Lohman was born and raised in
Palm Springs, California, the daughter of Diane (
née Dunham), a bakery owner, and Gary Lohman, an
architect.
[1] She has one younger brother, Robert (born 1982).
[2] She is a
vegetarian and has two cats, Monk and Clint.
[3][4] Her family had no industry connections, but at age nine, she played Gretyl in
The Sound of Music at the Palm Desert's McCallum Theater. Two years later, she won the Desert Theater League's award for "Most Outstanding Actress in a Musical" for the title role in
Annie. By the age of 17, Lohman had appeared in 12 different major productions and had been a backing singer for the likes of
Frank Sinatra,
Bob Hope and the Desert Symphony.
As a senior, she was an awardee of National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts and was offered the chance to attend the
Tisch School of the Arts, but declined.
In 1997, after graduating from high school, Lohman moved to
Los Angeles, California to pursue her acting career.
[4] For the next few years, her work consisted of
science fiction B-movies (such as
Kraa! The Sea Monster and
Planet Patrol), television productions (including the
made-for-TV movie Sharing the Secret) and children's films (such as
Delivering Milo and
The Million Dollar Kid). Also included was the dark urban drama
White Boy.
Lohman starred in
White Oleander, an adaptation of
Janet Fitch’s novel, alongside
Michelle Pfeiffer,
Robin Wright-Penn and
Renée Zellweger. Though the film was unsuccessful at the
box office (it opened to $5.6 million in 1,510 theaters
[5]), Lohman's performance met with wide critical acclaim and has been described as her "breakthrough role" by media sources.
[4]The following year, she appeared in
Matchstick Men, directed by
Ridley Scott. She starred with
Nicolas Cage and
Sam Rockwell, and though it was not a box office success either, Lohman continued to gain praise. Later that year, she appeared in
Tim Burton’s
Big Fish, which continued her trend of appearing in films of high acclaim, but little success.
She had no theatrical features in 2004, though she did voice the lead character in the re-dubbing of
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In 2005 she appeared in
Atom Egoyan’s
Where the Truth Lies. The film originally received an
NC-17 rating for its graphic sexual content,
[6] and failed at the box office afterwards.
[7] Some critics (such as
Roger Ebert) felt that she was well-suited for the role.
[8] Her next feature,
The Big White, featured her alongside actors including
Robin Williams,
Holly Hunter and
Tim Blake Nelson), but nevertheless went
direct-to-video.
Lohman's next film was the drama
Flicka, which was released on
October 20,
2006. In the film, Lohman plays a 16-year-old girl who befriends a wild
mustang. Lohman had never ridden a horse prior to filming and trained rigorously for a month. She said that she was "constantly thrown emotionally and physically" while working with the horses for this role.
[4] Flicka went on becoming a surprise hit in DVD market.
She next played a recovering
heroin addict in
Things We Lost in the Fire.
The actress has been signed to replace Oscar nominee
Ellen Page in a new
Sam Raimi horror film, "Drag Me to Hell," that was set to begin filming on March 31, 2008.
Lohman, who is frequently cast as a teenager, has said that she believes she "look[s] younger and act[s] younger" than her age.
[4]
