Kristen Stewart's Real Name: Kristen Jaymes Stewart

Quick answer: Kristen Stewart's full name is Kristen Jaymes Stewart. She was born on April 9, 1990, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, and acts under her real name. She became famous as Bella Swan in the Twilight films. She later became the first American to win a César Award and earned an Oscar nomination for playing Princess Diana in Spencer (2021) (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica's quick facts give her name in full as Kristen Jaymes Stewart. The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Stewart, Kristen, 1990-" and records "Kristen Stewart; b. April 9, 1990; actress." LOC lists no separate birth name, so Kristen Stewart is her real name, and Jaymes is an uncommon spelling of her middle name.

Britannica says both her parents worked in film. Her father, John, was a stage manager and producer, and her mother, Jules, was a script supervisor and filmmaker. She has an elder brother, Cameron, and two adopted brothers. Growing up around sets, she won her parents' permission to audition. Her first feature role was in The Safety of Objects (2001), and she then played Jodie Foster's daughter in David Fincher's Panic Room (2002).

Career highlights

At 17 she was cast as Bella Swan opposite Robert Pattinson in Twilight (2008). She played Bella through the five-film saga, which ran to 2012, and at the franchise's peak she briefly became the world's highest-paid actress. After Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), she turned to independent film. Her role in Olivier Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) won her the César Award for best supporting actress, the first given to an American. She reunited with Assayas for Personal Shopper (2016).

As Diana, Princess of Wales, in Pablo Larraín's Spencer (2021), she received a best actress Oscar nomination. Britannica calls it one of the first Oscar nominations for an openly gay performer. She had come out publicly during her 2017 Saturday Night Live monologue. She went on to star in Happiest Season (2020) and Love Lies Bleeding (2024). New York Times critic Manohla Dargis called her "a performer who makes good movies better and dreary movies tolerable."

She became engaged to screenwriter Dylan Meyer in 2021. In 2023 the two co-founded Nevermind Pictures with producer Maggie McLean. Stewart made her feature directing debut with The Chronology of Water (2025), adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir, which drew broadly positive reviews. In 2026 she appeared in Full Phil and The Wrong Girls.

Name notes for searchers

Kristen is her first name, Jaymes is her middle name, and Stewart is her surname. She has not used a stage name. Her credits, from The Safety of Objects onward, all use Kristen Stewart.