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Biography

Born in her father's Datsun on the Santa Monica freeway, Dominique Adrian Swain was born on August 12, 1980. She grew up in Malibu with her parents and four siblings, living a modest lifestyle and enduring the usual teenage humiliations of crooked teeth and catty classmates at Malibu High School. Swain excelled at learning, earning straight A's and becoming Valedictorian like her sister before her. Then, in her sophomore year, Swain's life took a famous turn. Dominique Swain had already officially launched her Hollywood career as a stunt double; she appeared under the ice as Macaulay Culkin's younger sister in Joseph Ruben's The Good Son (1993), then almost nabbed the role of "Claudia" in Interview with the Vampire (1994). Her interest in acting led to a role as a stunt double in The Good Son and an audition for the lead in Lolita; the fledgling actress was eventually chosen for the part by director Lyne over 2,500 hopefuls. Following her work in the 1997 film, Swain appeared as the rebellious daughter of John Travolta and Joan Allen in John Woo's Face/Off later that same year, and then starred as the eponymous heroine of Girl (1998), a coming-of-age drama about a spoiled high school student trying to make sense of sex.

Swain's growing popularity was more than adequately demonstrated in 2000, when she was involved in no less than eight screen projects. Included amongst them were The Smokers, in which the actress played one of a trio of teens who want revenge on their boyfriends, and Intern, which cast her in the title role of an intern who becomes the head of a fashion magazine.