• Actress and singer Jena Malone made her screen debut in the Showtime film Bastard Out of Carolina for director Angelica Huston. She has since appeared in a variety of independent films, including Donnie Darko, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and [[Saved!]], along with the more mainstream movies Into the Wild, The Ruins and Cold Mountain. She started recording her own sparse, electronic music for experimental New York City label Social Registry and plans to release her debut album in 2008.

• Fast Facts:

  1. Born November 21, 1984 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada
  2. Filed for legal emancipation from her mother
  3. Recorded first music single in 2007
  4. Co-produced the 2002 film American Girl

• Career Retrospective

  Malone started acting at an early age in community theater, and briefly attended the Professional Children's School in New York City.

  She won a variety of awards for her debut film performance in Bastard Out of Carolina and took home a Saturn Award (given to science-fiction films) for her turn as the younger incarnation of Jodie Foster's character in Contact.

  In 2000, Malone filed suit to prevent her mother from having involvement with her career or money, claiming that her affairs had been "mismanaged." Since then, she has worked consistently in films throughout her teens and early 20's, most recently appearing in the Sean Penn-directed Into the Wild (for which she was nominated for a SAG Award and the horror film The Ruins.

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