Born on November 15, 1991, Shailene Woodley has been in the spotlight for nearly as long
as she's been alive. Time and again, she's proven her ability to take on any role thrown her way.
Here's a look at her stunning transformation.
Woodley was born in Upland, California to a school counselor mother named Lori
and a principal-turned-psychologist father named Lonnie. She and her younger brother Tanner were
raised in Simi Valley, a city less than 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Her parents eventually
divorced, but Woodley harbors no ill feelings toward her early years. As she told C Magazine,
"I had an amazing [childhood]. I had food on the table every night, I had parents who loved me
[and] who worked very hard to give me and my brother the best life possible."
But while Woodley's childhood was more or less amazing,
that doesn't mean that her younger days were free of any turbulence.
Her parents had an open-door policy in which they would welcome domestic violence
survivors and other guests into their home. As Woodley described it to Net-A-Porter in 2016,
"I came home to things that weren't great. My family is super-f---ed up in many ways,
but they are also my everything."
Woodley started auditioning for roles on TV shows and commercials at the tender age of 5
years old. While some children are thrust into the spotlight at a young age by their parents,
Woodley's early start in showbiz was entirely her own decision. As she told C Magazine,
"It was always me, something I wanted to do. My mom would drive me to auditions."
Woodley ended up getting discovered at a cattle-call casting for a Supercuts
commercial for which her cousin was auditioning. While waiting,
a woman approached Woodley's mother and suggested that young Shailene sign up for acting classes.
Mom was hesitant, but Shailene was thrilled by the idea. As she recalled to Elle in 2015,
"My mom said, 'If I do this for you, you've got to commit to it.' For her it was like an
exercise in being responsible. I'd been in gymnastics for, like, three months,
soccer for four months. [...] I was like, 'I'll commit!' I ended up loving it."
In the early days of her acting career, Woodley landed gigs on a variety of TV shows like The
O.C., Everybody Loves Raymond, and My Name is Earl. She even played the title role
in the TV movie Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, as she traded in her chestnut
brown locks for a golden copper shade. Considering that Woodley started her career
at an age when most kids were learning how to ride bikes, you might think that she would've
had an unconventional school experience. But as it turns out, she actually managed
to keep her burgeoning stardom largely under wraps. As she told People Magazine in 2014,
"In high school, a lot of my friends didn't know I was an actor because I didn't talk about it.
They would come to school and be like, 'Wait, were you on My Name Is Earl last night?"
Despite her rising fame, Woodley still made time to be a normal kid
and take full advantage of everything school had to offer. As she recalled to Vanity Fair in 2013,
"In high school, I was kind of that A.P. kid with a 4.0 and in choir. I
was most popular. I was very social and a big extrovert."
While she was still in high school, Woodley landed the lead role on the ABC Family show
The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Premiering in 2008, the series followed Amy,
a 15-year-old girl who discovers she's pregnant after sleeping with a boy at
band camp. Woodley had to wear a stuffed belly while filming, which proved to be quite the
memorable shooting experience for her. As she noted in a 2008 interview with TVaholic.com,
"People come around and poke your belly, or whatever, just because it's weird to see a tall,
skinny, gangly, 16-year-old wearing a pregnancy belly."
The show was a hit for the network and a big boost for Woodley's career,
but she wasn't exactly comfortable with the values that The Secret Life
was delivering to its young fanbase. As she told Flaunt Magazine in 2013,
"The things that we were preaching on that show weren't really aligned with my own integrity.
So that was a bit hard to show up to work every day knowing that we were going to project
all of these themes to thousands — millions — of young adults across the country,
when in fact they weren’t what I would like to be sending out."
Woodley is famous nowadays both for her acting and her environmental activism.
And as it turns out, she's been passionate about sustainable living for quite a while.
When TVaholic.com asked her about her hobbies in 2018, she revealed,
"I'm definitely an environmentalist. I think that nature is very important,
and I dedicate a lot of my time studying awareness about recycling and the effects
of bamboo and how it can be incredible over wood and a lot of random things [...] I think
the environment is something people need to start paying attention to."
"We're in a crisis right now, like a true climate ocean marine life crisis."
Over the years, Woodley's passion for the environment has only grown stronger.
In December 2018, she posted a throwback photo on Instagram featuring a handwritten list of
her 2011 New Year's resolutions, which included "live sustainably,"
"create a sustain blog," and, "inspire and spread the word about living sustainably."
In November 2011, Woodley made her feature film debut in director Alexander Payne's tragi-comedy
The Descendants. She'd seen and loved Payne's earlier film Sideways, but she didn't realize just
how big a deal it was to even get the opportunity to audition for him. As she told Indiewire,
"He's just a magical human being."
Payne wasn't the only notable name that Woodley worked with on The Descendants,
as none other than George Clooney played her father. Working alongside arguably one of the
greatest actors of his generation would be an understandably intimidating experience
for most. But Woodley had no issue rising to the occasion, as she received a slew of
awards nominations and critical praise. As Mark Rabinowitz wrote in his review of the film on CNN,
"Woodley [...] gives the most authentic and moving adolescent female performance
in years [...] She's got the "f--- you!" attitude familiar to parents of a teenager
and the burgeoning parental and caring instincts of an adult. Her
rapport with Clooney is one of the things that makes this film go."
