Julia Butters is an American actress born April 15, 2009, in Los Angeles, California. She became widely known for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, then appeared in The Fabelmans and Freakier Friday.
Julia Butters Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Julia Butters |
| Born | April 15, 2009 |
| Birthplace | Los Angeles, California |
| Age | 17 as of September 2026 |
| Profession | Actress |
| Breakout role | Trudi Fraser in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood |
| Best-known TV role | Anna-Kat Otto in American Housewife |
| Notable films | Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, The Fabelmans, The Gray Man, Freakier Friday |
| Most recent major release | Freakier Friday (2025) |
Her career began when she was very young, and she built experience in television before moving into major feature films. By her mid-teens, she had already worked with filmmakers and performers including Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
How Old Is Julia Butters?
Julia Butters is 17 years old as of September 2026. She was born on April 15, 2009, in Los Angeles, California.
Because she started acting as a child, many people still associate Butters with her early breakout performances. Her professional career, however, has continued well beyond those childhood roles. In a November 2025 interview, she was already balancing acting with high school and described herself as a junior while discussing her work on Freakier Friday.
Julia Butters’ Acting Career
Butters began working in entertainment at a very young age. According to published biographical information, she started appearing in advertisements and had her first speaking role on television at age four, when she appeared in an episode of Criminal Minds. She later had television credits including Transparent and Best Friends Whenever.
Her early television work eventually led to her biggest childhood TV role: Anna-Kat Otto on ABC’s American Housewife. ABC identified Butters as part of the show’s main cast, alongside Katy Mixon, Diedrich Bader and the rest of the Otto family.
The sitcom gave Butters a steady television platform while she was still a child. It also helped put her in front of an audience that later recognized her when she moved into larger film roles.
Her Breakout Role in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
The role that changed Julia Butters’ career came in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 movie Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Butters played Trudi Fraser, a young actress working on the fictional Western television series Lancer. Much of her most memorable screen time came opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton, a fading television star struggling with insecurity about his career.
Her performance attracted significant critical attention. Vanity Fair described her as a standout performer in the film, while contemporary coverage highlighted the fact that she could hold her own alongside much older and more experienced actors.
Tarantino reportedly noticed Butters while watching American Housewife. In an interview with Esquire, Butters explained that he had encountered her performance on the sitcom and became interested in casting her.
The film also introduced her to an unusually high-profile group of collaborators. The cast included DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, among others, and Butters later discussed the experience in a SAG-AFTRA Foundation Q&A.
Her performance earned recognition during awards season. She was nominated for Best Young Actor/Actress at the 2020 Critics Choice Awards, and she also received other young-performer and breakthrough nominations for the movie.
Julia Butters in The Fabelmans
Butters followed her Hollywood breakthrough with another prestigious project: Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans.
Released in 2022, the semi-autobiographical drama was directed by Spielberg and written by Spielberg and Tony Kushner. Butters played Regina “Reggie” Fabelman, one of the children in the fictionalized Fabelman family. Universal’s official film information lists her among the ensemble cast.
The role was another important step because it placed Butters in a character-driven family drama rather than a sitcom or stylized crime-and-Hollywood story. The movie also continued a pattern that had emerged after her breakout: she was being cast in films led by some of the industry’s most established directors.
Other Notable Movies
Julia Butters has built a relatively compact but recognizable filmography.
In 2016, she appeared in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and The Headhunter’s Calling, among her early theatrical credits.
She later appeared in the 2022 Netflix action film The Gray Man, which starred Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas.
Butters also starred in the horror thriller Queen of Bones. The film features Butters alongside Jacob Tremblay, Taylor Schilling and Martin Freeman.
Her filmography shows a noticeable shift from child-focused television toward larger theatrical productions and more varied characters.
Julia Butters in Freakier Friday
Butters’ latest major studio role is Freakier Friday, Disney’s 2025 sequel to the 2003 comedy Freaky Friday.
In the movie, she plays Harper Coleman, the teenage daughter of Lindsay Lohan’s Anna Coleman. The sequel expands the original body-swap premise into a four-person switch involving Harper, Anna, Jamie Lee Curtis’s Tess and Sophia Hammons’ Lily. Disney lists Butters among the film’s principal cast and gives the movie an August 8, 2025 theatrical release date.
The role was especially significant because Butters was joining two actors strongly associated with the original movie. In interviews, she has spoken about being a fan of the 2003 film and about learning from Lindsay Lohan during production.
The sequel became another commercially successful title in her growing film career. Box Office Mojo lists more than $153 million in worldwide box-office revenue, with about $94.2 million coming from the domestic market.
What Is Julia Butters Doing Now?
