Kaylee Hottle, 18, Dead After Maryland Car Crash — ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Actress Killed Early Tuesday

Kaylee Hottle is dead. The actress known for playing Jia in Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire died early Tuesday morning in a car crash in Ijamsville, Maryland. She was 18 years old.
Her father, Joshua Hottle, announced the news in a nearly 23-minute Facebook livestream using American Sign Language. He said he received two calls — the first telling him Kaylee was in a serious accident, the second telling him her heart had stopped on the way to the hospital. He flew from Texas to claim her body.
Texas School for the Deaf, where Kaylee was a senior, confirmed her death in a statement posted to social media.

What Happened

Frederick County Sheriff’s Office responded to the crash at 2:52 a.m. Tuesday. A 1995 Honda Accord, driven by a 19-year-old man from Frederick, went off the right side of a two-lane road and struck a culvert. Excessive speed is believed to be a contributing factor.
Kaylee was a passenger. She was taken to a trauma center and pronounced dead. The driver suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening. A third passenger declined medical treatment at the scene. The crash remains under investigation.

Who She Was

Kaylee was born in Atlanta to a multi-generational deaf family. Her father’s side has four generations of deaf relatives. She was fluent in American Sign Language from birth.
She got her start in a commercial for a video relay service at age nine. Her big break came in 2021 when she was cast as Jia in Godzilla vs. Kong — a deaf orphan who forms a close bond with Kong and communicates with him through sign language. She reprised the role in the 2024 sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which earned her a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.
Co-star Alexander Skarsgård said after the first film that Kaylee “steals the movie.”
She was a senior at Texas School for the Deaf and had her whole career ahead of her.

She Was 18 Years Old.
Source: TMZ, Deadline, Variety, Forbes, Baltimore Sun, Frederick County Sheriff’s Office