Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American actress.

 Biography

Conceived in Dallas, Texas (the reason for her middle name), Bryce Howard was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Hollywood actor/director Ron Howard and writer Cheryl Alley. Her paternal grandfather is actor Rance Howard and her uncle is actor Clint Howard. She grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut where she attended The Greenwich Country Day School (Class of 1996) and Byram Hills High School, Armonk, New York (Class of 1999).

Howard studied at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and the Stella Adler Conservatory. She graduated with her BFA in drama in 2003. She appeared in several of her father's films as an extra before her feature film debut performance in director Alan Brown's 2003 drama, Book of Love.

She appeared in numerous productions on the New York stage, but her breakthrough role came in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Howard collaborated again with Shyamalan in the 2006 release Lady in the Water. She has recently completed filming the third installment of the Spider-Man film series with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. She portrays Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy and bleached her naturally red hair blonde for the role, while the naturally blonde Dunst's hair is dyed red for the role of Mary Jane. She is currently writing a short film which she will also direct.

 Personal life

In June 2006, she married actor Seth Gabel, whom she met at New York University and had dated for five years. They are presently expecting their first child together . She has been close friends with fellow actress Natalie Portman since childhood.

Until recently, Howard had been a devoted vegan since Joaquin Phoenix, her co-star from The Village, showed her a documentary on animal cruelty called Earthlings, for which he had provided the narration at the request of PETA . However, in August 2006, Howard announced that she had switched her diet from vegan to vegetarian in order to help her boost her amino acid levels in preparation for her pregnancy .

 Filmography