As of September 2026, Freakier Friday remains the most prominent recent studio release in Julia Butters’ career. Disney+ published an updated 2026 interview with Butters and Sophia Hammons, revisiting their experiences on the film after its release.
Her next steps are less clearly defined publicly than those of some young actors with several formally announced studio projects. Teen Vogue’s November 2025 profile identified her as part of its New Hollywood class and listed her future plans simply as “👀,” indicating that specific projects had not been publicly confirmed in that feature.
That uncertainty is worth emphasizing. Online film databases can contain projects at different stages of development, and an entry does not necessarily mean that a movie has been completed or has a confirmed release date. For that reason, announced or speculative future credits should be treated separately from her established filmography.
Julia Butters’ Approach to Acting
One interesting part of Butters’ recent interviews is how differently she talks about acting now compared with the image people may still have of her as a child performer.
In her 2025 Teen Vogue interview, she described acting as more than simply learning lines. She spoke about understanding a character and maintaining a life outside work, including music, friends and creative projects.
That perspective matters because her career has developed unusually early. Butters was already a working actor before she was old enough to understand the cultural importance of some of the films she joined. Her later comments suggest that she is increasingly interested not only in performing but also in storytelling and filmmaking.
Awards and Recognition
Butters’ awards history is still more about nominations and breakthrough recognition than major acting wins.
Her performance in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood earned nominations from the Critics Choice Awards and several film critics organizations. She was also included in the film’s Screen Actors Guild ensemble nomination history.
Her later work in The Fabelmans also brought additional recognition, including a Vanguard Award connection at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and further young-performer nominations.
Taken together, those honors show why Butters became known as one of the more closely watched young performers of her generation rather than simply a former child sitcom actor.
Julia Butters Movies and TV Shows
Some of Julia Butters’ better-known credits include:
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Criminal Minds | Early TV role |
| 2016–2020 | American Housewife | Anna-Kat Otto |
| 2019 | Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood | Trudi Fraser |
| 2022 | The Gray Man | Claire Fitzroy |
| 2022 | The Fabelmans | Reggie Fabelman |
| 2023 | Queen of Bones | Lily |
| 2025 | Freakier Friday | Harper Coleman / Anna Coleman |
Filmography records from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango list these as key entries in her screen career.
Why Julia Butters Is Still One to Watch
Julia Butters has already passed through several distinct stages of an acting career unusually quickly: commercial and television work, a breakout performance in a Quentin Tarantino film, a major Steven Spielberg drama, a Netflix action movie and a Disney franchise sequel.
What makes her career especially interesting now is that she is moving beyond the image created by her childhood roles. Her recent interviews show an actor who is thinking more seriously about craft, music, directing and the kinds of stories she wants to tell.
At 17, there is still plenty of room for that career to change direction. Her established record suggests she has already demonstrated that she can move between television comedy, prestige drama, action and mainstream family entertainment without being tied to just one type of role.
FAQs (text + Valid FAQs schema JSON-LD)
How old is Julia Butters?
Julia Butters is 17 years old as of September 2026. She was born on April 15, 2009, in Los Angeles, California.
What is Julia Butters famous for?
She is best known for playing Trudi Fraser in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Anna-Kat Otto on American Housewife, Reggie Fabelman in The Fabelmans, and Harper Coleman in Freakier Friday.
Who did Julia Butters play in Freakier Friday?
Julia Butters played Harper Coleman, the teenage daughter of Lindsay Lohan’s Anna Coleman. She also portrays Anna after the film’s body-swap setup.
Was Julia Butters in The Fabelmans?
Yes. She played Regina “Reggie” Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 film The Fabelmans.
What was Julia Butters’ breakout movie?
Her major breakout movie was Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, released in 2019. Her performance as Trudi Fraser received significant critical attention and awards-season recognition.
Source list
- IMDb: Julia Butters Biography, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Disney: Freakier Friday, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Disney+: Freakier Friday Cast Talk Body Swaps, Laughter & Legacy, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- ABC: Your Attention Please! ABC Announces Returning and New Shows: 2020-2021 Lineup, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Universal Pictures: The Fabelmans | Official Trailer, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Teen Vogue: Julia Butters on Freakier Friday and Staying Grounded as a Child Actor, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Los Angeles Times: Julia Butters shares her acting tips from ‘Leo’ and directed Quentin Tarantino in a scene, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- SAG-AFTRA Foundation: Conversations with ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Rotten Tomatoes: Julia Butters Movies & TV Shows List, Access Date: September 9, 2026
- Box Office Mojo: Freakier Friday (2025) Cast and Box Office Information, Access Date: September 9, 2026
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