Kaylee Hottle

Kaylee Hottle (born 2008 (age 16)) is a deaf American actress who stars in the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong and its 2024 sequel film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Background
Hottle was born around 2008 (age 16). She was born to an all-deaf family, with her father's side having four generations of deaf relatives, and is fluent in American Sign Language. In 2017, she appeared in a commercial for the video relay service Convo. She also appeared in other commercials, as well as the informational project 10 Deaf Children: One Powerful Message, aimed at promoting support for the Deaf community in their pursuit of equal rights.

For the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong, the casting director Sarah Halley Finn looked for a deaf actor for the film's deaf character Jia through a network of casting directors and theaters, and she was guided to Hottle by an assistant director from the earlier film Kong: Skull Island who saw her in a Convo commercial. The film was Hottle's feature-film debut. The film's starring actors, Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård, learned ASL so they and Hottle could communicate on set when not in character. In the film, her character uses ASL to communicate with the giant gorilla Kong. Hottle reprised her role as Jia for the 2024 film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

She attends the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin, Texas.