Maika Monroe Biography 2026: Age, Height, Boyfriend, Actress Career, Longlegs, They Follow & Net Worth

Maika Monroe is an American actress who became the defining horror lead of her generation without ever chasing the label. Born Dillon Monroe Buckley in Santa Barbara, California, she broke through in 2014 with The Guest and It Follows, then spent a decade alternating studio films with deliberately strange independent ones. In 2024, Longlegs became the highest-grossing independent film of the year and turned her into a box-office name.

In 2026 she is in the middle of another busy stretch: Reminders of Him in March, Victorian Psycho at Cannes in May, and sequels to both It Follows and Longlegs in development. She is also a professional kiteboarder, a detail that surprises almost everyone. Here is everything to know about her age, height, boyfriend, career, awards, and net worth.

Quick Facts

Maika Monroe is usually discussed alongside Nicolas Cage, Joe Keery, Julia Garner, Mia Goth, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Florence Pugh — horror and thriller leads who crossed into the mainstream. Fans also search for her with Dalton Gomez, Ariana Grande, David Robert Mitchell, and Osgood Perkins, the directors and public figures connected to her career and personal life.

Early Life & Education

Maika Monroe was born Dillon Monroe Buckley on May 29, 1993, in Santa Barbara, California. Her mother was a sign language interpreter and her father worked in construction, and she has described a childhood spent largely outdoors, near the water. She later changed her first name to Maika, a name she had already been using for most of her life.

She did not follow the usual path into acting. There was no drama school, no Disney pipeline, and no family connection to the industry. Her entry point was a small role on the CBS drama Eleventh Hour in 2009, when she was 16, followed by three years of auditions before her film debut.

That debut came in 2012 with At Any Price, Ramin Bahrani’s drama about a farming family, in which she played Cadence Farrow opposite Zac Efron and Dennis Quaid. She relocated to Los Angeles for the film and has credited the part with convincing her to keep acting. It was a small role in a modestly seen movie, but it gave her the thing she needed most: a reason to stay.

Career Journey

2013–2014: The Bling Ring, The Guest, and It Follows

Monroe’s early filmography reads like a series of near-misses that turned into a coherent body of work. She had a minor part in Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring in 2013, then appeared in Labor Day as Mandy, a farm girl whose romance drives the film’s middle section. Neither role made her a name, but both put her in front of directors with distinctive voices.

2014 was the year everything changed. She played Anna Peterson in Adam Wingard’s The Guest, a thriller that cast her as the suspicious daughter in a household infiltrated by a stranger, and she headlined David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows as Jamie “Jay” Height, a teenager pursued by a shape-shifting entity. It Follows premiered at Cannes, became a cult phenomenon, and is now regularly listed among the best horror films of the 2010s.

Entertainment Weekly‘s Chris Nashawaty wrote that the film was “airtight” because of “Monroe’s moody teenage authenticity,” a line that has followed her ever since. The role also cemented her relationship with horror as a genre she could lead rather than decorate.

2015–2020: Studio Movies and Indie Detours

The years after It Follows were deliberately uneven. She appeared in Echoes of War (2015), then moved into bigger productions: The 5th Wave and Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016, the latter casting her as former First Daughter Patricia Whitmore. Neither film was well reviewed, but they proved she could hold a studio frame.

She kept returning to smaller, stranger projects. Bokeh, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, I’m Not Here, and The Tribes of Palos Verdes all arrived in the same period, alongside the executive-produced Tau. In 2019 she played Sandra in Shia LaBeouf’s Honey Boy and Jules in Villains, a dark comedy that gave her one of her funniest roles. Brothers by Blood and Flashback followed in 2020.

2021–2023: Watcher and the Return to Horror

Chloe Okuno’s Watcher (2022) was the film that reset her trajectory. She played Julia, an American woman who moves to Bucharest and becomes convinced she is being stalked, and the performance is almost entirely internal — long takes, small reactions, a growing sense that something is wrong. The role earned her a Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination and reminded the industry what she does better than almost anyone.

She followed it with Significant Other, which she also executive produced, and God Is a Bullet in 2023. By then she had become a fixture of the festival circuit: a lead who could carry a genre film without a franchise behind it.

2024–2026: Longlegs, Victorian Psycho, and the Sequel Era

Longlegs changed the scale of her career. Osgood Perkins’ occult thriller cast her as FBI Agent Lee Harker opposite Nicolas Cage, and it became the highest-grossing independent film of 2024, crossing $100 million worldwide on a modest budget. The film’s marketing — cryptic teasers, no full reveal of Cage’s face — made it a cultural event, and Monroe’s restrained, haunted performance was the center of it.

She has said the role was unlike anything she had done. “Lee is so incredibly different from who I am and how I move through life,” she explained, and critics agreed: the performance is built on stillness rather than screaming, which is part of why it worked.

In 2025 she appeared in three films — In Cold Light, the A24 fantasy 100 Nights of Hero, and the remake The Hand That Rocks the Cradle — and in February 2026 she starred in a live-action short film for the video game Resident Evil Requiem. March brought Reminders of Him, the Colleen Hoover adaptation, in which she played Kenna Rowan.

Then came Victorian Psycho, Zachary Wigon’s gothic thriller, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in May 2026 and earned a five-minute standing ovation. She plays Winifred Notty, a governess whose arrival at a 19th-century estate triggers a crescendo of violence. She also shot Place to Be and completed Vegas: A Love Story, and she is set to return as Jay Height in They Follow, the long-gestating sequel to It Follows.

