Dakota Blue Richards
Dakota Blue Richards, who was born in London in April 1994 after her parents split up, beat 10,000 girls to play Lyra Belacqua in The Golden Compass.
Dakota's Sussex school friends call her Dee or Dee-Dee.
Before becoming Dakota's manager, Dakota's mother Mickey ran a drug-treatment centre in Sussex.
Dakota Blue Richards told The Guardian that she got her name because her mother wanted a place name that had not been used before.
Dakota added a bit more light to the Blue part of her name in an interview with The Telegraph:
"I've not seen my dad for about six years, so I'm not sure what he makes of all this. His nickname was 'Blue', which is why I have that as part of my name."
Dakota's mother's friend was watching Newsround and heard that The Golden Compass was being made, and this led to Dakota, her mother and grandmother going to the casting call in Cambridge for the role of Lyra.
Fate took a hand in Dakota Blue Richards getting Lyra's part. Dakota explained about the audition:
"My mum said we wouldn't go if the weather was bad, so it was lucky it wasn't raining!"
The Golden Compass, which also stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, is not Dakota Blue Richards's only film. In August 2007 she began shooting The Moon Princess.
Although, Dakota hopes that the team will make the second book of Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife, into a film so she can play Lyra again, nevertheless in her interviews around the launch of The Golden Compass, she stated that she would rather be a supply teacher than an actress in the long run.
