Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American actress and director. Howard was born in Los Angeles and attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, leaving in 2002 to take roles on Broadway but graduating in 2020. While portraying Rosalind in a 2003 production of As You Like It, Howard caught the attention of director M. Night Shyamalan, who cast her as the blind daughter of a local chief in the psychological thriller The Village (2004). She later starred in the leading role of a naiad who escapes from a fantasy world in Shyamalan's fantasy thriller Lady in the Water (2006). Howard's performance in Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It (2006) earned a Golden Globe Award nomination and she subsequently appeared as Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's superhero film Spider-Man 3 (2007). She went on to appear as Kate Connor in the ac...