Shailene Diann Woodley is an American actress.
She portrayed Amy Juergens in the ABC Family original series The Secret Life of the American
Teenager and co-starred alongside George Clooney in the 2011 film The Descendants.
She played Felicity Merriman in the 2005 film Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.
In 2014, Woodley starred in three films: as Kat Conner in White Bird in a Blizzard, Beatrice
"Tris" Prior in the adaptation of Veronica Roth's novel Divergent, and as Hazel Grace
Lancaster in The Fault in Our Stars, based on the novel of the same name by John Green.
For her performance in The Descendants, she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best
Supporting Female and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
- Motion Picture.
In the film The Spectacular Now, she won the Special Jury Award for Acting at the 2013
Sundance Film Festival.
Early life Woodley was born in Simi Valley, California.
Her mother, Lori, is a middle school counselor, and her father, Lonnie Woodley, is a school
principal.
She has a younger brother, Tanner.
She began her career through commercial modeling, at the age of four.
When she was 15 and a freshman, her parents divorced and she was also diagnosed with scoliosis.
She was put in a chest-to-hips plastic brace to straighten her spine.
Before landing the role of Amy Juergens in The Secret Life of the American Teenager,
Woodley thought of studying interior design at New York University after high school.
She attended Simi Valley High School.
Career
In 2002, Woodley appeared in small television roles on Without a Trace and The District.
In 2005, she was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actress in a
TV Movie, Miniseries or Special for her role in A Place Called Home as California Ford.
She also originally played Kaitlin Cooper in The O.C.
She appeared as Felicity Merriman in Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, for which she
received a Young Artists award nomination in the Category: Best Performance in a TV
Movie, Miniseries or Special.
This is one of two TV specials that Woodley appeared in with John Schneider.
She did some acting classes with Anthony Meindl.
She appeared on Crossing Jordan as a young Jordan, as well as other television series
including Everybody Loves Raymond, My Name is Earl, CSI: NY, and Close to Home.
In 2007, Woodley appeared in Cold Case as Sarah Gunden, a murder victim's younger Amish
sister, who originally brings the case to the investigators' attention.
Woodley starred in the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager as Amy
Juergens, a 15-year-old who discovers she is pregnant.
The show explores the effects of her pregnancy on her family, friends and herself as well
as life at Ulysses S. Grant High School in California.
In 2011, Woodley made her feature film debut in The Descendants, for which she received
a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, and won the Independent
Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female.
In the film, she starred alongside George Clooney as his troubled daughter, Alexandra
King.
People named her one of 2012 Most Beautiful at Every Age.
Woodley was also considered one of the 55 faces of the future by Nylon Magazine's "Young
Hollywood Issue".
Woodley starred in the film adaptation of Tim Tharp's novel, The Spectacular Now for
which she won the Special Jury Award for Acting alongside with Miles Teller at the 2013 Sundance
Film Festival and received a nomination for Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.
She played a social outcast trying to plan for the future while falling for a boy who
lives in the moment.
Production of the film occurred in the summer of 2012 and it premiered at Sundance in January
2013.
She has also signed on to star in White Bird, an independent film about a troubled young
woman whose life is upended following the mysterious disappearance of her mother, directed
by Gregg Araki.
In October 2012, it was announced that Woodley was offered the role of Mary Jane Watson in
The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
On June 19, 2013, it was announced that she was cut from the film.
Director Marc Webb told The Hollywood Reporter that the cut was "a creative decision to streamline
the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship," and that everyone loved
working with Woodley.
On March 19, 2013, it was announced that Woodley had accepted the starring role, Hazel Grace
Lancaster, in the film adaptation of John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars.
Green added via Twitter about Woodley; "There were so many amazing auditions for the role
of Hazel, but Shailene's love for the book and her understanding of Hazel blew me away."
The film, directed by Josh Boone, was released on June 6, 2014.
Woodley starred as Tris Prior in the movie Divergent, an adaptation of Veronica Roth's
young adult novel of the same name.
The movie was released on March 21, 2014.
Woodley will reprise her role as Tris in the sequel of Divergent, titled The Divergent
Series: Insurgent which began filming on May 27, 2014 and has a release date of March 20,
2015.
She will reprise her role again in the two-part finale of the franchise, The Divergent Series:
Allegiant — Part 1 and Part 2, with Part 1 to be released on March 18, 2016 and Part
2 on March 24, 2017.
Filmography Film
Television Awards and nominations
References
External links Shailene Woodley at the Internet Movie Database
Shailene Woodley at TV Guide Shailene Woodley on Twitter