"Evan Rachel Wood"

Birthday
    Sep 7, 1987
Birthplace
    Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Bio: She began acting in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles, including American Gothic and Once and Again. Wood made her debut as a lead film actress in 2002's Little Secrets, and became well known after her Golden Globe-nominated role in Thirteen, which gained her critical praise. She has since starred in several independent films, including Pretty Persuasion and Down in the Valley, and has several more starring roles in films yet to be released.

In September 2006, Wood received Premiere magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent." Also in 2006, she was described by The Guardian as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation."

Later in 2006, Wood appeared with an all-star ensemble cast as Natalie Finch in the Golden Globe-nominated 2006 comedy-drama film Running with Scissors. Directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Annette Bening, the film was based on the memoir by Augusten Burroughs, which is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood in a dysfunctional family. Wood was awarded the 2007 Cannes Film Festival Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation for her performance.

Wood had roles in two films released in September 2007. King of California, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, a story of a bipolar jazz musician (Michael Douglas) and his long-suffering teenage daughter, Miranda (Wood), who are reunited after his two-year stay in a mental institution and who embark on a quixotic search for Spanish treasure. One review praised Wood's performance as "excellent".

Across the Universe, a Julie Taymor-directed musical that was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award and was set in Liverpool, New York City, and Vietnam, focused on the tribulations of several characters during the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960s. It was set to the songs of The Beatles. Wood, who has described the music of The Beatles as a major part of her life, played Lucy, who develops a relationship with Jude (Jim Sturgess). The film featured her singing musical numbers and she describes the role as her favorite, calling director Julie Taymor "one of the most amazing directors out there." One critic wrote that "Wood brings much-needed emotional depth."

Wood provided the voice of an alien named Mala, a mechanically inclined free-thinker, in Battle for Terra, a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film about a peaceful alien planet that faces destruction from colonization by the displaced remainder of the human race. The film won the 2008 Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The film showed at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where she received an award at the Midnight Awards along with Elijah Wood.

Wood starred in 2008's Vadim Perelman-directed The Life Before Her Eyes, based on the Laura Kasischke novel of the same name, about the friendship of two teens of opposite character who are involved in a Columbine-like shooting incident at their school and are forced to make an impossible choice. Wood played the younger version of Uma Thurman's character, Diana. One critic cited her performance as "hands-down extraordinary". Wood stated that she intended the film to be the last one in which she played a teenager.

In the same year, she also co-starred in director Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about Randy "Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a professional wrestler from the 1980s who is forced to retire after a heart attack threatens to kill him the next time he wrestles. Wood played Stephanie, Randy "Ram" Robinson's estranged daughter. Of her performance, one critic wrote, "Once her character stops stonewalling her father and hears him out, Wood provides a fine foil for Rourke in their turbulent scenes together."

Wood has a role in Woody Allen's Whatever Works, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. She plays the young wife of Larry David's character. In May 2009, she played Juliet in six fundraising performances of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Theater In The Park. The production was directed by her brother, who also starred.

Wood had a recurring role in the second and third seasons of the HBO supernatural drama series, True Blood, from 2009 to 2011 as Sophie-Anne Leclerq. She appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Wood had a role in the film The Conspirator, which premiered at Ford's Theatre in Washington D. C. in April, 2011, directed by Robert Redford (about the conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln). She also had a role in The Ides of March.

Wood has described her religion as Jewish (her mother is a convert to Judaism and her father is Christian). She briefly attended Cary Elementary, a public school in Cary, North Carolina. She was home-schooled and received her high school diploma at age 15. Wood has a black belt in taekwondo.

In 2007, Wood's relationship with Marilyn Manson became public. The two met at a party at the Chateau Marmont Hotel; Wood has stated that she was attracted to Manson's frequent use of black eye liner and once described their relationship as "healthy and loving." Two portraits of Wood, painted by Manson, have been exhibited at the Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art. Wood is also the inspiration behind Manson's song "Heart-Shaped Glasses", and she appeared with Manson in the song's music video. Manson has said that Wood's appearance in the film was the highest-paid music video role ever. It was reported in early January 2010 that the couple was engaged to be married. On August 17, 2010, People magazine reported that the couple had ended their engagement earlier that month.

In April 2011, Wood came out as bisexual in an interview with Esquire.