Kaylee Hottle
American actress (born 2007)
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Kaylee Hottle (born 2007) is an American actress who stars in and is primarily known for her appearance in the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong and its 2024 sequel, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. For the latter, she was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.
Background
Hottle was born in 2007 to an all-deaf family, with her father's side having four generations of deaf relatives, and is fluent in American Sign Language.[2] In 2017, she appeared in a commercial for the video relay service Convo.[1] She also appeared in other commercials,[2] as well as the informational project 10 Deaf Children: One powerful Message, aimed at promoting support for the Deaf community in their pursuit of equal rights.[3] She attends the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin, Texas,[4] where she competes in Track and Field.
For the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong, casting-director Sarah Halley Finn looked for a deaf actress for the deaf character Jia through a network of casting-directors and theaters,[2] and was guided to Hottle by an assistant director from the earlier film Kong: Skull Island who saw her in a Convo commercial.[1] The film was Hottle's feature-film debut. Starring actors Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård learned ASL so they and Hottle could communicate on set when not acting.[5] Hottle reprised her role as Jia for the 2024 film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,[6] for which she was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor at the 52nd Saturn Awards.[7][8]