Cailee Spaeny
Cailee Spaeny is an American actress. Her first major roles were in the science fiction film Pacific Rim Uprising and the neo-noir film Bad Times at the El Royale. Her television roles include appearances in the miniseries Devs and Mare of Easttown.
In 2023, Spaeny received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley in the biographical film Priscilla, for which she received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and a nomination for a Golden Globe Award. Further recognition came in 2024, when she starred in the dystopian drama film Civil War and the science fiction horror film Alien: Romulus.
Early life
Spaeny was born on July 24, 1998 in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Mark and Reja Spaeny. The seventh of nine children, she was raised in Springfield, Missouri as a Southern Baptist. Growing up, she spent a large amount of time in the Springfield Little Theatre group, with which she participated in many plays. She also took acting, voice, and dance classes six days a week at the Springfield Little Theatre group. When she was 13, she dropped out of school to pursue acting and briefly worked at Silver Dollar City. In the 2014–2015 season, she landed the lead role of Dorothy in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz.Career
In 2018, Spaeny played several major film roles, starring in Steven S. DeKnight's science fiction monster adventure Pacific Rim Uprising, alongside John Boyega and Scott Eastwood; Drew Goddard's thriller Bad Times at the El Royale; and the biographical dramas On the Basis of Sex and Vice.She next appeared in the main cast of the FX miniseries Devs and starred in the film The Craft: Legacy, both in 2020. In 2021, she appeared in the HBO limited series Mare of Easttown, a murder mystery, starring Kate Winslet. She then portrayed Anna Roosevelt Halsted in the series The First Lady.
In 2023, Spaeny starred as Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola's biographical drama film Priscilla alongside Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley. Reviewing the film for Variety, Owen Gleiberman opined, "Spaeny makes Priscilla a figure of strength, but the force of her performance is how she enacts Priscilla's slow-motion melancholy". Her performance earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
In 2024, Spaeny starred in the war drama Civil War as the young war photographer Jessie and in the science fiction horror film Alien: Romulus as the space colonist Rain Carradine. Reviewing the latter film, Jordan Hoffman of Entertainment Weekly deemed Spaeny "the finest weapon in the arsenal... differentiating herself quite a bit from the doe-eyed characters she played in Civil War and Priscilla."
In 2024, she joined the cast for the second season of Netflix's anthology series Beef, alongside Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Charles Melton. Spaeny next starred in the mystery film Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment of the Knives Out series, released by Netflix in 2025.