Shailene Woodley | Movies, TV shows, biographies and facts

Upbringing and early roles as a child actor

Woodley is the daughter of Lonnie Woodley, a former school principal, and Lori Woodley (née Victor), a psychologist and former school counselor. Shailene Woodley grew up with her younger brother Tanner in Simi Valley, California, a small town about an hour's drive northwest of Los Angeles, and lived with her mother after her parents separated when she was 14.

Woodley developed an interest in acting at the age of five when she accompanied a cousin to a theater class and soon began taking lessons herself. After a casting agent noticed her, she began booking regular appearances in commercials, and by her teens she was filming dozens of television commercials for brands like Honda and Hertz, a car rental company. Woodley told Vera magazine in 2024 that, unlike other child actors who are driven by their stubborn stage parents, she was the driving force behind her young career and that her parents only agreed to continue taking her to auditions if they “remained the person could that they knew”. [she] was to do well in school and have fun.”

In addition to commercials, Woodley also won acting roles in several television series and films. Her first speaking role was in a television film Replacing dad (1999). She then appeared in episodes of several series, including: Without a trace (2003), Everyone loves Raymond (2004) and CSI: New York (2007) and had recurring roles in The district (2001–03), The OK (2003–04) and Cross Jordan (2001–04). During this time she also made several other television films, including A place called home (2004), Felicity: An American Girl Adventure (2005) and Once upon a time there was a mattress (2005).

Career breakthroughs: The Secret Life of the American Teenager And The descendants

In 2008, while still in high school, Woodley landed her first starring role as Amy Juergens, an ambitious 15-year-old student whose life is turned upside down by an unplanned pregnancy and subsequent motherhood The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The show aired for five seasons. As her star rose in the entertainment industry, Woodley aspired to lead a relatively normal personal life. She had a 4.0 grade point average and sang in her school choir before graduating high school in 2009.

During filming Secret lifeWoodley took on several film roles that made her known to an even wider audience. In 2011 she achieved her breakthrough with the film The descendants As a teenager, she struggles to keep her family together after a tragic accident leaves her mother in a coma. Critic A.O. Scott gave Woodley a rave review The New York TimesShe wrote that her performance was “one of the toughest, smartest and most believable teenage performances in recent memory.” Additionally, Woodley won a 2012 Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role and was also nominated for a Golden Globe.

Film roles in the 2010s: The Spectacular Now and the Divergent trilogy

Woodley gained further recognition for her winning, naturalistic performance as Aimee Finicky, a quiet, studious high school student who finds herself attracted to a wilder classmate (played by Miles Teller) in the romantic drama The Spectacular Now (2013) and as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a young cancer patient, in The fault of our stars (2014), based on the best-selling young adult novel by John Green. She then moved on to the role of heroine Tris Prior in three films in the larger budget science fiction adventure series “Divergent”. Divergent (2014), Insurgent (2015) and loyalty (2016). The trilogy, based on books by Veronica Roth, received generally mediocre reviews, but Woodley was often singled out for praise The Guardian calls her “the strongest asset in the series” and Manohla Dargis from The New York Times citing Woodley's “talent for creating a little place of intimacy on screen.”

Later roles: Big little lies

In 2017, Woodley returned to television with the award-winning HBO series Big little lies (2017–19), in which she played Jane Chapman, a single mother with a dark past. The series is based on the crime novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty and features an ensemble cast including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep. In 2017, Woodley was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for this role. Between filming the two seasons, Woodley starred in the biographical film Impulsive (2018), about a couple sailing through a catastrophic hurricane, starred in the romantic drama Ends, beginnings (2019).

Woodley continued to appear in films, including as a legal assistant who helped free a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention center The Mauritanian (2021), as Enzo Ferrari's lover in Michael Manns Ferrari (2023) and as the wife of a meme stock investor in Stupid money (2023). Also in 2023, Woodley portrayed a journalist writing a book about female sexuality in the limited series Three womenbased on the bestselling novel of the same name by Lisa Taddeo.

Activism and private life

Woodley developed an interest in environmental conservation in high school after reading about corporate ownership of the U.S. food system. In 2016, she took part in the Standing Rock protests against the construction of an oil pipeline and was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and engaging in a riot. She later served as the executive producer of Awake: A Dream of Standing Rock (2017), a documentary about the protests. Also in 2016, Woodley was a vocal supporter of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 2019, she was named a Greenpeace Oceans Ambassador and the following year she again campaigned for Sanders' presidential candidacy. In 2024, Woodley appeared on the PBS documentary series Hope in the water in a section about catching giant purple sea urchins to save kelp forests and support local fisheries.

In 2010, Woodley and her mother founded the nonprofit All It Takes, which provides social-emotional learning programs and educational materials for young people.

In the early 2020s, Woodley was engaged to the NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The engagement was called off in April 2022.