"You know, my father has been doing a really amazing job under these circumstances."
After proving her big screen acting chops with The Descendants, Woodley went on to
book a leading role in the 2013 coming-of-age drama The Spectacular Now. Based on the 2008
novel of the same name, the movie features Woodley as a high schooler named Aimee,
who was written in the book as quiet and nerdy. But Woodley had other plans.
During an interview with Vanity Fair, she revealed that she told director James Ponsoldt [PON-sohlt],
"If you want this girl to be written the way she is now, I'm not the choice.
Because I don't see her as a nerd. I see her as a really strong, independent,
beautiful young woman who is wise beyond her years."
Fortunately for Woodley, Ponsoldt agreed. The actress also opted to wear as little makeup
as possible, something virtually unheard of in Hollywood. As she told Vanity Fair,
"For me, it was kind of like, if I have to wear makeup I don't want to do it.
I didn't see Aimee as a girl who valued vanity [...] There was no hairspray. No gel. No
foundation. It kind of took out the materialistic side of this industry that has infiltrated it."
Movies adapted from young adult novels have become a bit of a
cultural phenomenon in the 21st century. With her performance in The Spectacular Now,
Woodley proved her bona fides in this popular genre, which set her up nicely for another
young adult flick the following year in the form of Divergent. In the 2014 sci-fi flick,
she played the role of Beatrice "Tris" Prior, a teenager living in a dystopian future.
There were high hopes that the Divergent series would be a massive success in the vein
of The Hunger Games, which showcased similarly dystopian themes. Ahead of Divergent's release,
Woodley revealed to People Magazine that Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence had
given her advice on how to handle the huge spotlight coming her way. As Lawrence put it,
"[The experience] will be the best thing that ever happened. But don't be an idiot,
do a sex tape [or] do drugs. And go to Whole Foods when your movie opens."
"And she said that it was one of the most- the biggest blessings she's ever received,
and I would be a fool not to do Divergent."
Alas, critics were underwhelmed by Divergent and its sequels,
and the box office receipts got smaller with each subsequent installment.
Ultimately, though, the mixed reception didn't seem to hurt Woodley's career too much.
Divergent wasn't the only young adult flick that starred Woodley in 2014.
The other one was the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars, based on the 2012 novel of the
same name by John Green. Woodley played the part of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenager with terminal
thyroid cancer who meets and falls in love with Augustus Waters, a bone cancer survivor
played by Ansel Elgort [AN-sell ELL-gort]. Spoiler alert: Gus' cancer eventually returns,
and Hazel is left heartbroken after he dies. The Fault in Our Stars is a tearjerker for sure,
but according to Woodley, the heavy material didn't get in the way of this being one of
the best experiences of her career. As she told The Hollywood Reporter,
"It definitely was one of the biggest honors of my
life to be part of this film — and I don't say that lightly."
In addition to the emotional whirlwind, Woodley's performance as Hazel was also
a physical transformation, as she chopped off her long, blonde-highlighted locks and
dyed her new short bob a color that was closer to her natural chestnut brown.
Following The Fault in Our Stars and the Divergent series,
Woodley took a bit of a hiatus from acting. As she told Net-A-Porter in 2018,
"I had hit a wall with acting. I felt it was time to do something different. I called my
agents and said, 'Please don't send me any more scripts; I need to explore other avenues.'"
Her agents respected her wishes until they came across an offer that they didn't think
she could refuse. It was a new HBO series called Big Little Lies, though Woodley initially turned
down the project without even knowing who was involved. Nevertheless, her agents persisted,
and eventually they got through to her. As Woodley recalled to Net-A-Porter,
"I read it, fell in love with it, and Laura Dern,
who I had worked with on The Fault in Our Stars, called me and that was really the push."
Woodley also noted in that interview that the last film in the Divergent
series inspired her to take things in a new direction. As she put it,
"The last one was a bit of a hard experience for everyone,
and that was really what made me think I need to have some human experiences outside
of this industry and fall in love with acting again, and Big Little Lies did that for me."
In February 2021, stories began to circulate that Woodley was secretly engaged to her rumored
boyfriend, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Earlier that same month,
a source confirmed to Us Weekly that the two were indeed dating. Then multiple
sources confirmed the engagement news to People Magazine, with one source noting,
"It's not surprising he proposed so fast. When you know, you know, right?"
Although the happy couple evidently wanted to keep their relationship under wraps,
various details still leaked out. E! News confirmed that the two were
living together in Green Bay throughout the fall of 2020, with an insider revealing,
"They had a very intense connection from the beginning. They both knew early on that it
was something special and different from what they had experienced in other relationships.
It's a quick engagement, but for those that know them, it didn't come as a surprise."
"Are congratulations in order?" "I mean, I've been reading that, too,
which is k-, it's- it's kind of funny." "Yeah." "Um, yes, we are engaged, we are engaged."
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more List videos about your favorite stars are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.