Sarah Jane Steele (born September 16, 1988) is an American actress who got her first break into the film industry by beating thousands of young hopeful females for the role of Bernice in the 2004 film, Spanglish. Steele was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her father, George, is a doctor specializing in nutrition and diet. Steele graduated with the class of 2006 from The Episcopal Academy, a well-received private school in southeast Pennsylvania. She graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2011 with a B.A. in Comparative literature. She continues to live in Brooklyn with other young professionals. After her breakout role in Spanglish, Steele continued acting for a short while, appearing on an episode of Law & Order and appearing in two films, Mr. Gibb, which co-stars Hayden Panettiere, Tim Daly and Dan Hedaya and Margaret, which co-stars Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, and Allison Janney. Steele was recently on the New York stage in an off-Broadway production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which ran for a few months at the Acorn Theatre. In 2007-2008 she appeared in the off-Broadway play Speech & Debate.