Ten thousand girls turned up for open auditions in Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and Kendal for the role of Lyra Belacqua in the adaptation of 'His Dark Materials: Northern Lights'.
In June 2006, twelve-year-old Dakota, a Londoner schoolgirl, was awarded the part after the casting directors' took a shine to her in the Cambridge auditions.
Her mother is an American anthropologist.
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