Terra Nova Blogs: Kat Dennings

Katherine Litwack (born June 13, 1986), better known by the stage name Kat Dennings, is an American actress. Emerging with a role in an episode of the HBO dramedy series Sex and the City, Dennings has since appeared in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma's House 2, Charlie Bartlett, Raise Your Voice, The House Bunny, Defendor and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Dennings was born and raised in the Bryn Mawr area near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Ellen Judith Litwack, is a poet and speech therapist, and her father, Gerald J. Litwack, is a molecular pharmacologist and the chair of the Basic Sciences department of The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Dennings is the youngest of five children, including an older brother, Geoffrey S. Litwack. Her family is Jewish. Dennings was home schooled; her only enrollment at a traditional school was for a half-day at Friends' Central School. She graduated from high school early, at the age of 14. She moved with her family to Los Angeles, California around 2002 so that she could act full time. She adopted the name Dennings as her professional name when she was younger. According to Dennings, as stated in Interview magazine in 2007, her parents initially considered her idea of pursuing an acting career to be "the worst idea ever".

Dennings began her career in commercials as a child; her first acting job was an ad for potato chips. She broke into television with an appearance on HBO's Sex and the City in 2000. She played a 13-year-old who hires Samantha to handle publicity for her bat mitzvah in "Hot Child in the City". Dennings then starred on the short-lived series Raising Dad from 2001–2002 as Sarah, a 15-year-old raised by her widowed father (Bob Saget), with a pre-teen sister (Brie Larson). In 2002, Dennings played a teenager that stumbles into a group of ghosts on The Scream Team, a Disney Channel movie, and was cast for a 5 episode run on The WB's Everwood. Her role on Everwood was recast however, going to Nora Zehetner. Dennings continued working in television, guest-starring on Without a Trace, as a teen whose boyfriend goes missing, and on Less Than Perfect, in 2003. She was cast in a pilot for CBS, "Sudbury", about a family of modern-day witches, based on the 1998 film Practical Magic, but the series wasn't picked up. Dennings had a recurring role on ER from 2005-2006 as Zoe Butler, and guest-starred on CSI: NY as Sarah Endecott, in the episode "Manhattan Manhunt", in 2005.

Video from Kat Dennings

Dennings made her feature film debut in Hilary Duff's Raise Your Voice in 2004, as Sloane, a somber piano student. In 2005, she landed supporting roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, as Catherine Keener's daughter, and in Down in the Valley. She played a rebellious teenager in Big Momma's House 2, starring Martin Lawrence, in 2006. Dennings starred in Charlie Bartlett in 2008, the story of a wealthy teenager (Anton Yelchin), who acts as a psychiatrist for his new public high school. She played Susan Gardner, Bartlett's love interest, and the daughter of the school's principal (Robert Downey, Jr.). Dennings appeared in The House Bunny that year, as a Mona, a pierced feminist sorority girl. She also starred in the teen romance, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, with Michael Cera. Dennings played Norah Silverberg, the daughter of a famous record producer, and was nominated for the International Press Academy's Satellite Award for Best Actress for the performance. In September 2008, Dennings hoped to make Don DeLillo's novel, End Zone into a film. Actors Sam Rockwell and Josh Hartnett were involved, but the project was not greenlit because of its controversial subject matter of nuclear war. In 2009, Dennings appeared in The Answer Man, a story about a celebrity author whose manifestos become a sort of new Bible. She also co-starred in the Robert Rodriguez-directed dark children's film, Shorts, that year. She played the protagonist Toe (Jimmy Bennett)'s teenage older sister, Stacey Thompson. Dennings and other rising stars were featured in the August 2009 issue of Vanity Fair, re-enacting scenes from famous Depression-era films, hers being Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Dennings was cast in the romantic comedy Liars (A to E) in 2009. The Richard Linklater-directed project was cancelled however, due to cut backs at Miramax Films by the studio's parent company, Disney.

Dennings appeared in the superhero film Defendor in 2010, starring Woody Harrelson and Sandra Oh, playing a crack-addicted prostitute. She started shooting Daydream Nation in Vancouver in early 2010, written and directed by Michael Golbach. She stars in the independent feature as a girl caught in a love triangle with her high school teacher (Josh Lucas) and a teenage drug dealer (Reece Thompson), after moving to a strange rural town. Dennings joined the cast of the Marvel Studios film Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, which went into production in January 2010. She plays Darcy, who works with Natalie Portman's character, Jane Foster. As of April 2010, Dennings was filming for 6 weeks in New Mexico. Dennings appeared in a music video for "40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)", a single by Austin, Texas-based musician Bob Schneider in May 2010. Robert Rodriguez directed the video, filmed in various locations around Austin. She will star in the drama Lives of the Saints, alongside Meg Ryan, 50 Cent, John Lithgow and Joe Anderson. Written and directed by Chris Rossi, the film will begin shooting in Los Angeles in November 2010.