In 1999, Fox won multiple awards at the American Modeling and Talent Convention. This success convinced her to drop out of high school and move to Los Angeles, California just a few years later, at the age of 16. That year, Fox landed her first big break when she was cast as a bratty heiress in the 2001 Olsen twins comedy film, Holiday in the Sun. The film, which had a large cult fanbase, went straight to DVD.
Over the next few years, Fox continued to appear in guest-spot television roles. Her next role was in 2002, when she appeared in the Swedish-produced soap opera, Ocean Ave. That same year, Fox also appeared in a guest-starring role on the WB network show, What I Like About You, starring Amanda Bynes.
The year 2004 was a big one for Megan Fox. She made an appearance in the CBS hit comedy Two and a Half Men, starring Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, and was a series regular on the short-lived WB sitcom, The Help. She also began appearing on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith, in which she played the daughter of Faith Ford's character in the second and third seasons. Her performance earned her a Young Artists Award nomination in 2005. Fox also returned to film work that year when she won the role as Carla Santi, a rival of Lindsay Lohan's character, in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.
But Fox landed her biggest break in 2007 when she was cast across from Shia LeBouef in the Steven Spielberg-produced blockbuster, Transformers. Fox played romantic lead Mikaela Banes in the film. She was nominated for the 2008 MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance. The next year, Fox joined the cast of the comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. The movie did well in England because of the presence of lead comedian Simon Pegg, but did not achieve much commercial success in the United States.
In 2009, Megan reprised her role as Mikaela Banes in the sequel to the hit Transformers in Transformers: Rise of the Fallen. The sequel was again a box office success, and kept Fox in the media spotlight. She signed on to do the third installment of the franchise, which is tentatively titled Transformers 3, but later left the project. Rumors swirling around the sudden casting change suggest that Fox was released from the film after making several disparaging remarks about director Michael Bay to prominent media outlets. Both parties deny the allegation.
