Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American actress. Conceived in Dallas, Texas (the reason for her middle name), 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 has been close friends with fellow actress Natalie Portman since childhood.
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.
Her breakthrough role came in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, and Howard collaborated again with Shyamalan in the 2006 release Lady in the Water. She is currently 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. Ironically, the naturally blonde Dunst's hair is dyed red for the role of Mary Jane.
In June 2006, she married actor Seth Gabel, whom she met at New York University and had dated for five years.
Until recently, she had been a devoted vegan since her The Village co-star, Joaquin Phoenix, showed her a documentary on animal cruelty called Earthlings. Phoenix narrated the film for PETA. However, in August 2006, Howard announced that she had switched her diet from vegan to vegetarian in order to boost her amino acid levels in preparation for pregnancy. Days afterward, on August 8th, 2006, Howard announced that she and Gabel were expecting their first child.
