Kaylee Hottle Cause of Death: Car Accident Frederick Md Claims Life of 'Godzilla vs Kong' Star

Hottle began her acting career with commercials and was a student at the Texas School for the Deaf, advocating for increased representation of deaf actors in Hollywood.

Kaylee Hottle, the deaf actor best known for playing Jia in the 2021 film Godzilla vs Kong, has died after a car crash in Maryland, according to her father. She was 18. Joshua Hottle confirmed the news to TMZ after posting an emotional livestream on Facebook in which he explained the incident in American Sign Language (ASL).

According to TMZ, Hottle said he was in Texas when authorities informed him that his daughter had been involved in a collision. He later received another call saying that her heart had stopped while she was being taken to hospital.

Hottle rose to prominence as Jia, a young girl who communicates with King Kong through sign language and lives on Skull Island with Dr Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall, in Godzilla vs Kong. She reprised the role in the 2024 sequel, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Born in 2007, Hottle began her acting career in commercials. At the age of nine, she appeared in an advertisement for the live video messaging app Glide, which is widely used by members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. She also had a small role in the Prime Video action series Magnum P.I.

In a 2024 interview with Chron magazine, Hottle said she had been discovered by casting director Sarah Halley Finn after appearing in a commercial for the video relay service app Convo.

“I had a connection with Convo. They asked me to be in a commercial one day, and so I did that commercial,” she said through an interpreter. “And then the assistant director of Kong: Skull Island saw me and they thought I matched the character description of Jia.”

According to Chron, Hottle was a student at the Texas School for the Deaf. “It’s a great school for deaf students to go to,” she told the publication. “I have deaf teachers, and everyone is able to communicate with me through sign language.”

Speaking about representation for deaf actors in Hollywood, Hottle said: “I see a lot of positive things. There’s not a lot of deaf roles or opportunities out there. And so now we’re able, [and] I’m able to get them, and I think I’ve seen more and more growth and positivity.”

According to the report, Hottle came from a family with four generations of deaf relatives on her father’s side. In his Facebook post, Hottle said he was travelling to Maryland to claim his daughter’s body. He captioned the post: “I am taking a flight that I never would like to take.”