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10 Things to Know About Kaylee Hottle, the Groundbreaking Deaf Actress From the Godzilla vs. Kong Films

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Kaylee Hottle

Kaylee Hottle, the young actress best known for playing Jia in the “Godzilla vs. Kong” films, died early Tuesday following a car accident in Maryland. Here are 10 things to know about her life, her career and the trailblazing role she played in bringing authentic deaf representation to a major Hollywood franchise.

1. She was born into a multi-generational deaf family

Hottle was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 1, 2007, into an all-deaf family with four generations of deaf relatives on her father’s side, according to Variety. She was fluent in American Sign Language from an early age, a skill that would later become central to her acting career.

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2. Her career began in commercials advocating for the deaf community

Hottle got her start in commercials promoting support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. At age 9, she appeared in a widely viewed public service announcement for Glide, a live video messaging app commonly used within the deaf community. In 2017, she appeared in an advertisement for Convo, a video relay and ASL translation service, an appearance that would later prove pivotal to her acting career.

3. A casting director discovered her through that Convo ad

According to Wikipedia, casting director Sarah Halley Finn was searching for a deaf actress to portray the deaf character Jia in “Godzilla vs. Kong” and was connected to Hottle through an assistant director from the earlier film “Kong: Skull Island,” who had seen her in the Convo commercial and believed she matched the character’s description.

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4. “Godzilla vs. Kong” marked her feature film debut

Hottle made her feature film debut in 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” playing Jia, a deaf orphan native to Skull Island who forms a close bond with Kong and is taken in by Dr. Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall. Early in the film, Jia presents a handmade doll to Kong, marking the beginning of a relationship that becomes central to the story.

5. Her co-stars learned sign language to work with her

Starring actors Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård both learned American Sign Language specifically so they could communicate with Hottle on set outside of scenes being filmed, according to Wikipedia. Skarsgård later praised Hottle’s remarkable talent and professionalism in the role, according to Forbes.

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6. She reprised the role in the franchise’s 2024 sequel

Hottle returned as Jia in the 2024 sequel, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” once again portraying the character’s evolving bond with Kong. For that performance, she received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.

7. She spoke openly about the importance of deaf representation

Ahead of the 2024 sequel’s release, Hottle spoke with Digital Spy about what it meant to bring a deaf character to a major franchise. “Jia being a Deaf person in this world, it’s so amazing to see her on the big screen,” Hottle said. “In general, I hope that Deaf people see her and they think the same thing, that she is as amazing as I think she is.”

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Hottle also reflected on Jia’s emotional connection to Kong, describing it as central to the character’s journey. “I think Jia grew up not having anybody and now she’s able to connect with King Kong, they have such a caring relationship for each other,” she said. “Both of them are able to find their own paths and where they’re from and where their home is, but that also brings them together. They are able to get to that place they want to call home.”

8. She also appeared in the “Magnum P.I.” reboot

Beyond the Godzilla franchise, Hottle appeared in the “Magnum P.I.” reboot series, playing a character named Joon in a Season 4 episode, adding television credits to her growing filmography alongside her feature film work.

9. She was a senior at the Texas School for the Deaf

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At the time of her death, Hottle was a senior at the Texas School for the Deaf, according to Forbes. The school confirmed her death in a public statement, writing: “It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland. Our hearts are with Kaylee’s family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved her during this incredibly difficult time.” The school also asked the public to respect the family’s privacy and refrain from speculating about the circumstances surrounding the accident.

10. Her father announced her death through a livestream in ASL

Hottle’s father, Joshua Hottle, who is also deaf, shared news of his daughter’s death through a nearly 23-minute Facebook livestream delivered in American Sign Language. He explained that he was flying from Texas to Maryland to claim her body, describing the shock of learning that his daughter had been involved in a severe crash. According to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded around 2:52 a.m. Tuesday to a single-vehicle collision on Windsor Road in Ijamsville, Maryland. A preliminary investigation found that a 1995 Honda Accord left the roadway and struck a culvert, with authorities saying excessive speed is believed to have contributed to the crash. The driver, a 19-year-old Frederick man, was hospitalized with injuries not considered life-threatening, while another passenger declined treatment at the scene. The crash remains under investigation.

