Cailee Spaeny

Cailee Spaeny has enjoyed one of the fastest-rising acting careers in recent Hollywood history, making her well-reviewed feature debut in the sequel directed and co-written by Steven S. DeKnight, Pacific Rim Uprising (2018), co-starring John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Rinko Kikuchi, and Adria Arjona, grossing a disappointing $291 million global gross.

Spaeny landed a co-starring role in director/writer/producer Drew Goddard’s neo-noir thriller, Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), alongside Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Lewis Pullman, Chris Hemsworth, Nick Offerman, Xavier Dolan, and Shea Whigham, and delivering a poor $32 million gross matching costs for distributor 20^th Century Fox.

Spaeny played a supporting role in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic, based on Sex (2018), co-starring Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, and Kathy Bates under Mimi Leder’s direction, grossing a disappointing $38.8 million return (against $20 million costs). Spaeny played young Lynne Cheney in Adam McKay’s wildly adventurous Dick Cheney biopic, Vice (2018), starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe, and Jesse Plemons, returning a theatrical gross of $76 million for Annapurna Pictures, and garnering eight Oscar nominations.

Cailee Spaeny had her first starring feature role in the horror sequel, The Craft: Legacy (2020), written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones and co-starring Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Michelle Monaghan, and David Duchovny, but returned a poor $2.3 million on an $18 million budget. Spaeny co-starred with filmmaker Lister-Jones, who co-directed, wrote, and produced (with Daryl Wein) the apocalyptic comedy, How It Ends (2021), with Helen Hunt, Oliva Wilde, Fred Armisen, Lamorne Morris, and Nick Kroll, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before a theatrical release by United Artists Releasing.

Spaeny starred as Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s biopic for A24, Priscilla (2023), based on Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, and with Jacob Elordi as Elvis, leading to Spaeny receiving a Golden Globes best actress nomination. Spaeny co-starred with Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura in filmmaker Alex Garland’s near-future drama, Civil War (2024), with Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman, and returning a decent $122.6 million global gross for A24 after a South by Southwest Film Festival premiere.

Cailee Spaeny starred in the standalone movie in the Alien universe, Alien: Romulus (2024), directed and co-written (with Rodo Sayagues) by Fede Álvarez, with castmates David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu, and released by 20^th Century Studios.

Spaeny then joined the sprawling ensemble of director/writer/producer Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series mystery, Wake Up Dead Man (2025), starring Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Josh Brolin, and Thomas Haden Church, and which was released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix.