Biography:

A beautiful, bright blonde, Kirsten Dunst started appearing in television commercials at age five and made her feature film debut as Mia Ferrow's daughter in "Oedipus Wrecks", Woody Allen's portion of "New York Stories" (1989). Small parts in numerous films followed, despite the fact that many of the films like "The Bonfire of the Vanities" had little publicity and did poorly at the box office. She also was hired and cast in a recurring role on the NBC series drama "Sisters" and had a guest appearance in one episode of  "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

The actress was shot into the spotlight with her work in Neil Jordan's "Interview With the Vampire" (1994). Only twelve years old at the time of production, she played what was the female lead opposite Tom Cruise, Christian Slater and Brad Pitt. Her character Claudia, a young teen girl turned into a vampire and powerless to age through the years, looked like a child one moment and like a mature grown woman the next. Even though the film received good reviews, her amazingly mature performance gained her almost unanimous good words, earning her a Golden Globe nomination.  

Nevertheless, the young actress continued to produce impressive work. She portrayed the younger version of Amy in "Little Women" (1994), appearing alongside Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon and working with the young  Christian Bale and Claire Danes.

She cemented her sexy celebrity status co-starring with Robin Williams in the smash hit "Jumanji" (1995). Ready to make the move to adult roles, she jumped between television appearances and her high profile films. During the 1996-97 television season, she had the recurring role of a fast talking runaway who meets Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney) in the hit NBC drama "ER". 

After lending her voice talents to the title character in Fox's animated "Anastasia" along side Meg Ryan, she was cast as a young teen girl hired to play an Albanian refugee in a fake war in the political satire "Wag the Dog" working with the famed Robert De Niro (1997). She was then "Fifteen and Pregnant" in the real life television drama before returning to movies in "Small Soldiers", and worked with a host of stars in the cast of "Strike! The Hairy Bird" in 1998.

She started to emerge from Hollywood as a star and box office draw, starting with her clever comedy roles in the beauty pageant comedy "Drop Dead Gorgeous" with Kirstie Alley in 1999, and the wacky young teen girl meet Richard Nixon spoof "Dick" (1999) where she and Michelle Williams were cast as naive teenagers of the Watergate era. 

She also became a sex symbol for the teen boy crowd with roles in romantic comedies. She played the courageous captain of a go-getting cheerleading squad in "Bring It On" (2000), where she showed her ability to carry a feature film on her playful appeal, and she also did well in the teen romance "Get Over It" working with Carmen Electra in 2001. 

She showed she also had remarkable ability when she appeared as Lux, the oldest and most uncontrollable of the ill-fated Lisbon sisters, in Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides" working next to Hayden Christensen (1999), and was especially captivating in 2001's "Crazy Beautiful" as the psychologically disturbed daughter of a affluent congressman who threatens to ruin the rise of her lower class boyfriend.

It would be her bright, sexy and charming role of Mary Jane Watson, the romantic love interest of geek Peter Parker, in the big screen variation of the comic book superhero "Spider-Man" (2002) that would send her into full blown sexy celebrity Hollywood superstardom. Her personality and strong chemistry with leading man Tobey Maguire turned "Spider-Man" into an action thriller blockbuster with a romantic center.  

That same year, she had an amazing role in director Peter Bogdonavitch's Hollywood rumor film "The Cat's Meow" while being too young to play early screen star Marion Davies, she gave a good performance of the character's real romance with media tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Edward Herrmann). She next appeared with an all-star cast in writer-director Ed Solomon's "Levity" (2003), playing a young woman who becomes dependent on the character played by Billy Bob Thornton. The strong supporting cast also included Holly Hunter and Morgan Freeman.

She then teamed with Julia Stiles and Maggie Gyllenhaal as students of a freethinking teacher played by Julia Roberts in "Mona Lisa Smile" (2003). She then showed her tougher side as the nasty high school senior Betty Warren, who shows the most hostility to Roberts' ideas, using the student newspaper to disagree with her position that Wellesley women of the 1950's should hope for more from life than the task of a perfect housewife to a CEO. 

Next was a supporting role in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with Kate Winslet (2004), as Mary, the young receptionist in the memory erasing office where brokenhearted Jim Carrey goes to have his ex-girlfriend removed from his thoughts. 

Then she repeated her role as Mary Jane Watson, now a busy actress, but still longing for Peter Parker in the sequel "Spider-Man 2" (2004), followed by the release of the animated film "Kaena: The Prophecy" (2004), where she supplied the voice of the unruly young teen hero in the science fiction flight of the imagination.

Capitalizing on her "Spider-Man" fame, she got her first adult leading role in the sexually charged romantic comedy "Wimbledon" (2004), playing the tennis great Lizzie Bradbury, an easily sidetracked bad girl of tennis whose romance and love life with a washed up ex-star of the game reunites his enthusiasm and sends him to tennis' most prominent competition.

She was spectacular in her role as the optimistic flight attendant Claire Colburn, who helps a unsuccessful pretty boy (Orlando Bloom) grieving his fathers reawakening to the joys of life and love in writer-director Cameron Crowe's film "Elizabethtown" featuring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Biel in 2005.

Her role was praised even though the film was less than popular with viewers, but she had another smash hit on her hands with the 2007 release of "Spider-Man 3", the third hit for the franchise making both her, and Tobey Maguire household names. Next up for was the comedy "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" (2008) with Gillian Anderson and Megan Fox, about a British writer who struggles to fit in at a high-profile magazine in New York. Based on Toby Young's memoir "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People". 

She was then cast in they dramatic mystery film "All Good Things" (2009), where a detective begins to unravel a missing-persons case that looks to spell doom -- and quite possibly death -- for the heir to a New York real estate dynasty. She wrapped her year with the dramatic "Sweet Relief" (2009), the story of Marla Ruzicka, a relief worker who advocated for Iraqi and Afghani victims of the American-led invasions of their respective countries.