Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut in the anthology film New York Stories (1989) and has since starred in many film and television productions. Dunst has been praised for her nuanced performances playing widely different characters across multiple genres, working with auteur filmmakers in both blockbuster and art house fare.

She first gained recognition for her role as the child vampire Claudia in the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Other roles in her youth include Little Women (1994), Jumanji (1995) and Small Soldiers (1998). Dunst moved into leading roles in teen films of 1999: the satires Dick and Drop Dead Gorgeous, as well as the drama The Virgin Suicides, the first of her several collaborations with filmmaker Sofia Coppola. After starring in the comedy film Bring It On (2000), she gained wider attention for her role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). She played supporting roles in Mona Lisa Smile (2003) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), followed by lead roles in Wimbledon (2004), Elizabethtown (2005), and Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006).

In 2011, Dunst starred as a depressed newlywed in Lars von Trier's drama Melancholia, which earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award For Best Actress, and in 2015, for her performance of Peggy Blumquist in the second season of the FX series Fargo, she earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She continued portraying supporting parts in Hidden Figures (2016), Coppola's The Beguiled (2017), and Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog (2021), the latter earning her a fourth Golden Globe nomination and her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in the dystopian thriller film Civil War (2024). Dunst is married to actor Jesse Plemons and they have two sons.