Hailee Steinfeld Biography

Hailee Steinfeld is an American actress and singer. She had her breakthrough with the western drama film True Grit, which earned her nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award and the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Early Life

Hailee Steinfeld was born on December 11, 1996, in Tarzana, California, to Cheri (Domasin), an interior designer, and Peter Steinfeld, a personal fitness trainer. She has a brother, Griffin. Her uncle is Jake Steinfeld, a fitness trainer, and her great-uncle is actor Larry Domasin. Her father is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and her mother’s ancestry is Filipino, African-American, British Isles, and German. Hailee was raised in Thousand Oaks, California.

Career

At an early age, she appeared in several short films to gain experience. She played the role of Talia Alden in She’s a Fox (2009), which received several awards. Her debut in a feature film for theater was True Grit (2010). She played a major role, Mattie Ross, with Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon.

Steinfeld rose to mainstream prominence for her lead roles in Ender’s Game (2013), Romeo & Juliet (2013), Begin Again (2013), and 3 Days to Kill (2014). She received critical acclaim for her roles in the Pitch Perfect film series (2015–2017) and the coming-of-age comedy-drama film The Edge of Seventeen (2016), the latter of which earned her a Golden Globe Award and Critics’ Choice Movie Award nomination. Steinfeld has since provided the voice of Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Vi in Netflix’s animated TV series Arcane (2021–present), based on the League of Legends video game franchise. She also starred as Charlie Watson in the Transformers film Bumblebee (2018) and Emily Dickinson in the Apple TV+ comedy-drama series Dickinson (2019–2021). She played Kate Bishop / Hawkeye, appearing in the 2021 Disney+ series Hawkeye, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Steinfeld gained recognition in music after performing “Flashlight” in Pitch Perfect 2 (2015). She signed with Republic Records soon after and released her debut single, “Love Myself“, followed by her debut extended play Haiz (2015). She went on to release a series of singles, including the collaborations “Starving”, which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and “Let Me Go” with Alesso, Florida Georgia Line and Watt, which peaked at number two on the US Dance songs chart. In May 2020, she released her second extended play, Half Written Story, supported by the singles “Wrong Direction” and “I Love You’s“.

Personal Life

Steinfeld started dating Instagram star Cameron Smoller in 2016. They made their public debut as a couple at a Golden Globes party in early 2017 but broke up in November 2017. She started dating Irish singer Niall Horan in December 2017. The two broke up a year later in December 2018.

Trivia

Hailee Steinfeld was encouraged to accept the role of Kate Bishop by Finn Jones, with whom she worked in Dickinson.
Hailee Steinfeld also voiced Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman in the Sony Pictures Studios productions Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One).

She has been home-schooled since 2008. Hailee says she is very interested to be on the other side of the camera and would like to eventually produce and direct.