Shailene Woodley Biography

Shailene Woodley went from five seasons on TV’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager to critically acclaimed performances in the feature films The Descendants and The Spectacular Now.

She grew up in California and began her acting career at an early age, getting television roles as early as 1999.

Woodley was a recurring character in The District (2001-03) and The O.C. (throughout the 2004 season), but she made her biggest impression as a pregnant teen in the ABC Family drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a series that aired between 2008 and 2013.

She broadened her audience and received critical acclaim playing George Clooney‘s daughter in the 2011 drama The Descendants, and solidified her reputation as an up-and-comer with a star turn in the independent film The Spectacular Now (2013, with Brie Larson and Miles Teller), followed by the leads in The Divergent (based on the best-selling novels of Veronica Roth) and The Fault in Our Stars (2014, co-starring Ansel Elgort).

Woodley’s other work includes the TV series Big Little Lies (2017-19) and Three Women (2022), and the films Snowden (2016, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and The Mauritanian (2021, starring Jodie Foster).