Mary Elle Fanning was born on the 9th of April 1998 in Conyers, Georgia, USA, to Heather Joy (Arrington) and Steven J. Fanning. Her mother played professional tennis, and her father, now an electronics salesman, played minor league baseball. She is of German, Irish, English, French, and Channel Islander descent.

Elle's ascent into stardom began when she was almost three years old, when she played the younger version of her sister, Dakota Fanning's, character Lucy in the drama film I Am Sam (2001). She then played younger Dakota again in Taken (2002) as Allie, age 3. But her first big independent movie without her sister was in 2003's Daddy Day Care (2003) as Jamie. She then had two guest appearances on Judging Amy (1999) and CSI: Miami (2002).

Elle was becoming more successful and she got another role, in 2004's The Door in the Floor (2004) with Kim Basinger. Her career kept improving, as she had two movies in 2005, Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) and I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006).

She has since starred in a number of prominent films, including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Super 8 (2011), We Bought a Zoo (2011), and Maleficent (2014).

Family

No info available

Trivia

Younger sister of Dakota Fanning.
Enjoys playing soccer
Parents are Joy Fanning (aka Joy Arrington Fanning) and Steven Fanning.
Her mom named her Mary and her dad named her Elle, so her name is Mary Elle Fanning. Like her older sister, Dakota Fanning, she uses her middle name instead of her first name.
Learned the piano.
Is one of 14 grandchildren
Casting notes for the role of young Ruth Cole in The Door in the Floor (2004) originally called for identical twins, because producers believed the workload of the character to be too much for one little girl to take.
As a child, Elle played the role of newborn in her some of her big sister Dakota's projects.
To celebrate her seventh birthday, she went with her family to see Cirque du Soleil perform "Quidam" during its run in Melbourne, Australia.
When she attended her first Hollywood premiere, she was only three and a half years old.
Dressed up as Marilyn Monroe for Halloween.
Her grandmother spent $US600 at an auction buying her an old cream container that used to belong to Marilyn Monroe.
Niece of ESPN reporter Jill Arrington, and Jill's husband, Dean Panaro. Granddaughter of Mary Jane Arrington and NFL quarterback Rick Arrington.
She was submitted for consideration for a Primetime Emmy nomination for her guest-starring role in the episode House: Need to Know (2006). She was also submitted for consideration for a BAFTA nomination for her supporting role in Super 8 (2011).
She donated a signed picture to Rocky Stone to be given away as a prize in a Dakota Fanning contest to benefit less-fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign 2006.
Was home-schooled by her grandmother, Mary Jane Arrington, until 2007.
Was ranked #19 alongside her sister, Dakota Fanning, on Entertainment Weekly's "30 Under 30" the actress list (2008).
Middle name is pronounced "El", as in the letter L, not "Ellie".
Her paternal grandmother, Katharina Kramb, was German. Her other ancestry is Irish, English, French, and Channel Islander (Jersey and Guernsey).
Is near-sighted and uses contact lenses most of the time. But she loves collecting "nerdy" looking glasses.
She and her family are members of the Southern Baptist Convention.
She was only three and a half years old when she attended her first Hollywood premiere.
She has pictures of Marilyn Monroe in her room, and she also has a picture of Regis Philbin.
She loves to draw.
She and her sister Dakota Fanning love to watch Fear Factor (2001).

Personal Quotes 

Dakota [Fanning, her sister] is my favorite actress.
[on acting] "I love it. I just love how you get to be different people and have different names."
On being cast in The Door in the Floor (2004): "I'm glad they picked me to be Ruth."
On what her favorite scene in Daddy Day Care (2003) is: "Oh I guess jumping in the flowers, and the water scenes, 'cause we got to be in bathing suits and swim in the water, and in the water fountain."
On acting: "What's the best part of a movie? I love to know what my name is. It's just so fun. That's the first thing I ask. It's just fun because you have a different name in every movie."
I would love to work with Marion Cotillard... and my sister! I've never worked with Dakota before in a movie. It'd be so cool to be on screen interacting with each other one day. It will happen, I'm just not sure when.
I would like to be a teenager in the '60s or '70s. It just seemed so free, so cool, just roaming around. We can't really roam around now.
To me, acting is just kind of making believe and dressing up. You put on your costume and walk a certain way and feel your character. Then cut, and you're Elle again.
I used to keep a diary when I was little, but I don't do it anymore because of my perfectionist nature. I was using so much Wite-Out.
I was 4 when I did The Door in the Floor (2004). I don't remember every single thing about it, but I liked the costumes, and they always put my hair in pigtails. In one scene I got to eat grilled cheese and I was so excited.
Watching movies is on my list of things to do when I feel like I have the time to do it. Right now there's so much homework.
[on how avoids being sucked into the industry and stays herself] I'm graduating this year [2016] from a normal high school. I mean I still live with my parents. I don't know, I have such a good family. I think that they would whip me into shape if I did anything! Also, you have to kinda separate... I used to, when I was younger ...I kinda looked at doing films as like someone going to soccer practice or going to play a match in a way because I'm like, alright that's just my extracurricular activity! You know, alright, I just go off and do a movie for a little bit. But once I'm home, I mean, there's that, and you're always thinking of characters and I daydream a lot so I'm like, always in my head in that way. But once you're home, you're home, and you have to separate it. I think that people who just live in that movie world, like non-stop, 24/7, 100 percent, it's like, it's too intense, you can't do that. You kind of step out of it, and like, take out the trash, and like, be normal!
People's obsession with beauty and like, perfection, it can really destroy you. And wanting perfection, it's like, what is perfection, you know? It doesn't exist. Perfect doesn't exist, so you drive yourself crazy wanting it.