About
Diana Silvers is an American actor and model whose screen presence has balanced indie charm with big-studio polish. Audiences first noticed her in 2019’s Booksmart and the Blumhouse thriller Ma, and she has stayed busy ever since, from playing Steve Carell’s quick-witted daughter Erin Naird in Netflix’s Space Force to starring opposite Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth in the 2024 Netflix romance Lonely Planet. In John Woo’s 2024 action remake The Killer she switches gears again as pop singer Jenn Clark, proving she can handle both comedy and high-octane drama. At just twenty-seven, Silvers already offers the rare mix of runway poise—she once walked the Stella McCartney Autumn 2019 show—and grounded, relatable performances that keep viewers rooting for her next project.
Before Fame
Silvers grew up in Los Angeles, the fifth of six kids in a multicultural household—her mom emigrated from Switzerland and her dad is of Romanian-Jewish heritage. A childhood viewing of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape sparked her love of acting, and by twelve she was spending summers at theater camps. At Palisades Charter High School she split time between drama class and the tennis courts, developing the discipline that would help later auditions. Scouted by IMG Models during senior year, she used catalog and runway gigs to help pay tuition after enrolling at New York University. Originally an acting major, she pivoted to history with a film minor before leaving in her junior year when Hollywood started calling. Those early days were anything but glamorous—she shot a micro-budget horror short, juggled late-night self-tapes, and even worried she botched her Ma audition—yet that persistence laid the groundwork for her 2018 TV debut (Hulu’s Into the Dark) and the breakout film double-header of Ma and Booksmart the very next year.
Trivia
- Accidental “scream queen.” Although thrillers weren’t her first passion, her first two major films (Ma and an appearance in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass) landed her in suspense territory before comedy or romance ever did.
- Court skills. Friends still tease her about the killer topspin she developed on the Palisades High tennis squad—she says the sport taught her focus under pressure.
- Runway to red carpet. She closed Stella McCartney’s Autumn 2019 Paris show only weeks after wrapping Booksmart, turning industry heads beyond Hollywood.
- Night-light necessary. In a Nylon chat she confessed a lingering childhood fear of total darkness—a fun contrast to her fearless on-screen personas.
- Writer at heart. Silvers keeps a folder of scripts she pens on airplanes; she hopes to produce one of her own stories before she hits thirty.
Family Life
Growing up in a big Los Angeles household meant constant noise, shared bedrooms, and plenty of hand-me-downs. Her Swiss mother, a sculptor, encouraged artistic expression, while her father, a psychiatrist, pushed for curiosity and empathy—traits that shine in Silvers’ character work. Having four older siblings helped her develop a thick skin; she jokes that nothing a casting director can say is harsher than sibling sarcasm around the dinner table. Despite increasingly hectic travel, she still schedules Sunday calls with her mom, and her Instagram occasionally features vintage photos of all six kids squeezed onto one sofa.
Associated With
Silvers’ career is already a who’s-who of eclectic collaborators. She held her own opposite Octavia Spencer’s chilling performance in Ma and shared heartfelt laughs with Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever in Booksmart. On Space Force she traded deadpan banter with Steve Carell and John Malkovich, while Lonely Planet paired her with Oscar-winner Laura Dern and action favorite Liam Hemsworth. John Woo’s The Killer added Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy to her contact list, and her upcoming Western series The Abandons places her in Kurt Sutter’s ensemble alongside Lucas Till and Nick Robinson. This pattern—seasoned veterans on one project, rising Gen-Z talent on the next—has given Silvers a master class in versatility and collaboration, setting her up for a long run as both an audience favorite and an actor’s actor.
