Bryce Dallas Howard was born on March 2, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, to actor-director Ron Howard and actress Cheryl Howard. She was conceived in Dallas, Texas, which is the origin of her middle name. Her father's successful career as an actor and director, as well as her mother's work as an actress and writer, exposed her to the entertainment industry from an early age.
Her famous relatives include her uncle, Clint Howard, and her grandparents, Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, who were all actors. She also has two younger twin sisters, Jocelyn and Paige Howard, who are also an actress, and a brother, Reed Howard. Bryce's ancestry is a mix of German, English, Scottish, and Irish.
Bryce was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her parents decided to raise their four children away from the glamour of the show business. During her childhood, she had limited access to television, and instead, she discovered existentialism and read books by Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. She attended Greenwich Country Day School and Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York.
Bryce's interest in acting led her to attend the prestigious Steppenwolf School and Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts camp in Catskills, where she met her friend Natalie Portman. She applied to drama school as Bryce Dallas, without using her famous surname, to avoid special treatment.
From 1999 to 2003, she studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the New York University Tisch School of Arts, graduating with a BFA degree in Drama in 2003. During her time at university, she performed in Broadway productions of classical plays by George Bernard Shaw, William Shakespeare, and Anton Chekhov.
Bryce made her film debut as Heather in Book of Love (2004) and was later cast by M. Night Shyamalan as a female lead in The Village (2004) and Lady in the Water (2006) without an audition. She replaced Nicole Kidman in the Dogville (2003) sequel, Manderlay (2005),and starred as Rosalind in As You Like It (2006),a role she previously played on stage.
Bryce's other notable films include Spider-Man 3 (2007),Jurassic World (2015),Terminator Salvation (2009),The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010),The Help (2011),and 50/50 (2011). Both Jurassic World and Spider-Man 3 broke the records for the highest opening weekends at the time of their release.
Bryce became a devoted vegan after watching the documentary Earthlings (2005) by Joaquin Phoenix, which exposed animal cruelty. She has not consumed any animal products, including milk and eggs, since then. Her other hobbies include playing basketball and writing.
On June 17, 2006, Bryce married her long-time boyfriend, actor Seth Gabel, whom she met at New York University. They have two children together, a son named Theodore Norman Howard Gabel, born on February 16, 2007, and a daughter named Beatrice Jean Howard Gabel, born on January 19, 2012.
