Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress who is famous for the role she played as Bella Swan, star of the Twilight film. Born on April 9, 1990, Kristen Stewart was raised in Los Angeles, California by her stage manager and television producer father, John Stewart, and her script supervisor mother, Jules-Mann Stewart. At the age of eight, Stewart began acting and left school in the seventh grade. This was after she caught the eye of an agent who was impressed after seeing her perform in a Christmas play at her elementary school. She nevertheless managed to complete her high school education as she continued school via correspondence. Aside from the film Twilight, other films in which she has featured include The Messengers, In the Land of Women, Adventureland, Panic room and Zathura.
In the film The Thirteenth Year, Kristen Stewart landed her first acting role, albeit a nonspeaking role. She thereafter appeared as the ring toss girl in the film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. Her next role involved playing a tomboy daughter of a troubled single mother in the independent film The Safety of Objects. Stewart then teamed up with Jodie Foster to play her diabetic daughter in Panic Room. After her impressive performance in this film, she landed a role in Cold Creek Manor where she played daughter to Sharon Stone and Denis Quaid. Her first starring role came in the film Catch That Kid, where she starred alongside Max Thieriot and Corbin Bleu. Undertow was Kristen Stewart's next film, in which she played Lila.
Kristen Stewart's first critically acclaimed role came in the 2004 TV film Speak, which was based on a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. Here, Stewart was praised for her performance despite only having a few speaking lines. Thereafter, Stewart played Lisa in the 2005 film Zathura. The year after, Stewart appeared as Maya in Fierce People, which was followed by The Messengers in which she played Jess Solomon. In 2007, Stewart played Lucy Hardwicke in the film In The Land of Women, opposite Meg Ryan and Adam Brody. Her next role came later that year when she took on the part of Tracy, a teen musician with a crush on Christopher McCandless in the critically acclaimed movie Into The Wild. The reviews for her performance were positive and she thereafter went on to have a cameo role in Jumper. She also appeared in What Just Happened and The Cake Eaters. Stewart also featured in the 2009 film The Yellow Handkerchief.
For her part in the Twilight movie, Kristen Stewart was awarded the MTV Best Female Performance award for her role as Bella Swan. She also received the Rising Star Award at the 2010 BAFTAs. Kristen Stewart landed the role of Bella Swan after captivating director Catherin Hardwicke who had gone to see her for an informal screen test, while she was on the set of Adventureland.
