For some actors a career in film seems to be in the cards from the very beginning; such was the case with early bloomer AnnaSophia Robb. The only child of an architect and an interior designer, Robb knew from the age of five that she was destined for a career as an entertainer. A Denver, CO native who never wavered in her determination to succeed, Robb convinced her parents to let her take an acting class before setting out on her first round of L.A. auditions in 2003. It was during this time that her new manager and agent team would help young Robb successfully navigate the Hollywood audition scene, her family living in a modest guest house as her father worked and her mother took Robb to auditions during the daytime hours. By the end of the summer, Robb had attended no less than 42 auditions and had landed her first role as a Bratz-loving Happy Meal fan in a McDonald's commercial.
Due to the success of her first voyage west, it didn't take much to encourage Robb to come back to Hollywood in the spring, and after receiving notice that auditions were being held for Wayne Wang's Because of Winn-Dixie, it was time to gas up the car for the long haul once again. Fate seemed to play a curious role during the trip when her father pulled out a stack of librarian-recommended books on tape that he had rented only to find the recorded version of the best-selling Kate DiCamillo novel sitting right on top, and before long Robb was preparing to help bring Dixie to the big screen. Having previously played the lead in the made-for-television movie Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, it didn't take Robb long to find her place in front the camera, and she frequently credits Dixie director Wang with providing the advice she needed to advance as an actress. A subsequent role as bubblegum-chomping brat Violet Beauregarde in the Tim Burton film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory allowed the young actress to cut loose and have a bit of fun on film, and in 2006 Robb could be seen fending off the forces of evil in the apocalyptic horror thriller The Reaping.
She had a major part opposite Josh Hutcherson in the 2007 adaptation of Bridge to Terabithia. The next year she had a small part in Jumper, and the year after that she would star opposite The Rock in the remake of Race to Witch Mountain. In 2011 she had the lead in the inspirational surfing film Soul Surfer, playing a girl whose arm was bitten off by a shark. In 2013, she won the starring role in the CW's The Carrie Diaries, playing a young version of Carrie Bradshaw (a role first embodied by Sarah Jessica Parker on the HBO series Sex and the City).
