Joey Lynn King (born July 30, 1999) is an American actress. She starred as Ramona Quimby in the 2010 film Ramona and Beezus and gained wider recognition for her lead role as a late-blooming teenager in the The Kissing Booth film series. King received critical acclaim for playing Gypsy-Rose Blanchard in the crime drama series The Act, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She voices Fred Grant in the Disney Channel animated series Hamster & Gretel.
King was born in Los Angeles to Terry and Jamie King on July 30, 1999. She has two older sisters, one of whom is actress Hunter King. Her mother is of Jewish descent. Joey said "I'm Jewish, but i'm not really, really religious". As a child, she sang a cappella for a talent show at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, and performed with the Stage Door Children's Theatre in Agoura. King attended Phoenix Ranch School in Simi Valley. King began acting professionally at the age of four in a commercial for Life Cereal. She has also been in commercials for AT&T, Kay Jewelers and Eggo.
Career[]
2008-2016: Beginnings and child acting[]
King voiced the yellow fur ball Katie in the animated film Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and also appeared in the horror film Quarantine. In 2010, she guest-starred in the series Ghost Whisperer. She was also featured in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody as Emily Mason in two episodes. Other television appearances include Jericho, Entourage, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Medium and Life in Pieces. King's first lead role was Ramona Quimby in the 2010 film Ramona and Beezus, an adaptation of the Beverly Clearly book series, alongside Selena Gomez as Beezus. She also released a single for the movie called "Ramona Blue". Her role in the film won her a Young Artist Award. King was also featured in Battle: Los Angeles, where she played a girl named Kirsten. Also in 2011, she co-starred in Crazy, Stupid, Love. She also appeared in Taylor Swift's "Mean" music video as a young student at the school cafeteria rejected by her peers. King had a role in Christopher Nolan's third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), as a younger Talia al Ghul. She also filmed the short-lived comedy series Bent, had guest appearances in New Girl and was on the final episode of The Haunting Hour: The Series, "Goodwill Towards Men." In 2013, King appeared in Oz the Great and Powerful, Family Weekend, White House Down, and The Conjuring. In 2014, she appeared in Wish I Was Here, as well as in Fargo as Greta Grimly, daughter of police officer Gus Grimly. In 2016, King was cast in the coming-of-age drama film The Possibility of Fireflies. She played the lead character Clare in the 2017 horror-thriller film Wish Upon. She also had a role in Slender Man, which was released in 2018.
2017-present: The Kissing Booth and The Act[]
In 2018, she starred as Elle Evans in Netflix's teen romantic comedy The Kissing Booth. She reprised the role in the sequel The Kissing Booth 2, which was released in 2020 and in The Kissing Booth 3, which was released on August 11, 2021. In 2019, she starred in the true crime anthology television series The Act on Hulu. King was cast as Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, a role which required King to shave her head for the third time in her career. It earned her nominations for Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG and Critics' Choice Awards. She also appeared on the fourth season of the CBS comedy Life in Pieces as Morgan. King is represented by talent agent Dan Spilo. In August 2020, she signed a deal with Hulu to produce television content for its service. In July 2021, her All The King's Horses production company struck a deal with Netflix. She currently voices Fred Grant in the Disney Channel animated series Hamster & Gretel. She appeared as Halina Kurc in the Hulu Original Series, We Were the Lucky Ones. King was next seen in the Netflix film A Family Affair, which was released on June 28, 2024.
Personal life[]
King began a relationship with producer and director Steven Piet in 2019 after they met on the set of The Act. They became engaged in February 2022 and married on September 2, 2023 in Mallorca, Spain.