A legacy of representation

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Hottle’s death has prompted an outpouring of grief across the entertainment industry and the deaf community alike, with tributes highlighting both her groundbreaking on-screen representation and the promise of a career and education that ended far too soon.

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AMD Stock Jumps 8% Ahead of Advancing AI Event as Microsoft Partnership Expansion Fuels Rally

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Oil Prices Plunge Below $95 as US-Iran Ceasefire Sparks Relief

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices surged 8.04%, or $40.48, to $544.05 Tuesday afternoon, as investors positioned ahead of the company’s closely watched Advancing AI 2026 event this week and continued to react to news of an expanded partnership with Microsoft Azure.

Tuesday’s rally builds on gains from Monday, when AMD closed 1.58% higher following the Microsoft announcement, before adding another 3.56% in premarket trading Tuesday. The stock’s advance also coincides with a broader recovery across U.S. semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rising more than 3% as major chip names including Intel, Texas Instruments and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. all posted gains.

A deepened partnership with Microsoft

Much of Tuesday’s momentum traces back to AMD’s expanded collaboration with Microsoft, announced in recent days. According to the official announcement, AMD will broaden its GPU, CPU, networking and software services supporting Microsoft’s infrastructure, with Microsoft specifically deploying the AMD Helios Rackscale Solution across its Azure cloud platform. The partnership also includes plans for Azure to add two new AMD EPYC CPU-powered virtual machine series and expand its deployment of AMD’s Pensando data processing units to support Azure’s broader networking services.

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AMD CEO Lisa Su characterized the significance of the expanded partnership in a statement accompanying the announcement. “AMD and Microsoft have spent years building high-performance infrastructure together, and today we’re extending that partnership across the full stack of AMD AI,” Su said.

A critical week ahead with Advancing AI 2026

Tuesday’s gains also reflect growing investor anticipation ahead of AMD’s Advancing AI 2026 event, scheduled for July 22 and 23, which the company has positioned as one of its most significant catalysts of the year. The event is expected to feature the formal launch of AMD’s next-generation Zen 6 Venice EPYC server processors, manufactured on TSMC’s advanced 2-nanometer process, along with an updated roadmap for the company’s MI455X AI accelerator chip.

Meta Platforms has already adopted AMD’s Helios server platform and is expected to begin deploying Helios servers during the second half of 2026, according to earlier reporting from AMD’s management. On the company’s May earnings call, AMD executives noted strong customer demand for the Helios platform and indicated they would share additional details during the July event. The Helios rack-scale system, powered by AMD’s MI455X GPU, features 432 gigabytes of high-bandwidth memory, notably higher than the 288 gigabytes offered by Nvidia’s competing Vera Rubin chip system.

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Recovering from a sharp pullback

Tuesday’s rebound follows a difficult stretch for AMD shares, which had fallen roughly 17% from their June 30 high of $584.73, closing at $486.27 on Friday amid a broader sector-wide selloff rather than any company-specific setback. Analysts tracking the stock noted that AMD had reported no disappointing quarterly results, lost no major customers, and faced no significant product delays during that decline, attributing the pullback instead to broader concerns about elevated valuations across the semiconductor sector following a wave of AI-related volatility.

Despite the pullback, AMD’s shares remained up 131% for the first half of 2026 alone, according to earlier reporting, before the stock’s momentum weakened over the subsequent month amid the broader chip sector selloff that has affected multiple semiconductor names in recent weeks.

Additional catalysts supporting the rally

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Beyond the Microsoft partnership and the upcoming Advancing AI event, AMD’s stock has also been supported by recent supply chain reports suggesting the company has secured additional high-bandwidth memory capacity for its next-generation AI accelerators, according to TradingKey. Positive early feedback from major cloud service providers integrating AMD’s newest Zen-based server processors into their infrastructure has further bolstered investor sentiment, with early performance benchmarks pointing to meaningful improvements in power efficiency and compute density.

