Alison Lohman

Born: 18 September 1979
Where: Palm Springs, California, USA

Lohman beat off the nationwide challenge of 400 other actresses to land the lead of fostered teenager Astrid Magnusson in White Oleander.

She began appearing in musicals when she was 10 and aged eleven won the Desert Theatre League Award for best musical actress for Annie.

An accomplished singer, she performed as a featured solo vocalist for Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and the Desert Symphony.

Although she was accepted at New York University School of the Arts, she opted to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career in film.

She made her first big screen appearance in the Godzilla spoof in Kraa: The Sea Monster and also had a minor role as the Honey Bear Girl in sci-fi thriller The Thirteenth Floor.

Supporting roles followed in The Auteur Theory, Million Dollar Kid, Delivering Milo and Alex in Wonder.

TV credits included a starring role in Sharing the Secret with Diane Ladd and Tim Matheson as well as Pasadena.

Her big break came in 2002, when British director Peter Kosminsky cast her opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Renee Zellwegger in White Oleander.

She followed that with Ridley Scott's con caper Matchstick Men alongside Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell.

In 2003, she starred alongside Ewan McGregor in Tim Burton's Big Fish, where she played the younger version of Jessica Lange's Sandy Bloom.

Recent work includes Atom Egoyan's noirish thriller Where The Truth Lies with Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon.