[2] She then starred in the miniseries Taken (2002), and in the films Uptown Girls (2003), Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Charlotte's Web (2006), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Coraline (2009).

Fanning appeared in films such as Ocean's 8 (2018), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and The Equalizer 3 (2023), and the television series The Alienist (2018), The First Lady (2022) and The Perfect Couple (2024).

[9]Fanning then had several guest roles on television series including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, and Spin City.

Her role in the film made Fanning the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, being seven years of age at the time.

[11] Fanning's performance would later be incorporated into the music video for Rufus Wainwright's cover of the Beatles' "Across the Universe"; the song itself was included in I Am Sam.

By this time, she had received positive notices from several film critics, including Tom Shales of The Washington Post, who wrote that Fanning "has the perfect sort of otherworldly look about her, an enchanting young actress called upon ... to carry a great weight.

"[15] In 2004, she made an appearance on season ten of the television series Friends, playing the role of Mackenzie, a young girl who is moving out of the house Monica and Chandler are buying.

The film was generally panned, but critic Chuck Wilson called it "a fascinating meeting of equals – if the child star [Fanning] challenged the master [De Niro] to a game of stare-down, the legend might very well blink first.

She also had a small part in the Rodrigo García film Nine Lives (released in October 2005), in which she shared an unbroken nine-minute scene with actress Glenn Close, who had her own praise for Fanning: "She's definitely an old soul.

During the summer of 2006, Fanning worked on the film Hounddog, described in press reports as a "dark story of abuse, violence, and Elvis Presley adulation in the rural South.

"[23] Although the film was a failure both at the box office and with critics,[citation needed] Roger Ebert praised Fanning's performance, comparing her to Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver.

In the spring of 2007, she filmed Fragments – Winged Creatures alongside Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Josh Hutcherson, and Academy Award winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson.

In July, Fanning appeared on a short film titled Cutlass, one of Glamour's "Reel Moments" based on readers' personal essays.

[28] Set in South Carolina in 1964, the story centers on Lily Owens (Fanning), who escapes her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father by running away with her caregiver and only friend (played by Jennifer Hudson) to a South Carolina town where they are taken in by an eccentric trio of beekeeping sisters (played by Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, and Alicia Keys).

[29] Fanning played Jane, a member of the Volturi Guard, in New Moon and reprised the role in Eclipse, based on novels by Stephenie Meyer.

[citation needed] In 2010, she starred in the film The Runaways, alongside Kristen Stewart, Stella Maeve, and Scout Taylor-Compton, where she played Cherie Currie, the lead singer of the band.

In the fall of 2011, Fanning played the starring role in Effie Gray, directed by Richard Laxton, written and co-starred by Emma Thompson, with Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Derek Jacobi and Claudia Cardinale.In August 2012, she played the lead role of a wealthy financial eco-terrorist Dena Brauer, in a thriller film Night Moves opposite actors Jesse Eisenberg and Peter Sarsgaard.

[44] In May 2015, Every Secret Thing, based on the 2004 novel by Laura Lippman, co-starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Danielle Macdonald, Colin Donnell and Nate Parker was released in the U.S. Also in 2015, Martin Koolhoven confirmed that Jack Roth joined the cast of the film Brimstone.

[49] In August 2018, TNT ordered a sequel series based upon the follow-up novel The Angel of Darkness, with Fanning set to return to reprise the role of Sara Howard.

In January 2025, Fanning was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Netflix series Ripley as Marge Sherwood.

[56] In June 2011, Fanning graduated from Campbell Hall School in Studio City, California,[57] where she participated on the varsity spirit cheerleading squad and was twice voted homecoming queen.