Despite being just twenty seven years old Christina Ricci has over forty acting roles to her credit.But unlike many of her young colleagues Ricci has successfully made the transition for child star to serious actress.But it is her ability and courage to mix the more big budget movies like Sleepy Hollow with the complex, non mainstream movies that has made her a success.Ricci was discovered at the tender age of eight by a critic of the Bergen Record who saw her perform in a school play.Un 1990 she made her big screen debut in Mermaids alongside Cher and Winona Ryder, as Cher's youngest daughter.Despite success with Mermaids it was her role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, and it's sequel Addams Family Values, that helped establish her as an actress who would take on unconventional, and often dark roles.

Her next two projects Casper and Now and Then, often likened to Stand By Me for girls, did well at theatres with Ricci beginning to become a box office draw.

She underwent a successful transition in the late nineties to begin appearing in more adult roles.

In 1998 she starred in Buffalo '66 with Vincent Gallo.

Gallo portrays Billy Brown, who has just been let out of jail. Before returning home to visit his parents and murder the kicker who missed the field goal that sent him there in the first place (in order to repay a debt that he didn't have the money to extinguish), he kidnaps a bored ballerina (Christina Ricci) and makes her pretend that she is his wife.

Though she doesn't seem to object to the abduction, Billy is emotional, angry, and sensitive. As the trip progresses, including an explosive visit to his childhood home, where his indifferent parents still reside the two continue bicker back and forth, but begin to form a real bond.

She followed this up with black comedy The Opposite of Sex as sixteen year old Deedee who runs away from Louisiana to live with her half-brother Bill, an English teacher who happens to be gay.

Lucia, Bill's sexually-repressed best friend, distrusts her. These suspicions are confirmed when Deedee lures Bill's boyfriend into bed and talks him into stealing $10,000 from Bill and running away with her to Los Angeles.

To make matters worse for Bill, his bitter ex-lover frames him for sexual harassment, causing a scandal in their quiet town.

This forces him and Lucia to go on a wild chase in search of Matt and Deedee in order to clear his name.

They are joined by Sheriff Carl Tippett, a friend, who begins to fall in love with Lucia.

For the role of Deedee Ricci received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy losing out to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love.

She moved onto the more mainstream movie Sleepy Hollow re-uniting her with Johnny Depp, whom she starred with in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Sleepy Hollow, directed by Tim Burton was released to critical acclaim and did well at the box office with Ricci winning a Saturn award for her work.

In 2003 she took on the role of Selby Wall, lover of real life serial killer, and former prostitute, Aileen Wuornos, played by Charlize Theron.

Wuornos meets Selby Wall (Christina Ricci)in a bar, a young woman sent by her parents to live with an aunt in order to cure her homosexuality.

Wuornos victim of a tragic, abusive upbringing quickly falls in love, and clings to Selby like a life preserver.

Unable to find a legitimate job but desperate to sustain her relationship with Selby, Wuornos continues working as a prostitute.

When one of her johns turns violent, Wuornos shoots the man in self-defense; the first in her tragic string of killings.

The film was met well by the majority of critics and Theron went on to win Best Actress at the Oscars, many critics believed that Ricci's performace was also worthy of an Oscar nomination.

More recently Ricci starred in Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake however the film received mixed reviews.

Christina will next star in Penelope with James McAvoy and Reese Withspoon. Ricci plays Penelope who, as a young child, is cursed by a witch with a pig's snout.

And later this summe she returns in the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer, based on the Japenese animated series, alongside Emile Hirsch.

Penelope is released 1st February.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw.

View the gallery.

Tagged in