Cailee Spaeny

Cailee Spaeny (/ˈkeɪli ˈspeɪni/ KAY-lee SPAY-nee; born July 24, 1998) 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 (both 2018). Her television roles include appearances in the miniseries Devs (2020) and Mare of Easttown (2021).

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.

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.

Spaeny in 2018

Cailee Spaeny made her film debut in March 2018 in Pacific Rim: Uprising, the sequel to Pacific Rim (2013), directed by Steven S. DeKnight. In the cast, she appeared alongside John Boyega and Scott Eastwood, playing Amara Namani, one of the protagonists of the story. The character is a young orphan, intelligent, skilled, and independent, who becomes a self‑taught engineer. The reception to her performance was generally positive, especially given that it was her first major film role.

Also in 2018, Spaeny took part in three other films. In September, she joined the cast of Bad Times at the El Royale, a thriller directed by Drew Goddard, in which she played Rose Summerspring, the younger sister of Emily Summerspring, played by Dakota Johnson. The character is a fragile and impressionable teenager, manipulated by the cult led by Billy Lee, played by Chris Hemsworth. The role highlighted the actress's versatility; after playing the determined Amara in Pacific Rim: Uprising, she took on a character marked by vulnerability.

In November, she acted in On the Basis of Sex, a biographical legal drama directed by Mimi Leder based on the life and early cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the film, Spaeny played Jane C. Ginsburg, the elder daughter of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, portrayed by Felicity Jones. In December, she appeared in Vice, a biographical comedy-drama written and directed by Adam McKay about the life of Dick Cheney, played by Christian Bale. In the film, Spaeny played Lynne Vincent, a teenage version of Lynne Cheney, with the adult version portrayed by Amy Adams. Thus, she ended 2018 having participated in four films.

In March 2020, Cailee Spaeny made her television debut in the miniseries Devs, created by Alex Garland. In the production, she played Lyndon, a central member of the team working on the secret Devs project, developed by the technology company Amaya. The character was originally conceived as male, but was played by Spaeny as part of a creative choice by the series. In October of the same year, she starred in The Craft: Legacy, a supernatural horror film written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, conceived as a sequel to The Craft (1996). This marked her first leading role in a film, as well as her first time going through a casting process. The production follows a group of young women who develop supernatural abilities, taking place within the same narrative universe as the original film.

In January 2021, Cailee Spaeny took part in the film How It Ends, an independent apocalyptic comedy also directed by Zoe Lister-Jones. In the production, she played Young Liza (also referred to as "Little Liza" or "Younger Self"), a teenage version of the protagonist Liza, played as an adult by the director herself. In April of the same year, she joined the cast of the HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown, created by Brad Ingelsby and starring Kate Winslet. In the work, Spaeny played Erin McMenamin, a 17-year-old and single mother living in Easttown, a small working‑class town in Pennsylvania. Her character faces financial difficulties while caring alone for her son, who needs an expensive hearing surgery. The events involving Erin constitute the central element that drives the main narrative of the miniseries.

In April 2022, Cailee Spaeny joined the cast of the series The First Lady, which depicts aspects of the personal and family lives of three First Ladies of the United States: Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama. In the production, Spaeny played Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (also known as Anna Roosevelt Halsted), the only daughter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt.

In September, Spaeny was cast as Priscilla Beaulieu Presley in the film Priscilla, directed by Sofia Coppola, alongside Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley. The film is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me.

Spaeny at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival

The film premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where Spaeny was widely acclaimed for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley, a performance that earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. At the premiere, the actress watched the film alongside Priscilla Presley herself, who was moved by the work and by Spaeny's performance.

In an interview, the actress commented on the preparation process for playing the character: "It was very daunting, but I was very lucky to spend some time with Priscilla, and she was very generous. When you're playing someone so well-known, that support makes all the difference. She was very kind to me and supported me, and that was my main source, besides the book."

In 2024, Cailee Spaeny starred in the dystopian war drama and action film Civil War, directed by Alex Garland, with whom she had previously worked on the miniseries Devs. In the film, she appeared alongside Wagner Moura and Kirsten Dunst, playing Jessie Collin, a young aspiring war photographer. That same year, she starred in Alien: Romulus, a film directed by Fede Álvarez and produced by Ridley Scott, part of the Alien franchise. In the production, she played the space colonist Rain Carradine, the central character of the narrative. 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 2025, she was part of the cast of Wake Up Dead Man, a film belonging to the Knives Out franchise, written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig. In the plot, she played Simone Vivane, a former cellist of international renown whose career was interrupted due to a chronic neuropathic pain condition. The character is drawn to a small town under the promise of a cure by becoming involved with the local church.

In 2026, she stars in the second season of the anthology series Beef, alongside Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Charles Melton.

Spaeny speaking at the 2024 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival

• "Send Her to Heaven" (2019), by The All-American Rejects

• Cailee Spaeny at IMDb