Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American film actress and daughter of director Ron Howard. She made her acting debut in her father's 1989 movie Parenthood and went on to have small roles in films and make stage appearances for the next several years. During this time she also attended New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, later getting a BFA, and went to drama schools. After gaining the attention of M. Night Shyamalan, he cast her in what would be her breakout film, The Village (2004), and 2006's Lady in the Water, which was a commercial and critical failure. Her performance in As You Like It (2006) earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination in 2008.

Howard became more recognizable to audiences as Gwen Stacy in 2007's Spider-Man 3 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), playing a villainous vampire seeking revenge. Those two projects, as well as the 2009 Terminator Salvation release, are among her most financially successful movies, but all three garnered mixed reviews from the press. Aside from acting, Howard will serve as a co-producer along with her father to Gus Van Sant's coming of age feature Restless, and will make her directorial debut with The Original. She has been married to fellow actor Seth Gabel since 2006. They have one child together, a son nicknamed Theo, who was born in early 2007. The couple currently resides in Los Angeles.

Conceived in Dallas, Texas – the source of her middle name – Howard was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Cheryl (née Alley), a writer, and Hollywood actor-director Ron Howard on March 2, 1981. Her paternal grandparents are actors Rance Howard and the late Jean Speegle Howard; her uncle is actor Clint Howard; her godfather is actor Henry Winkler, who co-starred on Happy Days with her father. Howard and her younger sisters, twins Jocelyn Carlyle Howard and Paige Carlyle Howard (born 1985), and their younger brother, Reed Cross Howard (born 1987), were named after the places they were conceived. All of the Howard children were raised away from the world of show business. Their parents did not allow them access to television and instead encouraged outdoor activities and hobbies. At the age of 7, however, she was allowed to be an extra in her father's movies. In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Howard mentioned that she and her siblings were babysat by family friend Tom Cruise on several occasions. She was raised in Westchester, New York and on a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut.