Kaylee Hottle, the deaf actress best known for playing Jia in the Godzilla franchise films Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), has died at the age of 18.

Hottle was killed in a single-vehicle crash early Tuesday morning, July 21, 2026, in Ijamsville, Maryland. According to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, she was a passenger in a vehicle that veered off the road and struck a culvert around 2:52 a.m. Excessive speed is believed to have been a factor. The driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while another passenger declined medical treatment. Hottle was airlifted to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Her father, Joshua Hottle, confirmed the news, sharing an emotional statement in which he expressed gratitude for the 18 years they had together. The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled her cause of death as multiple blunt-force injuries, with the manner of death listed as accidental.

Born March 17, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia, Hottle came from a multi-generational deaf family and was a student at the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. She rose to prominence with her breakout role as Jia, a young deaf girl who forms a deep bond with Kong, in the MonsterVerse films. Her performances were widely praised for bringing authentic representation of the deaf community to a major Hollywood franchise.

Tributes have poured in from fans, the deaf community, and those who worked with her, remembering Hottle as a talented young actress whose brief career left a lasting impact. Her school issued a statement expressing profound sadness over the loss of one of its seniors.

Hottle’s death marks a tragic end to a promising career that had only just begun.

Sources

• TMZ