"Alright people, let's start at the beginning one last time..."
Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996 in Tarzana, California) is an American actress and singer. She is Ashkenazi Jewish on her dad's side, with an eighth each African-American and Boholano Filipino ancestry from her maternal grandfather. Her onscreen roles tend to gloss over this entirely.
Her breakout role as Mattie Ross in The Coen Brothers's True Grit gave her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress (despite being the main character). At 14, she was one of the category's youngest nominees.
In 2015, after appearing in the hugely successful Pitch Perfect 2, she signed a deal with Republic Records to release a full album, including the single "Love Myself". She has since had a successful music career that still continues to this day, with several of her songs earning platinum sales. She was also simultaneously under Mercury Records for a brief period in 2022-23. No official confirmation has been announced, but it's speculated that Hailee left Republic in 2023 when her name was removed from both of their websites. This may be a result of the label not promoting her music.
In 2018, she appeared in both Bumblebee and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, both roles that earned her praise.note She went on to star in several acclaimed properties such as the Apple TV+ show, Dickinson, the show Arcane which is set in the League of Legends universe, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe show, Hawkeye (2021). note
Roles:
- Back to You (2007 episode "Gracie's Bully") as a little girl
- Heather: A Fairy Tale (2008 short) as Heather
- She's a Fox (2009 short) as Talia Alden
- BrainSurge (Season 1, Episode 24) as herself
- Grand Cru (2010 short) as Sophie
- Sons of Tucson (2010 episode "Chicken Pox") as Bethany
- Summer Camp (2010) as Shayna Matson
- True Grit (2010) as Mattie Ross
- Without Wings (2010 short) as Allison
- Forgotten (2011) as London Lane
- Romeo and Juliet (2013) as Juliet
- Ender's Game (2013) as Petra Arkanian
- When Marnie Was There (2015) as Anna Sasaki (voice, English)
- Barely Lethal (2015) as Megan
- Begin Again (2015) as Violet Mulligan
- Pitch Perfect 2 & 3 (2015, 2017) as Emily Junk
- The Edge of Seventeen (2016) as Nadine
- Spider-Man: Spider-Verse films as Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman (voice)
- Bumblebee (2018) as Charlie Watson
- Dickinson (2019 - 2021) as Emily Dickinson
- Arcane (2021 - present) as Vi (voice)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2021 - present) as Kate Bishop / Hawkeye
- Hawkeye (2021)
Discography:
- Haiz (EP, 2015; rereleased in 2016 with extra content)
- Half Written Story (EP, 2020; the first of a two part EP series)note
- Untitled album (TBD)note
Associated tropes:
- Action Girl: In True Grit, Ender's Game, Barely Lethal, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Bumblebee, Arcane, and Hawkeye (2021), she has played characters who are skilled fighters or good at surviving anyway.
- Celebrity Endorsement: For Core Hydration and Privé Revaux.
-
Cool Loser: Her characters tend to be 'losers' in their peer group, despite the charm and charisma she brings. Actually Truth in Television as Hailee was heavily bullied in school before her acting career took off, to the point she had to switch to homeschooling. - Endearingly Dorky: Absolutely radiates this in most of her film roles, and especially in real life
. - Genki Girl: She's often prone to playing characters with a great amount of energy and light, much like how she is in real life.
- Give Geeks a Chance: In Barely Lethal, The Edge of Seventeen, Pitch Perfect 2, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Bumblebee, her character's love interest is an awkward, nerdy guy who's clearly into her as soon as they meet, with her character taking more time to respond. Played With in that her characters in those films are all Adorkable Cool Loser types who are equally, if not less popular than the geeky love interest, and borders on being a Gender Flip as she's the lead in most of those stories (the exception being the Spider-Verse).
- Ms. Fanservice: Tends to be seen as this in her music videos, in photoshoots and Instagram posts, during concerts, and her more recent acting works, with Dickinson in particular containing non-explicit sex scenes. Though compared to some of her peers, Hailee does this pretty modestly.
- Not Like Other Girls: Defied to hell and back with "Most Girls". The entire song is an anthem to the virtues that "most girls" have, and she declares that she wants to be like most girls. She tears apart the implications of the idea that being "not like most girls" is automatically worthy of praise.
- One of Us:
- She's unironically admitted to being hooked on 90 Day Fiancé. It's even gotten to the point that she's memorized the commercials. She's also a Grey's Anatomy fan.
- One of her favorite movies is 13 Going on 30. And her favorite MCU movie is Avengers: Endgame. As for some other favorites, she also loves Step Brothers, The Big Lebowski, and Paper Moon. The latter inspired her to pursue an acting career.
- Her favorite cartoon is SpongeBob SquarePants. Just don't ask who her favorite character is, she's really indecisive about it.
- Promoted Fangirl:
- She was already a big fan of the original Pitch Perfect, to the point of even admitting to family members that this was the type of cast she'd want to be working with. To say she was over the moon getting the role of Emily in the sequel would be an understatement.
- She was also a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe growing up. Getting to play a superhero was on her bucket list, so she was pretty thrilled to get cast as Kate Bishop in Hawkeye (2021).
- "Sesame Street" Cred: Made a guest appearance during season 51 to sing the song I Wonder, What If, Let's Try. note
