Shailene Woodley Biography
Born: November 15, 1991
Date of Birth: November 15, 1991
Despite her young age, Shailene Woodley is a showbiz veteran, having made a name for herself on screens both big and small.
Born in Simi Valley, California to a school counselor mother and school principal father, Shailene entered the world of acting at the age of five. By the time she was nine, she had recurring roles in two TV series: Crossing Jordan and The District. Two year later she was playing Kaitlin Cooper on the popular series The O.C. and by the time she was 12, she had a starring role on the drama series Jack & Bobby. At 13, she starred as Felicity Merriman in the TV movie An American Girl Adventure.
However, at 15 she was diagnosed with scoliosis and was forced to wear a full torso brace in order to straighten her spine. "It's like braces in your mouth. You go in and get it tightened and it hurts for awhile," Shailene said about her experience of having to wear the brace for up to 18 hours a day. Luckily, her treatment was a success and she was able to stop wearing the brace within a year.
At 17, Shailene was cast in the lead role in the ABC Family series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager as pregnant teenager Amy Juergens.
In 2011, she made her big screen debut opposite George Clooney in The Descendants, playing a young girl dealing with the loss of her mother. She received a Golden Globe nomination and much critical praise for her performance.
After finishing her Secret Life role, Shailene has been concentrating on film, including the sci-fi action pic Divergent, based on the best-selling Young Adult novel. She starred in the 2014 drama The Fault in Our Stars, which is also based on a Young Adult novel. She also reprised her role as Beatrice "Tris" Prior in the Divergent sequels, The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) and The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016). She also played Lindsay Mills in the biopic Snowden (2016) alongside an all-star cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Melissa Leo, and Zachary Quinto.
On TV, Shailene played a starring role as Jane Chapman on the hit HBO mini-series, Big Little Lies (2017), which earned her nominations at the Golden Globes and the Primetime Emmy Awards. She returned to play Jane Chapman again for the second season in 2019.
Back on the big screen, she played the starring role in Adrift (2018), as a young woman who finds herself struggling to survive after a hurricane badly damages the boat she and her boyfriend (played by Sam Claflin) are navigating.
The young actress is active on social media, tweeting from @shailenewoodley, where she writes about her two passions: “the empowerment of women around the world” and “the ecosystem as a whole.”
Filmography
Adrift (2018)
The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016)
Snowden (2016)
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015)
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Divergent (2014)
White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)
The Spectacular Now (2013)
The Descendants (2011)