Jena Malone
at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Jena Malone (1984-11-21) November 21, 1984 (age 27) Sparks, Nevada, U.S.[1]
Years active	1991–present

Jena Malone (/mʌˈloʊn/; born November 21, 1984) is an American actress and musician who has appeared on television, in films, and on Broadway. She made her movie debut with the film Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), and has appeared in films including Contact (1997), Stepmom (1998), Donnie Darko (2001), Saved! (2004), Into the Wild (2007), The Ruins (2008) and Sucker Punch (2011).

Malone is also an experimental musician who has released music both under her own name and as "The Shoe".

Early life[link]

Malone had lived in 27 locations by the age of nine, including Lake Tahoe, California.^[2] She was raised by her mother, Deborah, and her mother's girlfriend, whom she calls "Godmom,"^[3] and began taking an interest in acting after watching her mother, who was involved in community theatre.^[4] She briefly moved to Las Vegas, hated it, and persuaded her mother to move on to Los Angeles.^[5] Malone was home-schooled from sixth to eighth grade. She attended the Professional Children's School, for the ninth grade, in New York,^[5] and quit it after a year, when she became legally emancipated, in January 2000.^[6][7] At some point she later obtained her General Educational Development (GED).^[8]

Career[link]

Malone progressed to professional acting with the 1996 film Bastard Out of Carolina.^[9] She was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance^[10] and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance in a TV Movie or Miniseries for her role in the film, Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright. From there, her roles have grown to include several Hollywood features. In 1997, she was nominated for a Golden Globe, Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie, for her role in Hope.

After working on various TV projects, and as a supporting actress in films such as Contact and Stepmom, Malone had her first cinematic leading role in the 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko as Gretchen Ross, the new girl in town who becomes the girlfriend of Jake Gyllenhaal's title character.

Malone co-produced the 2002 film American Girl, a drama in which she also acted. In the 2004 film Saved!, she got top billing in her first role as the primary star. In 2005, she played the spoiled fifth Bennet daughter Lydia in the film Pride and Prejudice. In 2006, she made her professional stage debut in the Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning play Doubt.

In 2007, it was announced that Malone was releasing her first single on The Social Registry, a New York City experimental music label. A number of tracks were posted to her MySpace page.^[11] Pitchfork Media has described Malone's music as "pretty out-there – bedroom electronics, spaced-out keyboards, and Malone's spare vocals."^[12] Malone's more recent musical work is performed as/with The Shoe.^[13]

Malone appeared in the horror film The Ruins, which was released on April 4, 2008 and co-starred Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, and Jonathan Tucker. She played Lavinia in an off-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's play Mourning Becomes Electra in 2009.

Malone is to portray Carson McCullers in the film Lonely Hunter, directed by Deborah Kampmeir.^[14]

Filmography[link]

Jena Malone, performing with "The Shoe", downstairs at Union Hall, January 13, 2008

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• The Doomed Planet

References[link]