Alison Lohman Biography

Alison Marion Lohman (born September 18, 1979) is an American actress. She has had lead roles in the films White Oleander, Where the Truth Lies, The Big White, Matchstick Men, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Flicka and Drag Me to Hell as well as smaller parts in Big Fish, Gamer, and Beowulf. She has also been on several television shows including 7th Heaven, Crusade, Tucker, and Pasadena.

Early life

Lohman was born and raised in Palm Springs, California, the daughter of Diane (née Dunham), a patisserie owner, and Gary Lohman, a Minnesota-born architect. She has one younger brother, Robert (born 1982). She has two cats, Monk and Clint. In her first school year, Lohman was diagnosed with combined type attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and put on medicine for it, which she still uses as an adult. Afterwards, she had straights A's in all her school subjects, except in drama, because she was too shy. At age nine, she played Gretyl in The Sound of Music at the Palm Desert's McCallum Theater. Two years later, she won the Desert Theater League's award for "Most Outstanding Actress in a Musical" for the title role in Annie. By the age of 17, Lohman had appeared in 12 different major productions and had been a backing singer for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and the Desert Symphony.

As a senior, she was an awardee of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and was offered the chance to attend the Tisch School of the Arts, but declined.

Career

In 1997, after graduating from high school, Lohman moved to Los Angeles to pursue a screen acting career. For the next few years, her work consisted of science fiction B-movies (such as Kraa! The Sea Monster and Planet Patrol), television productions (including the made-for-TV movie Sharing the Secret) and children's films (such as Delivering Milo and The Million Dollar Kid). Also included was the dark urban drama White Boy.

Lohman starred in White Oleander, an adaptation of Janet Fitch's novel, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright Penn and Renée Zellweger and directed by Peter Kosminsky. Though the film was unsuccessful at the box office (it opened to $5.6 million in 1,510 theaters), it received generous reviews and Lohman's performance met with wide critical acclaim, being described as her "breakthrough role" by media sources.

The following year, she appeared in Matchstick Men, directed by Ridley Scott. She starred with Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell, and though it was not a box office success either, Lohman continued to receive critical praise. Later that year, she appeared in Tim Burton's Big Fish, which continued her trend of appearing in acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful films.

In 2005, she appeared in Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies. The film originally received an NC-17 rating for its graphic sexual content, and failed at the box office afterwards. Some critics (such as Roger Ebert) felt that she was well-suited for the role. Her next feature, The Big White, featured her alongside actors Robin Williams, Holly Hunter and Tim Blake Nelson, but nevertheless went direct-to-video. In the same year, Lohman voiced the title character in the English language re-dubbing of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Lohman's next film was the drama Flicka, which was released on October 20, 2006. At the age of 25, Lohman played a 16-year-old girl who befriends a wild mustang in the film. Lohman had never ridden a horse prior to filming and trained rigorously for a month. She said that she was "constantly thrown emotionally and physically" while working with the horses for this role. Flicka went on to become a surprise hit in the DVD market.

She then played a recovering heroin addict in Things We Lost in the Fire.

The actress was then signed to replace Ellen Page in Sam Raimi's critically acclaimed horror film, Drag Me to Hell, which was released on May 29, 2009.

Lohman, who is frequently cast as a teenager, has said that she believes she "look[s] younger and act[s] younger" than her age.

Personal life

Lohman married filmmaker Mark Neveldine in Watertown, New York on August 19, 2009, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church.

In 2010, she gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy, Billy Neveldine in Bucharest, Romania, one of the settings of Neveldine's 2012 film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. News of the child's birth, which appears to be the reasoning behind her acting absence, was not revealed until August 2011.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Kraa! The Sea Monster	Curtis
1999	Planet Patrol	Patrolman Curtis
1999	The Auteur Theory	Teen Rosemary " Elliot's Film
1999	'	Honey Bear Girl
2000	The Million Dollar Kid	Courtney Hunter
2001	Alex in Wonder	Camelia
2001	Delivering Milo	Ms. Madeline
2002	White Oleander	Astrid Magnussen	Won " Hollywood Film Festival Award for Supporting Actress of the Year Won " ShoWest Award for Female Star of Tomorrow Won " Young Hollywood Award for Superstar of Tomorrow Nominated " Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Newcomer
2002	White Boy	Amy
2003	Big Fish	Young Sandra Templeton
2003	Matchstick Men	Angela
2005	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	Nausicaä	Voice, English re-release
2005	The Big White	Tiffany
2005	Where the Truth Lies	Karen O'Connor
2006	Delirious	K'harma Leeds
2006	Flicka	Katy McLaughlin
2007	Beowulf	Ursula
2007	Things We Lost in the Fire	Kelly
2009	Gamer	Trace
2009	Drag Me to Hell	Christine Brown	Nominated "? Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated "? Saturn Award for Best Actress Nominated "? MTV Movie Award for Best Frightened Performance

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Pacific Blue	Molly	Episode: "Seduced"
1998	7th Heaven	Barbara	Episode: "Let's Talk About Sex"
1999	Crusade	Claire	Episode: "The Long Road"
1999	Safe Harbor	Hayley	Episode: "Can't Touch That" Episode: "By Any Means Necessary" Episode: "Life Insurance" Episode: "One for the Road"
2000	Sharing the Secret	Beth Moss	Made for television film
2000"2001	Tucker	McKenna Reid	Series regular
2001"2002	Pasadena	Lily McAllister	Series regular