Thirteen

Background:

One of Hollywood’s most-promising young stars, Evan Rachel Wood received recognition starring as good-girl turned bad-girl Tracy in Catherine Hardwicke’s drama Thirteen (2003, with Holly Hunter), in which she netted a Bratislava International Film Festival Award, a Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award and a Prism Award. Moreover, she earned Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe and MTV Movie nominations. Initially, she was known for the supporting role of Kylie Owens in the romantic film Practical Magic (1998, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman), where she received a nomination at the Young Actress Awards.

On television, Wood attracted public attention while playing Rick's anorexic daughter Jessie Sammler on the ABC’s hit drama "Once and Again" (1999-2002). She took home a Young Actress Award for her bright acting. Wood also nabbed nominations at the Young Actress Awards for her good performance in the 1999’s television movie Down Will Come Baby and the 1996 drama series "Profiler."

Fans can also catch Wood in the recent and upcoming films Little Secrets (2001), S1mOne (2002), The Missing (2003), Pretty Persuasion (2005), The Upside of Anger (2005), Down in the Valley (2005), Running with Scissors (2006), The Mermaids Singing (2006) and the Untitled Julie Taymor Project (2006).


Raleigh’s Daughter

Childhood and Family:

On September 7, 1987, Evan Rachael Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to a Jewish family. She grew up under the care of performer parents. Her father is actor Ira David Wood III, while her mother is actress Sara Lynn Moore. The middle child of three, Evan has two brothers, Dana Wood (musician; older) and Ira David Wood IV (actor; born on November 20, 1984).
Along with her family, little Evan received her early acting exposure on stage at the Raleigh Theatre In The Park, where her dad is the executive director and the founder of the theater. By the time she was 7, the young girl had made her debut performance on television.

Evan’s parents once signed her up with San Fernando Valley Junior High School, but she immediately grew bored with the school’s social environment and quit. Instead of finding a new school for Evan, her parents decided to homeschool her, and at age 15, Evan received her high school diploma.

After the divorce of her parents in 1996, Evan relocated to Los Angles with her mother and her younger brother, and she still resides there now. Evan, who has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, enjoys swimming, horseback riding and rollerblading. Wood, who appeared in Green Day’s music video "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (2005), is also trained in singing and dancing.


Once and Again

Career:

After acting in her father’s stage production at the Raleigh Theatre In The Park in her hometown, seven-year-old Evan Rachel Wood had her first scene performance as Little Susie in the made-for-television movie In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness (1994), and appeared in several television movies like Search for Grace (1994), A Father for Charlie (1995) and Death in Small Doses (1995). In 1995, she also landed a recurring role as the daughter of Mrs. Russell (played by real-life mother) in the CBS drama American Gothic.

With some television films under her belt, the nine-year-old girl headed for Hollywood to pursue acting more professionally. Two years later, Wood began her film career when she was cast in the lead role of a 10-year-old girl named Harriet Frankovitz who makes friends with mentally challenged adult Ricky (played by Kevin Bacon) in Timothy Hutton's directorial debut Digging to China (1998). Her first brush with fame arrived that same year when she received a supporting role, opposite Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, in the Griffin Dunne fantasy Practical Magic (1998), where Wood’s fine acting handed her a nomination for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress at the Young Artist Awards.

After her first two big screen films, Wood went back to the small screen. She joined the cast members of the drama series "Profiler" in 1998, and stayed with the show until 1999. Her performance as Chloe Waters was so impressive that she received a nomination for a Young Artist for Best Performance in a TV Drama Series - Supporting Young Actress in 2000. She earned another nomination for a Young Artist for her work in the television movie Down Will Come Baby (1999).

At the end of decade, Wood made a reputation for herself as a television star while portraying Rick's (Billy Campbell) daughter Jessie Sammler on the ABC critically acclaimed series "Once and Again" (1999-2002). Due to her outstanding performance, Wood eventually picked up a Young Actress Award after being nominated three times.

Wood’s last film performance in 1990 was in Joey Travolta's crime movie Detour (1999, starring Jeff Fahey and James Russo) before she left the wide screen for a while. The rising star made her return in 2001 as young concert violinist Emily Lindstrom in the touching family drama Little Secrets. In the comedy S1m0ne (2002), Wood was cast as Al Pacino and Catherine Keener's daughter Lainey Christian.

Her big breakthrough arrived a year later when she costarred alongside Holly Hunter in Catherine Hardwicke's directorial debut Thirteen (2003). Portraying good-girl turned bad-girl Tracy Louise Freeland, Wood’s brilliant acting handed her several awards like a Bratislava International Film Festival, a Las Vegas Film Critics Society for Youth in Film and a Prism Award for Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film. She also earned nominations at the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild for Best Actress, as well as a MTV Movie for Breakthrough Female Performance.

The movie helped catapult her popularity and Wood was on the way to stardom. She next played Lilly Gilkeson in Ron Howard's western The Missing (2003), costarring with Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett. Recently, Wood dotted her resume with a starring role opposite James Woods, Ron Livingston and Jane Krakowski in the comedy Pretty Persuasion (2005, directed by Marcos Siega), a supporting role in the family drama The Upside of Anger (2005, starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner) and a lead role alongside Edward Norton in Down in the Valley (2005). Additionally, she will soon star with Gwyneth Paltrow and Annette Bening in the wide screen version of Augusten Burroughs best-seller’s novel of the same name, Running with Scissors (2006), and is scheduled to play the lead of Grainne in the multi-generational drama The Mermaids Singing (2006). Wood is also set to star as teenager in an Untitled Julie Taymor Movie (2006), a film based on the songs of the Beatles.

"Everything about the project has something to do with the Beatles. I play Lucy, who is a girl who falls in love with a British boy named Jude. We sing Beatles songs to each other, which means that even when I'm not working and 'All You Need Is Love' comes on in a restaurant, I'll just start doing the vocals." Evan Rachel Wood on her newest project


Awards:

• Prism Awards: Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film, Thirteen, 2004
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society: Sierra Award - Youth in Film, Thirteen, 2004
• Bratislava International Film Festival: Special Mention, Thirteen, 2004
• Young Artist: Best Ensemble in a TV Series (Drama or Comedy), Once and Again, 2001