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NIKKI REED:: BIOGRAPHY
Nicole (Nikki) Houston Reed was born in West Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Cheryl Houston, a beautician, and Seth Reed, a set designer. She has an older brother, Nathan. Reed's father is Jewish and her mother is of Cherokee and Italian descent; Reed was raised without religion, though she grew up around Judaism (her brother had a Bar Mitzvah).

Reed has described her home life as "complicated." Her parents divorced when she was two, and she grew up with her mother. She describes herself as having been "shy and a bookworm," but at the age of 12, while attending Palms Middle School, she became rebellious and emotionally volatile. The relationship between Reed and her mother became strained when Reed experimented with drugs, alcohol, and sex. At the age of 14, Reed was emancipated; she then moved out and began living on her own.

Reed turned her troubled adolescence into the screenplay for the 2003 independent film Thirteen. Reed wrote the script with the help of Hollywood production designer Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the film (which starred Reed and Holly Hunter). From there Reed played sexy bad girls in some memorable independent films while making her way through high school. She played Kathy Alva in the Hardwicke-directed Lords of Dogtown (2005) and appeared in Mini's First Time (2006), Cherry Crush (2007) and the comedy Familiar Strangers (2008). She also popped up in the TV series The O.C. for half a dozen episodes in 2006. Reed got wider exposure with the success of the film version of Stephenie Meyer's book Twilight (2008) where she plays the super-beautiful vampire, Rosalie Hale.