Date of Birth: April 9th, 1990
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California.
Place of Residence: Los Angeles, California.
Kristen Jaymes Stewart was born on April 9, 1990 and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her entire family works in the film industry. Her father, John Stewart, is a stage manager and television producer who works for FOX. While her mother is a screenwriter, and now director who comes from Australia. Kristen has three older brothers, Cameron, Taylor and Dana (last two have been adopted).
Stewart attended school until the seventh grade but later continued her education by correspondence. After a talent scout caught her grade school performance in a Christmas play at the age of eight, she appeared on television in a few small roles. Both her parents were initially opposed to the idea, but Stewart’s curiosity won them over, and at the age of eight, she began auditioning for film and television roles. Kristen auditioned for over a year before she ever landed anything. “It took a really long time until I was totally over it and the last audition I went to which I didn’t even want to go to it and my mom said, ‘Well, this is the last one. You don’t have to go to anymore.’And that was the first movie I got.” Her first credit was as an extra, a girl who waits for a drink in the disney film The Thirteenth Year (1999). Not long after she landed her first substantial part, in the 2001 challenging independent drama, The Safety of Objects. She played Sam Jennings, the tomboy daughter of a troubled single mother played by Patricia Clarkson.
Kristen Stewart found herself at the center of a major Hollywood production in 2002 when she replaced Hayden Panettiere as the sullen, diabetic daughter of a divorced mother in David Fincher’s Panic Room. Jodie Foster played Kristen’s mother in the movie, and there was an undeniable physical resemblance. “Everyone always says, “I got Panic Room because I look like Jodie Foster.” But it was actually Nicole Kidman who was supposed to play my mother.” Stewart says. Despite being in the presence of such veteran actors as Foster, Forest Whitaker, and Patrick Bachau, Stewart held her own and delivered an assured performance that led some critics to compare her to the film’s lead during her child actor days, even if the movie has received mediocre critics, Kristen earned her first nomination for a Young Artist Award.
Afterward, Stewart was cast in another thriller, Cold Creek Manor, playing the daughter of Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone’s characters; the film generally failed at the box office but Kristen was gathering high notices either way. Throughout 2004 Kristen appeared in three motion pictures. The children’s action-comedy Catch That Kid, opposite Max Thieriot and Corbin Bleu, as Lila in Undertow which despite an acclaimed director, David Gordon Green, Terrence Malick as producer and a strong cast including fellow acclaimed young actor Jamie Bell, it received almost no theatrical screentime. At the age of thirteen, Kristen made Speak; arguably her most critically acclaimed role to date. The film which was based on the best-selling novel by Laurie Halse Anderson which gave her the opportunity to play both the dark and the light in the same project. She played Melinda, a high school freshman who stops almost all verbal communication after being raped by an upperclassman, but retains a vivid and often sardonic running commentary in her head. Despite a premiere at Sundance, unfortunately, the film did not receive a theatrical release and instead aired on Showtime and Lifetime, in an edited form.
In 2005, Stewart again branched out into diverse genres. Tackling the Canadian drama Fierce People, by actor-director Griffin Dunne (her first romantic role) and the family fantasy Zathura. Even though critics found much to love about Zathura, it too was not a success in terms of ticket sales.
2007 proved to be one of the biggest years for Kristen professionally thus far. She worked on six film projects which included a leading role in The Messengers by Thai genre filmmakers and brothers Danny and Oxide Pang. Despite the directors’ reputation with horror audiences, it was critically panned and largely ignored by moviegoers. Kristen also managed another large role in that year; In the Land of Women, in which she played Lucy Hardwicke, opposite Meg Ryan and Adam Brody. She also managed to find time for smaller projects like Mary Stuart Masterson’s directorial debut The Cake Eaters, in which she played a young woman with a debilitating neural disease, and the short film Cutlass by Kate Hudson. What Just Happened? (released in 2008), based on the book by producer Art Linson, starred Sean Penn, Bruce Willis and Kristen as Robert De Niro’s daughter.
