Tina Majorino

This talented tot actor smoothly segued from neighborhood plays to national TV commercials to a TV sitcom ("Camp Wilder," ABC 1992-93) to big screen exposure, Majorino made her stage debut at three-and-a-half and soon began taking dance and voice classes as well. 1994 would be prove to be a breakthrough year. Her feature acting debut was in "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994), playing the elder daughter of Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia in a family shaken to its foundations by alcoholism. Majorino received excellent notices for her portrayal of a little girl forced by family chaos to grow wise beyond her years.

She was also showcased in two other family-oriented films released later that year--"Corrina, Corrina" and "Andre." In the former, Majorino played a seven-year-old girl traumatized into silence after the death of her mother. In the latter, she appeared as an exuberant nine-year-old tomboy who befriends a most unusual seal. In "Waterworld" (1995), she played Enola, a young girl on whose back is a tattoo that may or may not indicate "Dryland." She and her adopted mother (Jeanne Tripplehorn) turn to the Mariner (Kevin Costner) for assistance. Majorino went on to offer an effective turn as a sensitive young girl coping with abuse and the alcoholism of her mother (Ellen Barkin) in the acclaimed ABC movie "Before Women Had Wings" (1997) before headlining the 1999 all-star NBC remake of "Alice in Wonderland." Maturing into her late teens, Majorino turned in an impressive performance--especially in consideration of her taciturn character's lack of much revealing dialogue--as the is-she-or-isn't-she? love interest of an oddball teen in the cult indie hit "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004).