2007–2015: Breakthrough and critical recognition Steinfeld began acting at age 10; she appeared in several short films, including playing the role of Talia Alden in the award-winning ''
She's a Fox. Steinfeld was chosen for the role of Mattie Ross in True Grit when she was 13. Reviews from Roger Ebert, the Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone were also complimentary. The role earned Steinfeld a nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; it went to Melissa Leo. In May 2011, five months after True Grit'' was released, she was chosen to be the new face of Italian designer brand
Miu Miu. in February 2011 In 2011, Steinfeld was cast at age 14 to play
Juliet in a
2013 adaptation of
Romeo and Juliet. The role was originally intended for a 22-year-old actress; there was concern about nudity in the film, but its director explained that when Steinfeld was cast, the script was changed to make it age-appropriate. The film was released in October 2013 to poor reviews in the United States and internationally. Steinfeld starred as
Petra Arkanian in ''
Ender's Game,'' a science-fiction action-adventure film based on the book by
Orson Scott Card. The film was released on November 1, 2013. Steinfeld played Violet, one of the supporting characters in the romance-drama
Begin Again. The film was given a
limited release in the United States on June 27, 2014, grossing $134,064 on its opening weekend; it opened in wide release on July 11. It was re-released by The Weinstein Company on August 29. Paramount Pictures closed a deal in 2011 for the screen rights to the Cat Patrick novel
Forgotten and announced that she would play London Lane in a project yet to be filmed . In 2014, Steinfeld was announced to star as Min Green in a screen adaptation of
Daniel Handler's romantic-comedy book
Why We Broke Up, but as of 2022, the film had not gone into production. Steinfeld was cast as Eliza opposite ''Ender's Game
co-star Asa Butterfield in the film adaptation of Ten Thousand Saints,
which premiered on January 23, 2015, at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Steinfeld was originally cast to play the female lead in the 2015 film, For the Dogs,
but was replaced by actress Emma Roberts. In spring 2014, Steinfeld narrated as the voice of Anne Frank for an exhibition on Frank at the Museum of Tolerance. In October, she was cast to star as Hadley in The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight,
based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer E. Smith. But when that film was released in 2023, Haley Lu Richardson was starring. Steinfeld was announced in January 2015 as the star of the film adaptation of Carrie Pilby, the young adult novel by Caren Lissner; she left the project due to scheduling conflicts. In March, Steinfeld was one of the voice actors for the English-language dub of the Japanese animated film When Marnie Was There.
Steinfeld plays Anna Sasaki alongside Kiernan Shipka as Marnie. In April 2015, Steinfeld was cast in a lead role in Break My Heart 1000 Times,'' based on the YA novel by Daniel Waters.
Scott Speer was set to direct, but the film has not been made as of 2022. Steinfeld starred as the Trinity in the music video for "
Bad Blood" by
Taylor Swift featuring
Kendrick Lamar. The video premiered at the 2015
Billboard Music Awards ceremony on May 17, 2015, and won a
MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. Steinfeld starred in limited-release movie
Barely Lethal. The movie was directed by Kyle Newman and was released on May 29, 2015. Steinfeld co-starred in
Pitch Perfect 2, alongside
Anna Kendrick,
Rebel Wilson, and
Elizabeth Banks, who also directed. She played some of her songs for a representative from
Republic Records at an event in
New York City, and the label signed her. In May, Republic Records announced the record deal and that Steinfeld was working on her first release.
2015–2018: Established actress and musical projects In July 2015, Steinfeld and singer
Shawn Mendes released an acoustic version of Mendes' single, "
Stitches". The following month, Steinfeld released her debut single, "
Love Myself", with
Republic Records. The song garnered media attention for its empowering message as well as suggestive lyrics that led media outlets to dub the song an "ode to masturbation". The song debuted on the
Billboard Pop Songs chart at number 27 (peaking at 15), marking the highest debut for a solo female artist on the chart in 17 years, since
Natalie Imbruglia's "
Torn" in 1998. Steinfeld's debut extended play,
Haiz (a nickname used by her fans), was released in November 2015.
