Born in California to a Brazilian mother and American father, Camilla Belle speaks several languages fluently, including Spanish and Portuguese. She made her professional debut in a print ad at the age of nine months. Commercials soon followed and by the time she was five, she’d landed her first TV movie role in Troubleshooters: Trapped Beneath the Earth, starring Kris Kristofferson. More telefilms followed, including playing Molly, the littlest orphan in Annie: A Royal Adventure (1995), before making her feature film debut as Jane in Alfonso Cuaron’s adaptation of the classic novel, A Little Princess (1995).

Follow ing a turn as Steven Seagal’s daughter in The Patriot (1998), Camilla earned a 1999 Youth in Film Young Artist Award nomination for her portrayal of Sandra Bullock’s character as a girl in Practical Magic (1998), as well as another nomination the same year for her guest appearance on the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger. She received her third and fourth YAA nominations respectively for the telefilm Replacing Dad (1999), and for her role in the Disney Channel’s TV movie Rip Girls (2000).

In Showtime Network’s Back to the Secret Garden (2001), the sequel to the classic family film, Camilla had the opportunity to work with Joan Plowright. After a break from working to concentrate on school.

In 2005, Camilla Belle starred in the film The Ballad of Jack and Rose, playing the daughter of Daniel Day-Lewis’ character. The film only received a limited theatrical release, but Belle was labeled an “impressive newcomer” by film critic James Berardinelli. The film was her first in nearly four years. The same year, Belle also had a major role in The Chumscrubber, which received only a brief and limited theatrical release.

Camilla Belle was subsequently cast in the lead role in Screen Gems’ horror film remake, When a Stranger Calls. The film was released on February 3, 2006 and was considered successful at the United States box office, grossing over $45 million after an opening of over $21 million.

Shortly after the release of When a Stranger Calls, Belle was cast opposite Steven Strait in the Warner Bros. film, 10,000 B.C., a prehistoric epic to be directed by Roland Emmerich. The film is scheduled for a 2007 release and began filming in the spring of 2006 in South Africa and Namibia.