Jena Malone Movies and Career Information

Jena Malone (born November 21, 1984) is an American actress and musician. Her film work has been mainly in independent films, and she has acted in theater. She made her cinema debut with the movie Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), and has appeared in films including Contact (1997), Stepmom (1998), Donnie Darko (2001), Saved! (2004), and Into the Wild (2007). Malone was born in Sparks, Nevada, and had lived in 27 locations by the age of nine, including Lake Tahoe, California. Malone was raised by her mother, Deborah, and her mother's girlfriend, whom she calls "Godmom." She began taking an interest in acting after watching her mother, who was involved in community theatre. She briefly moved to Las Vegas, hated it, and persuaded her mother to move on to Los Angeles. She completed high school early by taking the GED. Malone progressed to professional acting with the 1996 film Bastard Out of Carolina. She was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance in a TV Movie or Miniseries for this role. From there, her roles have grown to include several Hollywood features. In 1997, she was nominated for a