Nikki Reed

A native of Los Angeles, Nikki Reed became a screenwriter at the age of 13 and a film actress less than a year later. It started when director/writer Catherine Hardwicke began dating Reed’s father, Seth, an art director who has worked on films such as Minority Report and I Heart Huckabees. Hardwicke got to know the young teen and became interested in writing a film based on her life as a rebellious 13-year-old girl. They wrote the first draft in less than a week while Reed was on winter vacation. Hardwicke hurried the film along, hoping to shoot it the next summer while Reed was still the right age to star in it.

The film, entitled Thirteen (2003), went into production when Reed was 14, and she took the co-starring role as Evie rather than playing Tracy, the role based on her own life. Working opposite Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood, Reed won a 2004 Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance, a 2003 Young Hollywood Award as “One to Watch – Female” and shared a Screenwriting Award with Catherine Hardwicke at the Nantucket Film Festival.

Back at school, Reed realized that she missed acting, and returned to work in the unreleased Man of God (2005) before re-teaming with Hardwicke for Lords of Dogtown (2005) starring Heath Ledger. Since then, she has completed the dark comedy Mini’s First Time (2005) with Alec Baldwin and American Gun (2005) with Forest Whitaker.

When not working, Reed attends high school in West Los Angeles and is an accomplished gymnast and equestrian. She also enjoys painting.