Unknown details of Shailene Woodley's life, who managed to stand out as one of the best actresses of her generation and an active environmental activist.
Shailene Woodley was born on November 15, 1991 in California. Her mother, Lori, is a middle school counselor, and her father, Loonie Woodley, a former school principal, is a family therapist. She also has a brother named Tanner. Woodley began modeling at the age of four and working in commercials at the age of five. She has appeared in more than forty TV commercials, including leapfrog, Hertz, and commercials for a Honda van. She took acting lessons from Anthony Meindl. When she was 15, her parents divorced.
Woodley told The Hollywood Reporter that she only agreed to let her family work professionally if she promised to follow the three rules. These; "I had to stay who they knew me was, I had to have fun and I had to do well in school." Thus, Woodley became a student who took Advanced Placement (AP) classes and graduated from Simi Valley High School with a grade of 4.0.
Woodley began her acting career in 1999 with a small role in the television movie "Replacing Dad". She then continued to appear in small roles in TV series such as "The District" and "Crossing Jordan". She then acted as California Ford in the television movie "A Place Called Home" (2004). This role earned her a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actress.
In 2003–2004, she originally portrayed the role of young Kaitlin Cooper in six episodes of the famous and beloved series "The O.C." She appeared as the lead character Felicity Merriman in the television drama "Felicity: An American Girl Adventure" (2005). Her performance was nominated for a Young Artist Award, this time for Best Performance. After that, she appeared in numerous guest roles in other television series such as "Woodley", "Everybody Loves Raymond", "My Name is Earl", "CSI: NY", "Close to Home" and "Cold Case".
Woodley later appeared in ABC Family's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (2008–2013). In this series, she starred as the main character Amy Juergens, who became pregnant at the age of 15 and struggled with it. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly praised Woodley's performance.
In 2011, Woodley made her feature film debut in Alexander Payne's "The Descendants." Here she played Matt King's troubled elder daughter, Alex. Her performance received thumbs up from critics and was nominated for many awards. She was nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the Golden Globes in 2012 and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress. Additionally, she was crowned with the Trophée Chopard Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the Virtuosos Award at the 2012 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
People magazine listed her as one of their 2012 "Most Beautiful of All Ages" list. Also, Woodley's face has been recognized as one of the 55 faces of the future by Nylon's "Young Hollywood Issue" magazine. She also deserved to receive the Rising Star Spotlight Award at Elle's 20th Annual "Women In Hollywood" competition.
Woodley played Aimee Finecky, an innocent, book-loving teenager in the film adaptation of Tim Tharp's novel "The Spectacular Now." Woodley, who co-starred with Miles Teller in the movie, received much praise for her performance. She won the Special Jury Award for Acting with Miles Teller at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Additionally, Woodley was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress.
Later, Woodley signed on to star in "White Bird in a Blizzard," an art drama thriller directed by Gregg Araki. Although filmed in October 2012, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2014, and then to a wider audience on October 24, 2014. Here, the film received mixed reviews.
In 2014, Woodley appeared as Beatrice "Tris" Prior in "Divergent", the first episode of The Divergent Series, based on Veronica Roth's best-selling teen-adult novel of the same name. The film received mixed reviews, but Woodley's role received positive reviews. "For her role in Divergent, Woodley saves and then brings forward a movie that could have been a total disaster," said Sam Allard of Orlando Weekly. The film reached number one at the box office in its opening weekend and was a financial success.
Also in 2014, Woodley took on the role of Hazel Grace Lancaster in "The Fault in Our Stars", based on John Green's novel of the same name. She portrayed a 16 year old cancer patient who meets and falls in love with Augustus Waters, a young man from a cancer support group who is similarly impressed. The movie was a blockbuster success, grossing huge worldwide. Woodley's performance in the film was highly appreciated. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times described her performance as worthy of the Hazel Oscar. On November 14, 2014, she received the Hollywood Film Award for Hollywood Breakthrough Performance - Actress for her role. Given her career rise and continued success since her debut, she was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2015.
