Shailene Woodley

Shailene Diann Woodley  (born November 15, 1991) is an American actress.

She is best known for portraying  Amy Juergens  in the  ABC Family  series  The Secret Life of the American Teenager  and for co-starring alongside  George Clooney  in the critically acclaimed 2011 film  The Descendants, for which she won the  Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female  and was nominated for the  Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture. For her performance in the film  The Spectacular Now, she won the Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting at the  2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Woodley also starred as Beatrice Prior in the film adaptation of Veronica Roth's Divergent, in 2014. She has also been cast as Hazel Grace Lancaster in the upcoming film adaptation of John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars.

Early Life
 Woodley was born in Simi Valley, California. Her mother, Lori, is a middle school counselor, and her father, Lonnie Woodley, is a school principal. She has a younger brother, Tanner. When she was 15 and a freshman,  her parents divorced and she was also diagnosed with scoliosis. She was put in a chest-to-hips plastic brace to straighten her spine.

Acting Career
In 2002, she appeared in small television roles on  Without a Trace  and  The District. In 2005, she was nominated for a  Young Artist Award  (YAA) in the Category: Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special—Leading Young Actress for her role in  A Place Called Home  as California Ford. She appeared as Felicity Merriman in  Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, for which she received a Young Artists award nomination in the Category: Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special (Comedy or Drama). This is one of two TV specials that Woodley appeared in with  John Schneider. She appeared on  Crossing Jordan  as a young Jordan, as well as other television series including  Everybody Loves Raymond ,  My Name is Earl ,  CSI: NY, and  Close to Home. In 2007, Woodley appeared in  Cold Case  as Sarah Gunden, the murder victim's younger Amish sister, who originally brought the case to the investigators' attention. Woodley stared in the  ABC Family  series  The Secret Life of the American Teenager  as Amy Juergens, a 15 year old who discovers she is pregnant. The show explores the effects of her pregnancy on her family, friends and herself as well as life at Ulysses S. Grant High School in California.

In 2011 Woodley made her feature film debut in a breakout performance in The Descendants, for which she received critical acclaim and has been nominated for a Golden Globe and more than a dozen other awards. She also won the Independent Spirit Award. In this film, she starred alongside George Clooney as Alexandra King, the troubled daughter of Clooney's character. People named her one of 2012 Most Beautiful at Every Age. Woodley was also considered one of the 55 faces of the future by Nylon Magazine ' s "Young Hollywood Issue".

 Woodley starred in the film adaptation of Tim Tharp's novel, The Spectacular Now. She plays a social outcast girl trying to plan for the future who meets a boy who is a senior in high school who likes to party and live in the moment. He begins to date her as a project and realizes he has the power to permanently impact her life. Production of the film occurred in the summer of 2012 and it premiered at Sundance in January 2013.

She has also recently signed on to star in White Bird, an independent film about a troubled young woman whose life is upended following the mysterious disappearance of her mother, directed by Gregg Araki.

In October 2012, it was announced that Woodley was offered the role of Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming sequel to the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man. On June 19, 2013 it was announced that Mary Jane was cut from the film. Director Marc Webb told  The Hollywood Reporter  that the cut was "a creative decision to streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship," and that everyone loved working with Woodley.

On March 19, 2013, it was announced that Woodley had accepted the role starring as Hazel Grace Lancaster in the film adaptation of  John Green 's novel  The Fault in Our Stars. Green added about Woodley; "There were so many amazing auditions for the role of Hazel, but Shailene's love for the book and her understanding of Hazel blew me away." via Twitter.

Shailene Woodley is set to star as Beatrice Prior in the upcoming movie Divergent, which is an adaptation of Veronica Roth’s young adult novel. The movie is releasing in March 2014. The trailer and preview screen shots have been released.

