Isabelle Fuhrman

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE · August 16, 2010

Isabelle Fuhrman (born February 25, 1997) is an American teen actress. Fuhrman is best known for playing Esther in Orphan.

Life and careerIsabelle Fuhrman was born in Washington, D.C.. and raised in Atlanta. Her Soviet-born mother, Elina Fuhrman, is a journalist, and her father, Nick Fuhrman, was at one time the chairman of the Republican Party in Dane County, Wisconsin.^[1] She has an older sister, Madeline Fuhrman.

Fuhrman's acting career began at the age of seven, when a casting director from Cartoon Network spotted her waiting for her sister and cast her for one of the shows, “Cartoon Fridays.” Fuhrman made her big screen debut just a few years later in the 2007 drama Hounddog. The same year, Fuhrman was chosen to star in the movie Orphan alongside Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard. Fuhrman was cast through an exhaustive nationwide search of young actresses to portray the lead in the Warner Bros. collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment. It was DiCaprio who discovered Fuhrman through an audition tape and decided he wouldn't make Orphan without her. Fuhrman's performance, as eccentric Esther, earned her rave reviews from movie critics in the U.S. and around the world. Her performance was hailed as “awards-worthy” and “one of the most momentous examples of acting from a child performer in years.”

Fuhrman's other credits include the role of Gretchen Dennis (aka Girl Ghost) opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt on the hit TV show Ghost Whisperer, Grace O'Neil in the pilot episode of the 2006 television series Justice, and a number of national commercials like Pizza Hut and K-Mart. Her performance as Gretchen Dennis in Ghost Whisperer earned her a Young Artist Award nomination.^[2] Fuhrman also appeared in comedy skits on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and she is known to have provided character voices for Cartoon Network's "Cartoon Fridays".

Fuhrman has been cast in the lead role of Angie Vanderveer in the upcoming comedy thriller Salvation Boulevard, based on the novel by Larry Beinhart. Fuhrman is part of an all-star ensemble cast which includes Pierce Brosnan, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris. The film is slated for release in 2011.

Her next project is the starring role of Sara Crewe in the modern remake of the classic novel, A Little Princess.^[^{citation needed}^]

Fuhrman's other upcoming releases include Ben Stassen's 3D animated feature Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage where she plays the voice of Hatchling Shelly, a young turtle who loses track of her friend Sammy who travels the world for 50 years as it is changed by global warming.^[^{citation needed}^]

Filmography

YearFilmRoleStatus2006 JusticeGrace O'NeilTV2007 HounddogGrasshopper2008 Ghost WhispererGretchen DennisTV2009 OrphanEstherChildren of the Corn(voice)2010Sammy's Adventures: The Secret PassageHatchling Shelly (voice)post-production2011Pleading GuiltyCarrieTV2011Salvation BoulevardAngiefilming