In 2015, Woodley reprized the role of Tris in "The Divergent Series: Insurgent", the second episode of The Divergent Series. Despite receiving more negative reviews than the previous film, the film was commercially successful and again grossed heavily. She reprized her previous role in the sequel "Allegiant" (2016). However, the film was rated as unsatisfactory by critics and did poorly at a box office. "Lionsgate", the final film in the series, was planned to be made for television, but Woodley has clarified that she will not be a part of it.
Later, she co-starred with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Oliver Stone's biographical thriller "Snowden" (2016). In Owen Gleiberman's review of the film, he said Woodley gave "a breathtaking performance".
Starting in 2015, Woodley took a break from her career for about a year and considered quitting acting. In a later interview, she said she had "hit a wall in acting" and "felt that it was time to do something different". But she eventually resumed acting through "Big Little Lies". In 2017, Woodley co-starred with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon in "Big Little Lies", HBO's critically acclaimed drama television series directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Thanks to her role, respectively; she was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. She reprized her role as Jane Chapman in its second season in 2019.
She also starred in and produced the biographical drama "Adrift" (2018), directed by Baltasar Kormákur, and produced she. Woodley learned to sail with the film and did her own stunts for the film, most of which were shot in the ocean off the coast of Fiji. WSVN's Daniel Feingold described her performance as "Oscar worthy". Owen Gleiberman of Variety described her as "a sensual actress". Woodley was also awarded the Rising Star Award at the 2018 Deauville Film Festival.
In 2019, Woodley starred in the romantic drama film "Endings, Beginnings" with Sebastian Stan, Jamie Dornan and Matthew Gray Gubler. In 2021, she appeared in the real-life Guantanamo Bay drama movie "The Mauritanian" alongside Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim and Benedict Cumberbatch. Additionally, she had a small supporting role in the critically acclaimed drama "The Fallout". She also co-starred and executive produced with Felicity Jones in the romantic drama movie "The Last Letter from Your Lover" based on the bestselling book by Jojo Moyes.
She is next scheduled to star in "To Catch a Killer," a new thriller focusing on a talented but troubled cop hired by the FBI to help profile and track down a serial killer. Damián Szifron will direct the film and Woodley will also serve as a producer on the film.
She will star alongside Anthony Mackie and Jacob Latimore in the thriller "Panopticon," which begins shooting in New Mexico in the summer of 2021. She joins Jack Whitehall in the upcoming comedy movie "Robots," scheduled to begin filming in New Mexico in August 2021. She will star in Showtime's one-hour television drama series "Three Women," based on the award-winning and best-selling book by Lisa Taddeo. Filming was to begin in the Fall of 2021.
She appeared alongside Shia LaBeouf and Robert De Niro in the upcoming crime drama "After Exile" directed by Joshua Michael Stern. In November 2020, she appeared in the political satire film "The Fence," which would reunite her with Miles Teller for her fifth film. The film will be directed by Grímur Hákonarson. She will also star in the animated movie "Scarygirl" and the romantic movie "No Baggag", which is in pre-production and development, respectively.
She will also play Lina Lardi, the mistress of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari, in Michael Mann's biopic "Ferrari." Additionally, she also joined the cast of the movie "Dumb Money" directed by Craig Gillespie.
Private life
In 2018, Woodley confirmed that she is dating Australian-Fijian rugby player Ben Volavola. The couple reported that their relationship ended in April 2020.
It has been reported that Woodley was in a relationship with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers in 2020. Then, Woodley said she was engaged to Rodgers on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on February 22, 2021. The couple announced in February 2022 that Woodley and Rodgers had ended their engagement.
Woodley is an active environmental activist and climate advocate. She and her mother are co-founders of the nonprofit All It Takes. She likes sports, especially basketball. She prefers to live a simple lifestyle.