Kaylee Hottle was born in Atlanta, Georgia, into a multi-generational deaf family, with four generations of deaf relatives on her father’s side alone. In a more equitable world, her fluency in American Sign Language as a child might have made for an intriguing biographical detail. Rather, it served as the basis for one of the more subtly noteworthy casting choices in a big franchise movie in recent years. On July 21, 2026, she passed away in a car accident in Maryland at the age of eighteen.
A 19-year-old’s 1995 Honda Accord veered off the road and collided with a culvert in Ijamsville just before three in the morning. The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office believes that excessive speed is a contributing issue. After being taken to a trauma facility, Hottle was eventually declared deceased. Another passenger refused medical attention at the scene, and the driver’s injuries were not life-threatening. Joshua Hottle, her father, confirmed his daughter’s passing in a roughly 23-minute webcast in American Sign Language after learning about it over the phone from authorities. He also said that he was traveling from Texas to Maryland to pick up her remains.
In Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Hottle is most remembered for her role as Jia, a deaf orphan who develops a strong bond with Kong and is adopted by Dr. Ilene Andrews. She was one of the youngest actors to play a big role in a major Hollywood film, having landed the job at the age of 13. Numerous cast and crew members reported that she was totally relaxed on set. In order to communicate with Hottle throughout the production,
Alexander Skarsgård, who played the scientist Nathan Lind alongside her, learned basic ASL. He later told reporters that he was impressed by her professionalism and poise at a time when most kids would have been overwhelmed by the size of the production.
Although Hottle has technical expertise, it wasn’t the only thing she contributed to the movies. She came from a home where signing was just a way of communicating, therefore she was a native American Sign Language signer. Casting a hearing actor, no matter how well-prepared, would not have been able to reproduce that authenticity on television. In a genre that had never previously allowed for one, the character of Jia gave deaf kids watching those movies a familiar presence. Hottle received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for the 2024 follow-up. When she was nominated, she was sixteen years old.
Hottle was a senior at Texas School for the Deaf, which acknowledged her death in a statement that described it as “heartbreaking” and requested privacy for the family. “I’m so devastated to hear this,” her co-star Millie Bobby Brown wrote on Instagram. Kaylee, you will be sorely missed. In that video, her father said something out of grief that became viral in the days that followed. Joshua Hottle said, “I have forgiven you,” to the driver. “Don’t let this incident ruin the rest of your life.”
