Fanning?
Yes. Dakota Fanning is her older sister. The two have never appeared together on screen as adults, but they run the production company Lewellen Pictures together.
What was Elle Fanning’s breakout role?
She drew critical attention for Somewhere (2010) and wider fame for Super 8 (2011) and Maleficent (2014).
Has Elle Fanning won an Oscar?
She has not won an Academy Award. She received her first nomination, for best supporting actress, for Sentimental Value.
What is Elle Fanning doing next?
She is set to appear in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping as Effie Trinket. Further projects may be announced through her production company.
Featured image: Georges Biard / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