Career Stats

Personal Life

Monroe is private in the specific way of someone who has been famous for over a decade without ever inviting the press into her home. She does not post much, rarely gives personal interviews, and has kept her family out of the spotlight even as her filmography has grown.

• Partner: Dalton Gomez, a real-estate agent, since 2023.
• Family: Her mother was a sign language interpreter and her father worked in construction. She has not publicly discussed siblings.
• Home: Los Angeles, after growing up in Santa Barbara.
• Sport: She is a professional kiteboarder, a career she pursued alongside acting.
• Privacy: She has no public social media presence beyond a professional account and does not discuss her relationship in interviews.
• Interests: Surfing, the ocean, and independent cinema.

Dating History and Affairs

Monroe dated actor Joe Keery, her co-star in It Follows, from 2017 to 2022. The relationship was low-key by Hollywood standards and ended quietly, without a public statement from either side.

Since 2023 she has been in a relationship with Dalton Gomez, a Los Angeles real-estate agent who was previously married to Ariana Grande. The connection drew tabloid attention largely because of Gomez’s prior marriage, but Monroe has not commented on it and the couple have kept their relationship out of interviews. They are not married and do not have children.

Controversies

Monroe has no personal scandals, legal disputes, or public feuds on her record. The controversies around her are professional and aesthetic: the long-running debate over whether being called a “scream queen” is a compliment or a ceiling, and the periodic backlash that greets any remake of a beloved genre film.

She has generally declined to litigate either question. When The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake was announced, the discussion focused on whether a 1992 thriller needed updating; Monroe answered by talking about the character rather than the controversy. Similarly, she has embraced horror without treating it as a stepping stone, which has earned her credibility among genre fans who are used to actors distancing themselves from the films that made them.

The closest thing to a personal controversy is the tabloid interest in her relationship with Gomez, which is a controversy about other people’s curiosity rather than anything she has done. She has not responded to it publicly.

Awards & Achievements

• Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, 2016: Best Actress, for It Follows — won.
• Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival, 2017: Best Lead Actress, for The Scent of Rain and Lightning — won.
• CinemaCon Awards, 2016: Best Ensemble of the Universe, for Independence Day: Resurgence — won.
• Empire Awards, 2016: Best Female Newcomer — nominated.
• Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, 2023: Best Actress, for Watcher — nominated.
• Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, 2025: Best Lead Performance, for Longlegs — nominated.
• Cannes Film Festival, 2026: Victorian Psycho received a five-minute standing ovation in Un Certain Regard.
• Box office: Longlegs became the highest-grossing independent film of 2024.

Physical Statistics

Her physicality is a genuine part of her craft: kiteboarding requires core strength and balance, and several directors have noted that she moves through space differently from actors who trained only on a stage. She has never published official measurements.

Quotes

“The role was incredibly impactful for me. It also felt unique, and it was something I had never done.”

Maika Monroe, on Longlegs

“Lee is so incredibly different from who I am and how I move through life.”

Maika Monroe, on playing Agent Lee Harker

“He’s the best. He’s such a genuine human.”

Maika Monroe, on working with Nicolas Cage

Favorites

• Favorite Genre: Horror and psychological thriller.
• Favorite Sport: Kiteboarding, in which she competes professionally.
• Favorite Collaborator: Nicolas Cage, whom she has described as a genuine person and a generous scene partner.
• Favorite Director: David Robert Mitchell, who cast her in It Follows and its sequel.
• Favorite Place: The ocean near Santa Barbara.
• Favorite Food and Color: Not publicly disclosed.

Earnings

Monroe’s earnings are not public. Her income comes from film salaries, executive producer credits on projects such as Tau and Significant Other, and endorsement work. Actors at her level — a lead in a $100 million indie hit and a recurring franchise presence — typically earn in the low-to-mid seven figures per film, though deals vary enormously.

Estimates of her net worth generally fall between $4 million and $8 million as of 2026. That range is an unconfirmed estimate rather than a disclosed figure, and it is likely to rise with They Follow and the Longlegs sequel in development.

Interesting Facts

• Her birth name is Dillon Monroe Buckley; she has used Maika for most of her life.
• She is a professional kiteboarder as well as an actress.
• It Follows premiered at Cannes in 2014 and is now considered one of the best horror films of the 2010s.
• Longlegs became the highest-grossing independent film of 2024.
• Victorian Psycho received a five-minute standing ovation at Cannes in 2026.
• She appeared in a live-action short film for Resident Evil Requiem in February 2026.
• She dated her It Follows co-star Joe Keery for five years.

Did You Know Already?

• It Follows turned her into a genre icon almost overnight after its Cannes premiere.
• She has worked with Sofia Coppola, Shia LaBeouf, Nicolas Cage, and David Robert Mitchell.
• She played Kenna Rowan in the 2026 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him.
• Her partner, Dalton Gomez, was previously married to Ariana Grande.
• She has been nominated for three Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and won one.

Social Media Links

• Instagram: @maikamonroe
• X (Twitter): @maikamonroe
• IMDb: Maika Monroe
• Official Website: None

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Maika Monroe’s career makes more sense when you stop trying to fit it into a single lane. She is a horror lead who also does studio science fiction, an indie executive producer who also sells out multiplexes, and a professional athlete who happens to be one of the most watchable actors of her generation. Longlegs proved she could carry a hit; Victorian Psycho proved she could still surprise the people who thought they had her figured out.

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