Kristen finally starred in Sean Penn’s critically acclaimed adaptation film Into the Wild, opposite Emile Hirsh. Based on a true story of top student and athlete Christopher McCandless, an Emory graduate, who abandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness where he untimately died. She was selected by Sean himself and was asked to audition immediately. Kristen had a memorable role as Tracy Tatro, a young girl who crosses paths with Christopher. The role called for Stewart to sing two songs. Her performance earned her a Young Artist Award and 2008 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
2008 proved more success for Stewart and the year has solidified her as one of Hollywood’s most in demand and talented young stars. She appeared with a gang of “it” girls on the cover of Vanity Fair‘s August 2008 “Next Big things” issue, had a role in The Yellow Handkerchief, a cameo in Jumper and landing leading roles for 2009 releases; Adventureland with Jesse Eisenberg, while Welcome to the Rileys will see Kristen in one of her most provocative roles yet; the 16 year old stripper co-starring with James Gandolfini.
But 2008 marks the success and high hopes of the role of Bella Swan in the Twilight adaptation. Kristen won the part out of dozens of hopefuls and was announced as the character in November 2007. She competed in a conventional audition process and after a screentest with Robert Pattinson, director Catherine Hardwicke said Kristen and Robert embodied the two characters very essence and chemistry and they ultimately both landed the roles. The story, based on the bestselling novel by Stephenie Meyer is a love story about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. The film began production in February 2008 and finished filming in May 2008. It was released on November 21, 2008 and won massive box office success. The worldwide success of Twilight propelled Kristen into stardom.
Outside of her role as Bella Swan, Kristen adopted the style of legendary Joan Jett for her role in The Runaways in which she starred opposite Dakota Fanning. Joan Jett was heavily involved in the production of the film. 2009 also saw the release of The Yellow Handkerchief and the production of Welcome to the Rileys, two films that Kristen feels very passionate about.
In 2010, after the release of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Kristen began filming On The Road in August. The movie is based on the iconic book by Jack Kerouac, opposite Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley. Stewart plays the role of Marylou, the young wife of Dean Moriarty, and the movie earned a selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, the first for the actress, where the film was received with high praise.
Kristen then jumped into production of the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn which was split into two movies with the first being released in 2011. After filming the last of the Twilight saga, Kristen began production on a new venture; Snow White and the Huntsman in which she starred opposite British star Sam Clafin, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron. Her attachment to the project was officially announced in March 2011 and production began in August 2011 with the film being released in June 2012.
After promoting the last installment of the Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn part two, Kristen took a little time off to herself, and used her time to choose new projects, which she started filming in 2013, with the movie Camp X-Ray, where she plays the role of a yound soldier based in Guantanamo, where she befriends a detainee. The movie had its premiere at Sundance, where it received high praises for Kristen’s acting performances.
Only a month after wrapping Camp X-Ray, Kristen flied to Europe to film Clous of Sils Maria, opposite Juliette Binoche. A true friendship has developed between the two actresses, where they played an actress and her assistant. The movie first screened in the Cannes Film Festival selection in May 2014, and the movie received astounding reviews from journalists and movie specialists, for both the script and Kristen’s performance.
In 2014, Kristen also completed two projects, Still Alice opposite Julianne Moore in New York. The movie is based on the book by Lisa Genova, about a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words, and then learns that she suffers from early on-set Alzheimer’s. Kristen also completed shooting for American Ultra, where she is reunited with former co-star Jesse Eisenberg. In Summer 2014, Kristen completed production on Equals, a futuristic story about a world where emotions are outlawed, opposite Nicholas Hoult in Japan and Singapour.
2015 is a huge year for Kristen. In February, she received a Cesar for a supporting role in Clouds of Sils Maria, and became the first American actress to win the french equivalent of the Oscars. After a small break, the actress came back to shoot four new project this year : she worked with Kelly Reichardt in Montana, and then with Ang Lee on the adaptation of the novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, a story about a young soldier sent on a “Victory Tour” by the government to invoke spirit and support for the war in Iraq. Kristen is playing Bylly’s sister, Kathryn.
She also has two other projects in production, a movie with Woody Allen (still untitled), and will reunite with director Olivier Assayas for Personal Shopper, a Paris-set English-language ghost story taking place in the fashion underworld.