Jena Malone is an American actress and musician. Malone spent her early life in Sparks, Nevada, and in Las Vegas, while her mother acted in local theater productions. Inspired to become an actress herself, Malone convinced her mother to relocate to Los Angeles. After a series of auditions, Malone was cast in the television film Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), for which she received Independent Spirit and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and the television film Hope (1997), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination. She next appeared in the feature films Contact (1997) and Stepmom (1998), winning a Saturn Award for the former.