​Ten thousand girls turned up for open auditions in Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and Kendal for the role of Lyra Belacqua in the adaptation of 'His Dark Materials: Northern Lights'. In June 2006, twelve-year-old Dakota, a Londoner schoolgirl, was awarded the part after the casting directors' took a shine to her in the Cambridge auditions. Her mother is an American anthropologist.

• The Golden Compass (2007)

  
• Lightfields (2013)

  
• The Secret of Moonacre (2008)

  
• The Fold (2014)

  
• Five Miles Out (2009)