Kirsten Dunst (born 30 April 1982; age 42) is the actress who played Hedril and an illusory Kestra Troi in the Star Trek: The Next Generation seventh season episode "Dark Page".
Early life[]
Dunst was born in Point Pleasant located along coastal Ocean County, New Jersey, USA. At the age of three, she began appearing in television commercials as a child fashion model. She attended the Ranney School in northern neighboring Monmouth County.
She was raised in New Jersey until 1991, when she moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother and younger brother. Her parents divorced in 1995, after which Dunst began attending Notre Dame High School. Upon graduating from Notre Dame, she continued the acting career she began when she was eight.
Acting career[]
1989 – 1994[]
Dunst made her acting debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen which was part of the 1989 anthology New York Stories. Her first credited film role came a year later in The Bonfire of the Vanities, starring Tom Hanks, with Kim Cattrall. F. Murray Abraham, John Hancock, Richard Libertini, Terry Farrell and Saul Rubinek.
Dunst subsequently appeared in High Strung (1991, with Denise Crosby) and Greedy (1994, with Ed Begley, Jr. and Olivia d'Abo) and the 1993 TV movie Darkness Before Dawn, in which she played Gwynyth Walsh's character as a child. She also had a recurring role on NBC's Sisters, with Ashley Judd and Dan Gauthier.
Her breakthrough performance came at the age of 12, when she played Claudia in the 1994 horror film Interview with the Vampire. Dunst received several accolades for her performance in this film, including a Golden Globe nomination and a Saturn Award. Interview with the Vampire was written by Anne Rice and also starred Christian Slater. Later in 1994, Dunst was seen in the drama Little Women, in which she and Winona Ryder played two of the four March sisters. Dunst's fellow Next Generation guest performer John Neville also appeared in the film.
1995 – 2001[]
In 1995, Dunst starred opposite Robin Williams in Jumanji. Star Trek: Voyager guest actor Bradley Pierce played Dunst's brother in the film, while The Next Generation guest actress Bebe Neuwirth played their aunt. In 1996, Dunst appeared in the TV movie The Siege at Ruby Ridge, which also featured Bob Gunton, Gary Graham, Hal Landon, Jr. and Joel Swetow. That same year, she appeared in Mother Night, along with Zach Grenier. Dunst also played the recurring role of Charlie Chiemingo, a child prostitute, during the third season of ER (1996-97).
Dunst appeared in several films released in 1997, including True Heart (with Dey Young) and Wag the Dog (with Andrea Martin and Suzie Plakson). She also had a voice-over role in Anastasia (1997), in which she played the title character as a child. Kelsey Grammer, Glenn Harris, Christopher Lloyd, and Andrea Martin also supplied voices in this film. Dunst and Christopher Lloyd later supplied voices for the 1998 direct-to-video movie, The Animated Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
In 1998, Dunst starred in Fifteen and Pregnant (with David Andrews) and Small Soldiers (with Wendy Schaal, Ann Magnuson, Gregory Itzin, Dick Miller, and Voyager star Robert Picardo and the voices of Frank Langella and Michael McKean). In 1999, Dunst starred in The Devil's Arithmetic with Louise Fletcher. That same year, she was seen in The Virgin Suicides, Drop Dead Gorgeous (with Kirstie Alley, Matt Malloy, and Patti Yasutake), and Dick (with Terri Garr and Saul Rubinek).
In 2000, Dunst starred in Bring It On, with Gabrielle Union and Holmes R. Osborne). Dunst later starred in Get Over It (2001, with Ed Begley, Jr., and Zoë Saldana), Crazy/Beautiful (2001, with Bruce Davison), and The Cat's Meow (2001).
2002 – present[]
Dunst's best-known screen role is that of Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man (2002, with Tim de Zarn and Jill Sayre, Spider-Man 2 (2004, with Donna Murphy, Daniel Dae Kim, Rachelle Roderick, Jill Sayre, Zachry Rogers, and Ella Rogers) and Spider-Man 3 (2007, with James Cromwell).
In addition to the Spider-Man films, Dunst has starred in such films as Mona Lisa Smile (2003), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and Elizabethtown (2005, with Bruce McGill). She later starred in Marie Antoinette (2006, featuring Tom Hardy). She was also seen in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2005, co-starring Simon Pegg), All Good Things (2010, with Frank Langella and Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Melancholia (2011), Bachelorette (2012, with Adam Scott), On the Road (2012, with Joe Chrest), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013, with June Diane Raphael), Midnight Special (2016), Hidden Figures (2016, with Aldis Hodge), and The Beguiled (2017, with Wayne Péré).
In 2015, Dunst co-starred in the second season of the Hulu original crime drama series Fargo. Her most recents credits are the western drama film The Power of the Dog (2021) and the dystopic thriller Civil War (2024).
In 2011, in keeping with her heritage, Dunst became a naturalized citizen of Germany enjoying dual citizenship of the Teutonic nation as well as her birth citizenship of the United States. Politically Dunst is a liberal and a registered New Jersey Democrat who endorsed both presidential campaigns of Barack Obama.