- Born
- Birth nameShailene Diann Woodley
- Nicknames
- Shai
- Shaileney Beany
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Actress and activist Shailene Woodley was born in Simi Valley, California, to Lori (Victor), a middle school counselor, and Lonnie Woodley, a school principal. She has one brother, Tanner. She was educated at Simi Valley High School in California. When Woodley was four years old she began commercial modeling. Acting roles followed, and she made her screen debut in 1999's Replacing Dad (1999). More parts followed in The District (2000), The O.C. (2003) and Crossing Jordan (2001),amongst others. When Woodley was 15, she was diagnosed with Idiopathic Scoliosis and wore a chest-to-hips plastic brace for two years, which proved a successful treatment.
In 2008 Woodley was cast in the lead role of Amy Juergens in The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008) and in 2011 she had her big screen breakthrough when she appeared in Alexander Payne's The Descendants (2011), opposite George Clooney. Her performance in the role of Alexandra King brought critical acclaim and recognition by the movie industry. She won an Independent Spirit Award and the 2012 MTV Movie Awards Breakthrough Performance Award, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. She gained more prominence for portraying Tris from the Divergent film trilogy based on the book series. She portrayed Mary Jane Watson in deleted scenes of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. She had roles in The Fault in Our Stars, The Mauritanian, White Bird in a Blizzard, Big Little Lies, Adrift and The Fallout. She was engaged to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers but broke up.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian Frates
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsLori Woodley (Victor)Lonnie Woodley
- RelativesTanner Woodley(Sibling)
- Often works with Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller
- Brown almond eyes.
- Was considered for the role of Katniss Everdeen in the 2012 film adaption of the book, The Hunger Games (2012), but Jennifer Lawrence was cast instead.
- Was originally cast as Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), but all her scenes were deleted from the final cut. She worked on the movie set for three days and shot about four short scenes.
- As a teenager she was diagnosed with scoliosis. She was put in a chest-to-hips plastic brace to straighten her spine.
- Turned down the role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). The role eventually went to Dakota Johnson.
- In order to graduate with her high school class while starring on the hit ABC Family teenage soap opera The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008), her principal sent a teacher to her house once a week to give her school work which she would do, in-between takes, on set. Then, she was able to graduate with her class on time.
- I fell into this business by accident. It wasn't something I ever aspired to be: an actress. It just happened. It has evolved into an insane passion...a creative outlet. But nothing more. It's my hobby... one of the ways I express myself as an artist. And the day it becomes a job... a career... I will quit.
- All it takes is to pick up that one piece of trash you pass everyday on your way to work. Or to turn the water faucet off when you're brushing your teeth from afar. Or to compost. Or to buy 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Or to utilize vintage stores and secondhand markets. Or to fully devote yourself to only buying vegetables from local sources. It is remarkably easy to incorporate sustainable choices into our everyday, busy lives.
- I was an environmentalist in high school - or, I guess, a self-proclaimed environmentalist - and I started reading about the food system in America and how it's owned by all of these corporations. I was on a quest to find out what healthy really meant because people were saying that veganism was healthy or that the Paleo diet was healthy, but I really had no idea. So I started researching indigenous people and what their lifestyles were like because I was fascinated by the fact that they could still run in their eighties and still had amazing muscular and nervous systems, whereas in America now, by the time we get to our thirties, it's really hard for us to lose weight and maintain a healthy body and composition. So I just started adapting my lifestyle to that of indigenous people, and what I realized is that we're all indigenous creatures on this planet. The whole concept of re-wilding came about through some really good friends of mine, and it's basically about adapting to your current situation. If you're in the city, then you can't go back to hunter-and-gatherer times, so you have to adapt to the lifestyle that's out there. Herbalism is part of that, and knowing how to heal our bodies naturally and knowing about organic farming. It's so important and essential to the Earth, to Gaia. We want to continue to live on this planet, and I think we need to break down the associations that we have that we're different from nature - that we need to protect the Earth and save the Earth - when we are, in fact, part of the Earth. So it all starts with us. If we want to save the planet, then I think we need to start saving ourselves in order to do that. I believe that organic farming, among many other practices, can really start that shift.
- What I found with The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008) was that it was hard to talk about some of the issues because I didn't believe in them, and on a personal level, I was not in agreement with the things that we were preaching.
- [on the actresses she admires (March 2014)] Oh man, I know I just worked with her [in Divergent (2014)], but I really admire Kate Winslet. I admire her career. I admire Marion Cotillard and Mélanie Laurent.
- The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008) - $40,000 per episode
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