Haiz was produced by
Mattman & Robin and features co-writers
Julia Michaels and
Justin Tranter. The EP was released to generally positive reviews. In February 2016, Steinfeld released a remixed version of
"Rock Bottom", as the second single featuring American funk pop band
DNCE. Steinfeld's next single, "
Starving", was released in July 2016. The song is a collaboration with Grey featuring
Zedd and became her biggest hit to date going platinum in
Italy,
New Zealand,
Sweden,
United Kingdom and the
United States, while also going double platinum in
Australia and triple platinum in
Canada. 's 2018
Witness: The Tour In September 2016, Steinfeld played the lead role in
The Edge of Seventeen, a coming-of-age comedy co-starring
Blake Jenner,
Woody Harrelson and
Kyra Sedgwick, and written and directed by
Kelly Fremon Craig. The film was released on November 18, 2016, to positive reviews; Steinfeld's performance was praised and earned her a
Golden Globe Award nomination. In early 2017, Steinfeld featured on two songs: "
Show You Love" and "
Digital Love". In March, Steinfeld was featured on American rapper
Machine Gun Kelly's single "
At My Best" taken from his third studio album
Bloom. A month later, Steinfeld released her next single "
Most Girls". Steinfeld performed the song live for the first time at the
2017 Radio Disney Music Awards on April 29. A music video was released and received praise for its message of embracing individuality. Steinfeld also reprised her role as Emily Junk in
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017). In September 2017, Steinfeld released the single "
Let Me Go", a collaboration with Swedish record producer
Alesso featuring
Florida Georgia Line and
Andrew Watt, which reached number 14 on the
Mainstream Top 40 chart. That same month she featured on the remix of "Plot Twist" by
Marc E. Bassy. On January 12, 2018, Steinfeld released "
Capital Letters" for the soundtrack to the film
Fifty Shades Freed. The song was received with positive reviews and peaked at number 12 on the
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. In March 2018, Steinfeld revealed that she is "wrapping up" work on her debut studio album. She performed at
Indonesian Choice Awards in
Jakarta, Indonesia the next month. Steinfeld then featured the song "Colour" with MNEK on June 1. In September, she was featured on
Logic's album,
YSIV, on the song "Ordinary Day" and on
Chic's album, ''
It's About Time on the song "Dance with Me". In late 2018, Steinfeld starred in the Transformers spin-off film Bumblebee, and provided the voice of Spider-Gwen in the Academy Award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.'' That same month, hosted and performed at
2018 MTV Europe Music Awards in
Bilbao, Spain.
Since 2019: streaming series and ongoing projects received by
Dickinson in 2020 At the end of 2018, Steinfeld was cast to star as
Emily Dickinson in the
Apple TV+ period comedy series
Dickinson. To promote the show, Steinfeld released "
Afterlife" which featured on the show's first-season finale. The show ran for three seasons. In 2020, the show won a
Peabody Award, making
Dickinson the first show from Apple TV+ to win the prestigious honor. In January 2019, Steinfeld featured on the remix of "
Woke Up Late" by
Drax Project. In August 2019, Steinfeld featured on the music video for
Benny Blanco and
Juice Wrld's single "Graduation". She also appeared in a cameo as one of the recruited Angels in the 2019 film ''
Charlie's Angels, and also made an appearance on Between Two Ferns: The Movie''. Steinfeld released two singles in 2020, "
Wrong Direction" and "
I Love You's". The tracks acted as the first and second singles, respectively, from her EP
Half Written Story, which was released on May 8, 2020. The EP received mixed reviews with critics praising Steinfeld's vocals, confidence and vulnerability but panning the music. On May 28, 2020, Steinfeld released a single with Taiwanese singer
Chen Linong, titled "Masterpiece". In December 2020, Steinfeld was cast as
Kate Bishop / Hawkeye in the
Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe series
Hawkeye. The show premiered on November 24, 2021, and consisted of six episodes. Her role received positive reviews from critics. Steinfeld is set to reprise the role in future films, noting that she has signed a multi-project deal. Steinfeld also voiced Violet "Vi" in the
adult animated show
Arcane which was released on November 20, 2021. The show is set in the
League of Legends universe. A second season premiered November 9, 2024. In April 2022, Steinfeld teased a song titled "
Coast". Marking two years since she last released music, "Coast" was released on July 28, 2022, and was "a euphoric, guitar-and-percussion-driven single", featuring American rapper
Anderson .Paak. A music video premiered on
Facebook on November 9, 2022. An acoustic version was released on December 7, 2022. In March 2023, Steinfeld released "SunKissing" which
Rolling Stone described as a "vibey, electric guitar-backed pop earworm". Steinfeld reprised her voice role as Spider-Gwen in
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). She also made a cameo appearance as Kate Bishop in the MCU film
The Marvels (2023). At the end of 2024, Steinfeld voiced an alternate version of Bishop in the
third season of the Disney+ animated series
What If...? episode "
What If... 1872?". In April 2025, Steinfeld appeared in
Ryan Coogler's film
Sinners (2025) alongside
Michael B. Jordan and
Wunmi Mosaku. Steinfeld portrayed Mary, a
mixed-race woman in 1932
Jim Crow-era Mississippi whose ancestry mirrored Steinfeld's own
African-American heritage. She also contributed the song "Dangerous" to
the film's soundtrack, after having taken a break from recording music. In September 2025, she voiced another alternate version of Kate Bishop in the Disney+ adult animated MCU series
Marvel Zombies.
Upcoming projects Steinfeld voices Billie in the animated film
Hexed (2026). == Artistry and media reception ==