Malone was born and raised in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where she lived until she was 10. She began taking an interest in acting after watching her mother, who was involved in community theatre. She briefly moved to Las Vegas, hated it, and persuaded her mother to move on to Los Angeles. Starting off with music videos and commercials, she made the jump to feature films with the 1996 film Bastard Out of Carolina. She was to win the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance in a TV Movie or Miniseries for this role.
From there, her roles grew in stature, including several Hollywood features. In 1997, she won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie, for her role in Hope. In January 2000, she won a lawsuit against her mother, accusing her of mismanagement of her career. This barred her mother from interfering with Jena's career and earnings.
After several years of being schooled from home, she briefly attended the Professional Children's School in New York, but did not last long. She is currently studying photography at a community college in northern California, and hopes to become a director.
Filmography