Cailee Spaeny

Cailee Spaeny is an American actress born on July 24, 1998. She first established a presence in film and television through major roles in the science fiction sequel Pacific Rim Uprising and the neo-noir thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. Over the course of her career, she has garnered recognition for her work across diverse film genres and television series, receiving critical acclaim and major award nominations for her performances and production contributions.

Spaeny was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Mark and Reja Spaeny, growing up as the seventh of nine children in a Southern Baptist home in Springfield, Missouri. As a child, she joined the Springfield Little Theatre group, acting in multiple plays while attending acting, vocal, and dance lessons six days a week. At age 13, she withdrew from formal schooling to focus on acting and took a job at Silver Dollar City. During the 2014–2015 season, she starred as Dorothy in a theatrical production of The Wizard of Oz.

She made her feature film debut in March 2018 in Pacific Rim Uprising, playing the role of Amara Namani, an orphaned young engineer. Later that year, she portrayed Rose Summerspring in Bad Times at the El Royale, a vulnerable teenager under the influence of a cult leader. Spaeny continued her film work in 2018 by appearing as Jane C. Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex and portraying the teenage version of Lynne Cheney in Vice. She made her television debut in 2020 as Lyndon in the Alex Garland miniseries Devs, followed by her first leading film role in the supernatural horror project The Craft: Legacy.

In 2021, Spaeny played a younger version of the main character in the independent apocalyptic comedy How It Ends and appeared in the HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown, portraying Erin McMenamin, a young single mother in a working-class town. She returned to television in 2022 with a role in the drama series The First Lady, playing Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Spaeny achieved widespread acclaim in 2023 for her starring portrayal of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola's biographical film Priscilla. Based on Presley's memoir, her performance premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. In 2024, she continued expanding her film credits by starring as aspiring photographer Jessie Collin in the dystopian action drama Civil War and as colonist Rain Carradine in the science fiction horror film Alien: Romulus.

In 2025, Spaeny joined the cast of the murder mystery Wake Up Dead Man, playing former cellist Simone Vivane. Her subsequent work includes starring in and serving as a producer on the second season of the anthology series Beef, a role that earned her a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. She was also cast in a live-action film adaptation of the game Elden Ring.