Don’t let her small size fool you; Nicola Peltz is as tough as they come. After deliberation, Peltz chose the life of an actress instead of pursuing a career as a professional ice hockey player. The actress currently plays a mentally unstable teenager on the A&E horror series Bates Motel. Later this year, she will star in the drama Affluenza as well as in the long-awaited Transformers: Age of Extinction.
In 2006, Peltz made her first on-screen debut as Mackenzie in the family comedy Deck the Halls. Two years later, Peltz starred as Becki in the 2008 comedy Harold. In-between roles, she claimed a part in the off-Broadway production of Blackbird opposite Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill. She even grabbed a small part in the Miley Cyrus video “7 Things,” in which she clutches a white teddy bear and looks grimly at the camera. In 2010, her athleticism would come in handy when she scored her claim to fame role as Katara in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. Longing for this role ever since she saw the television series, Peltz trained for five months in the arts of Tai Chi and Kung Fu. In 2012, she starred in the drama Eye of the Hurricane.
In Bates Motel, a modern-day prequel of Alfred Hitchcock’s Pyscho, Peltz plays the character of Bradley who is placed in an insane asylum after the death of her father drives her to attempt suicide. In the drama Affluenza, influenced by the classic novel The Great Gatsby, Peltz will play Kate Miller.
In Transformers: Age of Extinction, she will play the daughter of automobile mechanic Cade Yeager, played by Mark Wahlberg. Their discovery will attract the Autobots, the Decepticons and the government to their front door. Transformers opens on June 17 and Affluenza opens July 11.
Sammi Brennan can be reached at samantha.brennan@spartans.ut.edu