Dominique Swain was born Dominique Ariane Swain on August 12, 1980 and raised in Malibu, California, USA. The second of three daughters of mother Cindy and father David an electrical engineer, her sisters makeup artist Alexis and actress Chelse. She debuted her film career in the controversial remake of Vladimir Nabokov's novel and Stanley Kubrick's film Lolita by director Adrian Lyne. It was a powerful first performance by the young actress, Lyne had seen her performance on a videotape audition she put together with a friend while she was between agents, selecting her from a pool of more than 2500 actresses vying for the role. Lyne was charmed by her and her reading directly from the novel as opposed to the script. Upon getting the role, Rosalinda, a long time imaginary friend, was the first to get the news from Dominique. Rosalinda gave Dominique the 'Okay' to do the film. Despite a phenomenal performance opposite Jeremy Irons as Humbert and Melanie Griffith as Lolita's mother, the film faced a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter as networks pulled away from backing wide theatrical release. After some delays, it was eventually premiered to US audiences on the Showtime network followed by a limited theatrical release. Since then she has gone on to act and star in close to 50 other films, including Face/Off, Girl and Alpha Dog. Recently she has also ventured into writing, co-writing the animated feature Magik with Stephen Wallis.