‘Godzilla’ actress Kelly Hotl dies in road accident at 18

Korean-American actress Kelly Hotl, known for her roles in two films of the ‘Godzilla’ series, has died in a road accident in the United States. She was only 18 years old at the time of her death.

The accident occurred in Frederick County, Maryland, according to the sheriff’s office on Tuesday morning (July 21).

Authorities said that around 3am, a Honda Accord lost control, veered off a two-lane road and crashed into a culvert. Kelly Hotl was one of the two people in the vehicle.

She was seriously injured and rushed to a trauma center, where doctors declared her dead. The driver of the car was also injured and is undergoing treatment in hospital, though the injuries are not serious, officials said.

The sheriff’s office stated that excessive speed is believed to be a primary cause of the accident based on initial findings.

Kelly Hotl made her big-screen debut in the 2021 film ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’, playing the character of Jia, a deaf orphan from Skull Island. In the story, Jia communicates with King Kong using sign language.

She reprised the same role in the 2024 film ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’. For her performance, she received a nomination in the Best Performance by a Young Actor category at the 2024 Saturn Awards.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Kelly Hotl had an American father and a Korean mother. She was deaf from birth. At the time of her death, she was a 12th-grade student at the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin, Texas.