Actress Kaylee Hottle has tragically passed away.

On Tuesday, July 21, Kaylee’s father, Joshua Hottle, told TMZ his 18-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident early Tuesday morning in Maryland. According to another report published by TMZ, Kaylee was a passenger in the single-vehicle crash. The driver of the 1995 Honda Accord she was in went off the road and slammed into a roadside ditch, with speeding thought to be a factor, authorities told the outlet.

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office told TMZ that emergency personnel responded to the crash around 2:52 AM, and Kaylee was rushed to the hospital, where she was eventually pronounced dead. The 19-year-old driver reportedly sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while the other passenger in the vehicle declined to be treated at the scene.

The car accident is currently under investigation by the sheriff’s office Traffic Unit.

The Georgia native was a deaf actress and comes from an all-deaf family.

Joshua posted a heartbreaking 22-minute video of himself on Facebook revealing in American Sign Language that he had to travel from Texas to claim her body, per TMZ.

“I am taking a flight that I never would like to take,” Joshua captioned the video.

Kaylee got her start in the business with commercials, per TMZ, and was a part of the Godzilla franchise, playing the role of Jia in Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021 and reprising her role in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire in 2024. She also was in one episode of Magnum P.I. in 2021, portraying a character named Joon.

While doing press for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire in 2024, Kaylee told Collider via ASL, “It’s such an honor to be able to have this role and portray Jia” adding, “I’m hoping that it’ll bring good future opportunities for me.”

Kaylee also discussed deaf representation in Hollywood in the interview.

“I think it’s hard to add a lot of deaf roles into movies. It’s such a great thing that they’re able to ask us as people of the deaf community and put us in these Hollywood roles,” she explained. “I think we do have a long way to go, though, because it’s not a normal thing to have a deaf actor in a movie as it should be, but I think Hollywood is making great strides.”

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