Wall Street remains broadly bullish

Despite recent volatility, Wall Street analysts have largely maintained an optimistic outlook on AMD’s prospects. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider maintained a Buy rating on the stock earlier this month, raising his price target from $450 to $640, citing surging demand for high-performance CPUs driven by the industry’s broader shift toward agentic AI workloads. Schneider’s reasoning centers on the distinction between AI model training, which remains heavily GPU-intensive, and AI inference in real-world applications, which typically requires a combination of both CPUs and GPUs, a dynamic that favors AMD’s diversified chip portfolio.

Wells Fargo analysts similarly raised their price target on AMD from $505 to $615 while maintaining an Overweight rating, according to earlier reporting. Analysts currently project AMD’s second-quarter 2026 earnings per share to climb 400% year-over-year to $1.35, with full-year fiscal 2026 earnings expected to surge 88.1% to $6.15 per share, followed by projected growth of 76.1% to $10.83 per share in fiscal 2027.

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With AMD’s Advancing AI 2026 event beginning Wednesday and the company’s second-quarter earnings report scheduled for August 4, investors are likely to closely watch for additional customer commitments tied to the Helios platform, along with further details on the Zen 6 Venice CPU launch and updated MI455X accelerator roadmap. Given the stock’s recent recovery from its pullback and the significant catalysts on the immediate horizon, AMD is positioned to remain one of the more closely watched names within the broader AI infrastructure trade through the remainder of the summer, even as ongoing geopolitical tensions tied to the conflict between the United States and Iran continue to introduce broader uncertainty around global supply chains and semiconductor markets more generally.

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Oil prices to hit $120 soon? Goldman Sachs makes big prediction as Hormuz concerns loom

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Oil prices to hit $120 soon? Goldman Sachs makes big prediction as Hormuz concerns loom
Wall Street major Goldman Sachs has warned that Brent crude could surge to $120 per barrel if disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil transit route, persist, even as its base case assumes an eventual easing of tensions in the Middle East.

Goldman Sachs expects Brent crude to average $80 per barrel in the fourth quarter and $75 next year, assuming tensions in the Middle East ease. However, the risks to its forecasts remain “tilted to the upside” due to potential disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and possibly the Red Sea, analysts said.

Global energy markets have faced renewed volatility this month, with Brent climbing back above $91 per barrel amid fresh fighting between the U.S. and Iran and a threat by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to blockade shipments from Saudi Arabia. Red Sea routes have played a key role in enabling Persian Gulf crude cargoes affected by disruptions to reach buyers.

Also read: Relieved that crude has finally fallen? The real warning signs just began flashing elsewhere

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Goldman Sachs said lower global inventories in the second quarter have increased the oil market’s vulnerability to supply shocks. However, weaker Chinese imports and greater demand elasticity could limit the potential for further price gains.

Crude oil price today

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday as markets weighed reports of renewed diplomatic efforts between the U.S. and Iran, including a proposed 10-day ceasefire, against continued military exchanges and a threat by Yemen’s Houthis to impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had received a 10-day ceasefire proposal from mediators. The initiative aims to preserve the interim agreement signed on June 17 and create a path toward a lasting deal to end the conflict that began on February 28 following U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The diplomatic push followed another night of U.S. strikes on Iranian cities and retaliatory attacks by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on U.S. military assets across the region. U.S. Central Command later said on Monday that it had launched another round of strikes on Iran.
The U.S. carried out its 10th consecutive day of strikes after President Donald Trump vowed that Iran “will pay” for the killing of American soldiers. Iran responded with attacks on Kuwait.

The conflict began on February 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran. Tehran retaliated with strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. military bases. U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, along with Israeli strikes on Lebanon during the conflict, have killed thousands of people and displaced millions.

Also read:Oil is crude once again! Is $95 the new normal and what it means for Indian investors?

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Over the past week, Trump has also threatened to widen the scope of U.S. strikes in Iran to include energy facilities and bridges.

The 1949 Geneva Conventions, which set rules for humanitarian conduct during war, prohibit attacks on sites considered essential to civilian life. Following Trump’s earlier threats to target such infrastructure, international law experts in the U.S. said earlier this year that such attacks could potentially constitute war crimes.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

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Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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OneWater Marine Inc. (ONEW) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript