'Divergent': Looking At Shailene Woodley's Best Roles

American actress Shailene Woodley already has a long list of successful films and TV series. Born November 15, 1991, Shailene began her modeling career at the age of four and in 1999 landed her first minor role in the TV film Replacing Dad. In 2004, Shailene would take on a lead role in another TV film, A Place Called Home and her career would really start to take off in the 2000s with her roles in these next two television hits…

Starring in the popular TV film, Felicity: An American Girl Adventure would gain Shailene Woodley her second nomination for a Young Artist Award and bring her a number of guest roles on series like Everybody Loves Raymond and CSI: NY.

The role that would change Shailene Woodley’s life forever would come in 2008 when she was cast as “Amy Juergens” in the popular ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The show would become one of the most popular show’s on ABC Family, airing for five seasons until its end in 2013.

Following her success in television, Shailene Woodley set her sights on making a film debut. In 2011, not only would she make her film debut in The Descendants but it would be one of the most popular films of the year! Woodley even won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female!

Now the talk of the town, Shailene Woodley didn’t waste any time in taking on her next big role in 2013’s The Spectacular Now. Starring alongside Miles Teller, Shailene blew critics away with her portrayal of the studious “Aimee Finecky”.

The next year, Shailene Woodley would star in the drama thriller White Bird in a Blizzard and while the film was first received warmly at the Sundance Film Festival, it would bring mixed reviews once it was made mainstream. One thing was for sure though, Shailene brought her usual energy and spirit to the role and critics had only positive reviews for her part!

2014 would bring two more big roles for Shailene Woodley, the first of which was in the hit book series turned film series, Divergent. Portraying the main character “Tris”, while the film received mixed reviews, critics had nothing but positivity for Shailene and the film would reach number one in the box office the weekend it opened! The second film of the series, Insurgent (2015) was just as successful as the first, unfortunately, the third film Allegiant (2016) wouldn’t fare as well. 

The second big role for Shailene Woodley in 2014 was another film adaptation of a popular novel, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. One of the most touching and heart-wrenching films of the twenty-first century, Shailene once again excelled in her role as a young cancer patient, “Hazel”.

Shailene Woodley has continued to take on big roles following Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars beginning with 2016’s biographical Snowden. Also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the now famous whistleblower Edward Snowden, Shailene portrayed Snowden’s girlfriend Lindsay to a tee and was hailed by critics!

After a brief break from acting, Shailene came back in full force in 2017 when she took on the part of “Jane”, a sexual assault survivor, in the HBO series Big Little Lies. Starring in both seasons of the series, Shailene was nominated for both a Golden Globe and Emmy for Best Supporting Actress!