Kaitlyn Dever

Kaitlyn Dever (birthname: Kaitlyn Rochelle Dever), selected on Variety’s annual Actors to Watch list, is a rising talent who has worked on such acclaimed work as FX’s Justified (2011-2015), based on Elmore Leonard’s Raylan Givens short stories, and Destin Daniel Cretton’s acclaimed Short Term 12 (2013) Dever’s feature was in director Jake Kasdan’s black comedy, Bad Teacher (2011), with Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, and Jason Segel.

In the same year, Dever landed a supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas, and Judi Dench, and premiering at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles. Dever continued her impressive feature film roster with a supporting role in director James Ponsoldt’s highly acclaimed indie feature, The Spectacular Now (2013), starring Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Bob Odenkirk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Kyle Chandler.

Dever’s breakthrough role came the same year in another widely praised indie, Cretton’s Short Term 12, with Larson, John Gallagher, Jr., Rami Malek, Lakeith Stanfield, and Melora Walters. Dever earned a significant role in director Lynn Shelton’s well-reviewed comedy, Laggies (2014), starring Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sam Rockwell, and released by A24 after a Sundance film festival premiere. Dever led the “Children” component of the title of co-writer-director Jason Reitman’s film, Men, Women & Children (2014), with Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Morris, and Adam Sandler.

Kaitlyn Dever scored her first lead (and above-the-title) role in writer-director Kyle Wilamowski’s All Summers End, co-starring with Tye Sheridan. Although it never played theatrically, writer-director Peer Pederson’s indie drama, We Don’t Belong Here (finally released in 2017 after a delay), was notable for Dever’s fellow castmates: Catherine Keener, the late Anton Yelchin, Riley Keough, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Cary Elwes.

Earning a key supporting role in Kathryn Bigelow’s stunning drama, Detroit (2017), Dever played opposite John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jason Mitchell, John Krasinski, and Anthony Mackie. Dever reunited with writer-director Lynn Shelton for her praised drama, Outside In (2017), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and co-starring Edie Falco and Jay Duplass, followed by a reunion with director Reitman for his drama about Sen. Gary Hart, The Front Runner (2018), starring Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J.K. Simmons, and Alfred Molina, and premiering at the Telluride film festival.

Dever’s impressive film credits continued with her supporting role in Felix van Groeningen’s biopic, Beautiful Boy (2018), with Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney, and Amy Ryan. For the first time in her career, Caitlyn Dever was the face on the movie poster for co-writer/co-directors Britt Poulton’s and Dan Madison Savage’s Pentecostal drama, Them That Follow (2019), with Dever co-starring with Olivia Colman, Jim Gaffigan, and Walton Goggins, and premiering at the Sundance film festival.

Kaitlyn Dever’s artistic high point to date was arguably her engaging co-starring performance opposite Golden Globe-nominated Beanie Feldstein in Olivia Wilde’s feature directorial debut, Booksmart (2019), with Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis, and Billie Lourd. Dever was cast in the co-starring role opposite Ben Platt, who created the Broadway performance of the hit musical, Dear Evan Hansen (2021), with Julianne Moore and Amy Adams. Joining superstars (and executive producers) George Clooney and Julia Roberts for the rom-com Ticket to Paradise (2022), Caitlyn Dever played support in the frothy Universal Pictures release directed and co-written by Ol Parker.

Dever then starred as the title character in the Disney/20^th Century Studios production, Rosaline (2022), a revisionist take on Romeo and Juliet, featuring Bradley Whitford and Minnie Driver. Dever’s position as a lead Hollywood actor has been reinforced with her lead position in writer-director Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You (2023), with Zack Duhame and Geraldine Singer.