Evan Rachel Wood was born into a theater family. Her dad, Ira David Wood III, ran Theater in the Park in Evan's hometown of Raleigh, NC. Since her dad played such a major role in the acting community, Evan soon found herself on stage in plays like The Miracle Worker, A Midsummer's Night Dream and A Christmas Carol. When Evan was nine however, her parents divorced and she moved to LA with her mom - leaving her dad and her theater career behind.
In 1998, Wood made her first feature film in Timothy_Hutton's directorial debut Digging to China. In the starring role of Harriet Frankovitz, she played a ten-year-old girl who befriends mentally challenged adult Ricky (Kevin_Bacon). More movie appearances followed in Griffin_Dunne's fantasy Practical_Magic, Joey_Travolta's crime movie Detour, and Andrew_Niccol's sci-fi comedy Simone. Her next leading role was in the family-friendly drama Little_Secrets as teenage concert violinist Emily Lindstrom
Wood made several movies in 2006: the indie drama "Down in the Valley," in which she starred as a rebellious young woman who becomes the object of affection for a deluded man (Edward Norton) who believes himself to be a cowboy. Wood's other projects, which included "Across the Universe," the long-gestating Julie Taymor historical musical based on the Beatles' music, remained in post-production or distribution limbo.
