Kat Dennings - Career

Career

Dennings began her career in commercials at the age of 10. Her first acting job was an ad for potato chips. Dennings made her professional debut with an appearance on HBO's Sex and the City in 2000, in the episode "Hot Child in the City", playing an obnoxious 13-year-old who hires Samantha to handle publicity for her bat mitzvah. She then starred on the short-lived series Raising Dad from 2001–2002, as Sarah, a 15-year-old raised by her widowed father (Bob Saget), with a pre-teen sister (Brie Larson). In 2002, Dennings appeared in The Scream Team, a Disney Channel movie, as a teenager who stumbles into a group of ghosts. She was cast for a five episode run on The WB's Everwood, but the role was recast with Nora Zehetner.

Dennings continued working in television, guest-starring on Without a Trace, as a teen whose boyfriend goes missing, and on Less Than Perfect, in 2003. She was cast in a pilot for CBS, "Sudbury", about a family of modern-day witches, based on the 1998 film Practical Magic, but the series wasn't picked up. Dennings had a recurring role on ER from 2005–2006 as Zoe Butler, and guest-starred on CSI: NY as Sarah Endecott, in the episode "Manhattan Manhunt", in 2005.

Dennings made her feature film debut in Hilary Duff's Raise Your Voice in 2004, as Sloane, a somber piano student. In 2005, she landed supporting roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, as Catherine Keener's daughter, and in Down in the Valley. She played a rebellious teenager in Big Momma's House 2, starring Martin Lawrence, in 2006.

Dennings starred in Charlie Bartlett in 2008, the story of a wealthy teenager (Anton Yelchin), who acts as a psychiatrist for his new public high school. She played Susan Gardner, Bartlett's love interest, and the daughter of the school's principal (Robert Downey, Jr.). Dennings appeared in The House Bunny that year, as Mona, a pierced feminist sorority girl. She also starred in the teen romance, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, with Michael Cera. Dennings played Norah Silverberg, the daughter of a famous record producer, and was nominated for the International Press Academy's Satellite Award for Best Actress for the performance. In September 2008, Dennings hoped to make Don DeLillo's novel, End Zone into a film. Actors Sam Rockwell and Josh Hartnett were involved, but the project was not greenlit because of its controversial subject matter of nuclear war.

In 2009, Dennings appeared in The Answer Man, a story about a celebrity author whose manifestos become a sort of new Bible. She also co-starred in the Robert Rodriguez-directed dark children's film, Shorts, that year. She played the protagonist Toe (Jimmy Bennett)'s teenage older sister, Stacey Thompson. Dennings and other rising stars were featured in the August 2009 issue of Vanity Fair, re-enacting scenes from famous Depression-era films, hers being Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Dennings was cast in the romantic comedy Liars (A to E) in 2009. The Richard Linklater-directed project was cancelled however, due to cut backs at Miramax Films by the studio's parent company, Disney.

Dennings appeared in the superhero film Defendor in 2010, starring Woody Harrelson and Sandra Oh, playing a crack-addicted prostitute. She next starred in the independent feature Daydream Nation as a girl who moves to a strange rural town, and is caught in a love triangle with her high school teacher (Josh Lucas) and a teenage drug dealer (Reece Thompson). The film began shooting in Vancouver in early 2010, and was written and directed by Michael Golbach. In May 2010, Dennings appeared in a music video for "40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)", a single by Austin, Texas-based musician Bob Schneider. Robert Rodriguez directed the video, filmed in various locations around Austin.

Dennings was part of the cast of the Marvel Studios film Thor, released in May 2011, and directed by Kenneth Branagh. She played Darcy Lewis, a tech-savvy, shy sidekick and assistant to Natalie Portman's character, Jane Foster. The film went into production in January 2010; Dennings shot in New Mexico for 6 weeks in early 2010.

Dennings stars in 2 Broke Girls, a CBS television sitcom written and produced by Michael Patrick King and comedian Whitney Cummings. The comedy follows the lives of two under-employed girls. Beth Behrs co-stars as a Manhattan heiress who lost her inheritance, while Dennings plays a tough outspoken girl from Brooklyn. Dennings liked the idea of reaching a wider audience with her work, so she accepted the role on the network sitcom.

Dennings will star in the drama Lives of the Saints, alongside Meg Ryan, 50 Cent, John Lithgow, and Joe Anderson. Written and directed by Chris Rossi, the film was scheduled to begin shooting in Los Angeles in November 2010. She will also star in Renee, with Chad Michael Murray and Rupert Friend. Dennings plays Renee Yohe, a Florida teenager who struggled with substance abuse and self-injury, and inspired the founding of the nonprofit organization To Write Love on Her Arms. The film began production in Orlando, Florida in February 2011.

In August 2012, it was reported that Dennings would reprise her role as Darcy Lewis in Thor: The Dark World.