Bryce Dallas Howard

Best known as Claire Dearing in the Jurassic World franchise, and the co-star of Jurassic World Dominion (2022), Bryce Dallas Howard has periodically appeared in other blockbuster series, including Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 (2007), Terminator Salvation (2009), and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010). Nevertheless, Howard started acting in the theater, including The Public Theatre and the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Discovered by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, Howard—daughter of filmmaker Ron Howard (who had cast in mostly uncredited walk-on roles since she was an adolescent)—was cast in a lead role in The Village (2004), with Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, and William Hurt. Following her second movie role as the lead in Lars von Trier’s sequel to his Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005), with Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover, and Udo Kier, Howard had sealed her reputation as a serious film actor operating at the top of the field.

Bryce Dallas Howard continued to work with Shyamalan on the box-office and critical failure, Lady in the Water (2006), and Kenneth Branagh’s version of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (2006), with Alfred Molina, Kevin Kline, David Oyelowo, and Janet McTeer. Howard’s movie choices shifted to a decidedly more commercial direction from this point on, starting in 2007 with Spider-Man 3, with Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and J.K. Simmons; Terminator Salvation, with Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, and Common; and, in her darkest role to date, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

Howard gained awards recognition (along with her ensemble) in Tate Taylor’s acclaimed The Help (2011), with Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain, and collaborated closely with filmmaker Gus Van Sant on his Restless (2011), which premiered to an indifferent reaction at the Cannes Film Festival. 

2015 marked a fundamental swing in Bryce Dallas Howard’s career when she was cast in Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World, a new generation reboot of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park property, with Chris Pratt and Vincent D’Onofrio. The movie’s $1.6 billion box office ensured a steady franchise, which established Howard as one of the faces of a key Hollywood tentpole.

This continued with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), again with Pratt and Toby Jones, which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide, and Jurassic World Dominion, co-starring Pratt and a reunion of Jurassic Park co-stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum.

Under co-writer David Lowery’s direction, Howard starred in Disney’s well-received fantasy adventure, Pete’s Dragon (2016), with Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, and Robert Redford, and earning a solid $143.7 million global gross. Bryce Dallas Howard joined Matthew McConaughey, Edgar Ramirez, and Corey Stoll in the rollicking Stephen Gaghan-directed true-crime drama, Gold (2016), but losing money for distributor TWC-Dimension.

Howard performed the voice of a dog named Bella under Charles Martin Smith’s direction in Columbia/Sony Pictures’s successful live-action family drama, A Dog’s Way Home (2019), with the cast of Ashley Judd, Edward James Olmos, Alexandra Shipp, and Wes Studi. Howard portrayed Elton John’s mother in Paramount’s music biopic, Rocketman (2019), starring Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, and Richard Madden, and premiering at the Cannes Film Festival before grossing $195 million worldwide.

Howard co-starred with Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ariana DeBose in Matthew Vaughn’s spy adventure, Argylle (2022). Bryce Dallas Howard, following in her father Ron’s footsteps of taking her acting talents behind the camera, shifted into film directing, with the documentary, Dads (2019), and helmed episodes of Disney+’s Star Wars off-shoots, The Mandalorian (2019-2020) and The Book of Boba Fett (2022). In 2022, she made her feature debut as director of the remake of the 1986 adventure of the same title.