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Biography

Mischa Anne Barton was born in London, England, on January 24th, 1986, to an English father and Irish mother. By the time she was 4 years old, the family moved to New York City, where her father continued to work in the world of finance. This allowed Mischa to have a privileged upbringing, which consisted of traveling across the globe and sampling the best things in life. She grew up with American values that often made her clash with her parents; they hadn't yet adjusted to the culture shock. Nevertheless, the Bartons were always a tight family.

At the age of 8, Mischa and one of her two sisters were sent to summer camp. One of the activities involved the children writing their own monologues and performing them for their parents. Mischa wrote a piece about turtles and her delivery was so impressive that an agent who was scouting for talent told her parents they had a star on their hands. While she was building a career on the stage and as a model for the likes of Calvin Klein, Barton was also beginning to accumulate a number of screen credits. After doing a year-long stint on the popular soap opera All My Children, she had her first publicized screen role in the little-seen New York Crossing (1996), in which she starred as an Upper East Side schoolgirl opposite Tina Majorino and Karen Black.

The film was released in 1997, the same year that Lawn Dogs came out to fairly strong reviews that resulted in the first shades of publicity for Barton. A starring role as a 13-year-old who holds up a bank alongside her boyfriend followed in 1999, in the independent drama Pups; unfortunately, the film was released only two days before the tragic killing spree at Columbine High School, and unsurprisingly, failed to earn much in the way of distribution. That same year, Barton appeared in supporting roles in both Notting Hill and M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, the latter of which cast her as the ghost of a sickly girl.

Barton's increasing recognition was subsequently reflected by her involvement in a number of screen projects. Included amongst them was Skipped Parts (2000), a coming-of-age comedy which cast her as a sexually precocious 14-year-old who is in a hurry to lose her virginity. The film also starred Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brad Renfro, and Drew Barrymore.