Hailee Steinfeld:
Born in Los Angeles, California, on December 11, 1996, Hailee Steinfeld is an American actress who, at the age of 14, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her stunning performance as the witty Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers’ Western True Grit (2010).
Since then, she has starred in a variety of movies and TV shows, such as the period horror thriller Sinners (2025), the biographical series Dickinson (2019–21) about poet Emily Dickinson, and the coming-of-age teen drama The Edge of Seventeen (2016). In addition to acting, Hailee Steinfeld has recorded songs and given live performances as a pop vocalist.
The Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles was Hailee Steinfeld’s primary upbringing. Her father, Peter Steinfeld, is a fitness trainer who has occasionally seen on television; her mother, Cheri Steinfeld, is an interior designer. Griffin Steinfeld, her elder brother, drives race cars. After seeing her older cousin in a commercial when she was eight years old, Hailee was motivated to pursue acting.
She wanted to start auditioning right once, but at her mother’s suggestion, she first enrolled in acting classes to hone her talents and demonstrate her seriousness about a career in show business. Steinfeld started getting parts in student movies and advertisements after a year of training. She also worked as a model during this time; Gap Inc. was her first employer. In 2007, she appeared in an episode of the Fox sitcom Back to You, earning her first television credit.
Hailee Steinfeld got her first feature-film part in True Grit, based on the same-titled novel by Charles Portis, after defeating thousands of other aspiring young actors. (The narrative had already been made into a 1969 film starring John Wayne and directed by Henry Hathaway.) In post-Civil War Arkansas and Indian Territory, she portrayed a resolute young girl looking for her father’s killer.
Hailee Steinfeld received considerable acclaim for her charisma and her command of the script’s archaic 19th-century dialect while co-starring with seasoned actors Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon. Her next significant part was as the primary female character in Julian Fellowes’ 2013 film adaption of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. After that, she had supporting parts in the romantic drama Hateship Loveship (2013), the science-fiction epic Ender’s Game (2013), Tommy Lee Jones’ Western The Homesman (2014), and the thriller 3 Days to Kill (2014).
In 2015, Hailee Steinfeld became a member of the cast of Pitch Perfect 2, the follow-up to the well-known musical comedy from 2012 about an all-female college a cappella group that competes. She portrayed a diligent first-year student vying for a spot in Beca’s (played by Anna Kendrick) singing club. In the same year, she played a hitman’s daughter in Term Life (2016) and acted as an assassin trying to live a regular life as a high school student in the action comedy Barely Lethal (2015).
Hailee Steinfeld’s major role in The Edge of Seventeen (2016) garnered some of her best praise since True Grit. Her portrayal of Nadine, an unlikeable yet incredibly relatable adolescent, was hailed by critics for its authenticity and emotional nuance. She “isn’t interested in making us like this girl standing on the edge of adulthood,” according to a RogerEbert.com review. We adore her since she is just concerned with making her feel authentic.
Hailee Steinfeld reappeared in Pitch Perfect 3 in 2017, playing the same character from the first movie. She starred in the Transformers franchise’s high-profile action film Bumblebee the following year. Additionally, she provided the voice of Gwen Stacy, also known as Spider-Woman, in the avant-garde animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
In the Apple TV+ series Dickinson, which debuted in 2019 and continued for three seasons until 2021, Steinfeld played 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson. Later, she costarred with Florence Pugh and Jeremy Renner as archer superhero Kate Bishop in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series Hawkeye (2021).
Hailee Steinfeld costarred with Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s 2025 supernatural thriller Sinners, which was set in the remote American South in the 1930s. The project was very personal to Steinfeld. She looked into her own history while getting ready to play her multiracial character, Mary, and found that her maternal grandfather was African American and Filipino, and her father was Jewish.
“Part of my research was understanding my family history a little better, for which I’m very grateful,” Steinfeld stated in an interview with Good Morning America. “This film started a big conversation for me, and I hope it does the same for audiences,” she continued, adding that the experience made her feel more connected to her ancestors.
Soon after becoming well-known for her vocals in Pitch Perfect 2, Steinfeld signed with Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group, to formally begin her music career. Her first song, “Love Myself,” was published in August 2015. Three months later, the EP Haiz was released. She recorded a number of singles throughout the ensuing years, including “Starving” (2016), a joint effort with producer Zedd and electronic duo Grey that peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She occasionally gave live performances as well; in 2018, she opened for Katy Perry on tour.
Steinfeld juxtaposed her singing and acting professions in a 2018 interview with Marie Claire, saying, “As an actor, I’m covered by characters—I’m protected by them.” However, it’s a totally different type of vulnerability because it’s my story, my voice, and my face as a musician. Her second EP, Half Written Story, was published in 2020. Additionally, she has contributed songs to the soundtracks of a number of her films, such as “Dangerous” for Sinners (2025) and “Back to Life” for Bumblebee (2018).