Shailene Woodley

Shailene Diann Woodley (born November 15, 1991) [1] is an American actress, film producer, and activist. Brought up in Simi Valley, California, Woodley began modeling at the age of four and began acting professionally in minor television roles. She first gained prominence for her starring role as Amy Juergens in the ABC Family drama series The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008–2013).

Woodley made her film debut in Alexander Payne's comedy-drama The Descendants (2011) and went on to star in the coming of age film The Spectacular Now (2013). For the former, she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the latter won her a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. She achieved wider recognition for her starring role as a teenage cancer patient in the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and as Beatrice Prior in the science fiction film The Divergent Series (2014–2016). From 2017 to 2019, she played a sexual assault survivor in the HBO drama series Big Little Lies, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

Woodley is an environmental activist and has served as a board member of the super PAC Our Revolution.



When asked in the past, Woodley repeatedly asserted that she did not consider herself a feminist: "No, because I love men, and I think the idea of 'raise women to power, take the men away from the power' is never going to work out because you need balance...my biggest thing is really sisterhood more than feminism. I don't know how we as women expect men to respect us because we don't seem to respect each other."[63][64][65] However, she did call herself a feminist in an interview with the New York Times in August 2017.[66]


Shailene Woodley at the film premiere of White Bird in a Blizzard in 2014
Woodley is an avid environmental activist[67] and climate advocate.[68] She and her mother co-founded the All it Takes non-profit organization in 2010. All it Takes is a youth leadership program that aims to educate young people to practice empathy, compassion, responsibility, and purpose in hopes to foster sustainable, positive change for themselves, others and the environment.[69] She supported Bernie Sanders for president in 2016.[70]

In 2016, she protested against the Dakota Access Pipeline, a US$3.87 billion underground petroleum transport pipeline being built by Dakota Access LLC. On October 10, she was arrested for criminal trespassing in Saint Anthony, North Dakota.[71][72][73] Woodley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of probation.[74][75]

In mid-2016, Woodley joined the board of Our Revolution, a political organization aimed to educate voters about issues,[76][77] get people involved in the political process, and work to organize and elect progressive leaders.[78][79]

On September 29, 2016, Woodley was honored at the 20th Anniversary Global Green Environmental Awards receiving the Entertainment Industry Environmental Leadership Award for co-founding the All it Takes organization. In October 2016, she was given the Female EMA Futures Award during the 26th Annual Environmental Media Association (EMA) Awards.[80]

In 2018, Woodley took activist Calina Lawrence to the 75th Golden Globe Awards as her guest; they first met at Standing Rock while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.[81][82]

In July 2019, Woodley became an Oceans Ambassador for Greenpeace and embarked on a three-week-long expedition to the Sargasso Sea to study the impact of plastics and microplastics on marine life, and to document the importance of this unique ecosystem for protection under a new Global Ocean Treaty that is being negotiated at the UN.[83]