Mikaela Hoover

Mikaela Hoover is 42 years old. She was born on 12 July 1984 in Colbert, Washington, near Spokane [1], and in 2026 she has an unusually full year: she is on screen as Ava in the second season of Beef [9], gives the voice and the face capture to Tony Tony Chopper in Netflix's live-action One Piece [8], and is set to return as Cat Grant in HBO Max's The People v. Gorilla Grodd [7]. Behind that sits a working career of about twenty years [3], most of it spent in small parts that she kept turning into more.

Early life and a name she thought about changing

TMDB, the film database, records her birth date and place, and lists her as an American actress who also appears under the name Mikaela Mehrizi Hoover [1]. Beyond that, the reliable record of her childhood is thin. We found no on-record interview that covers her school years or her family in detail, so this page does not repeat the biographical claims that circulate on fan and aggregator sites.

One small, checkable detail comes from a 2014 interview with Sharp Magazine. She said she once asked her parents whether she should drop "Hoover" and use her middle name instead, and she never did it [6]. In the same piece she said that early in her career she was offered a horror film role involving nudity and turned it down [6]. Horror stayed in her life in other ways. In a later Collider interview she named it as a passion [2], and in 2014 she had credits in the web series Zombie Basement and the horror film Hide & Seek [6] [1].

The break: two web series with James Gunn

The relationship that shaped her career began with an audition. She met the director James Gunn when she tried out for Humanzee!, a mockumentary released in 2008 [2].

Gunn and the producer Peter Safran created Sparky & Mikaela for her [5]. She played a down-on-her-luck high school student who fights crime alongside a talking raccoon named Sparky, played by Joe Fria, [5]. Safran is now co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios [2]. Hoover describes Gunn as something like a big brother and says she feels close to him and the people around him [2].

Gunn kept casting her. She had a part in his feature Super (2010) as Holly [1], then a small one in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as Nova Prime's assistant [1] [5]. SlashFilm lists The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 among the later Gunn films she appeared in [5].

Career timeline

• 2008: Humanzee! (Margo) and Sparky & Mikaela, both made with Gunn [1] [5].
• 2009: a guest part as Stacey on How I Met Your Mother [1].
• 2010: Holly in Super, and two episodes of Happy Endings as Jackie [1].
• 2011 to 2013: TV guest work on Anger Management (Daytona, two episodes), Two and a Half Men, The League and Saint George [1].
• 2014: Nova Prime's assistant in Guardians of the Galaxy, and the films Playing It Cool and Hide and Seek [1].
• 2017: Raziya Memarian in The Belko Experiment, plus episodes of Lucifer and 2 Broke Girls [1].
• 2019 and 2020: Guest House and Holidate [1].
• 2020 and 2021: The Suicide Squad (listed as 2020) and the Netflix romantic comedy Love Hard, where TMDB also credits her as co-producer [1].
• 2025: Cat Grant in Superman, a role in Duster, and the casting as Chopper in One Piece [1] [4].
• 2026: Ava in Beef, Chopper on screen in One Piece season 2, and Cat Grant again in The People v. Gorilla Grodd [9] [8] [7].

Floor the rabbit

Her best-known voice part is Floor, a rabbit in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 [5]. ComicBook.com calls it a memorable turn, and she voiced the character [3].

Cat Grant in Superman

In Superman (2025) she plays Cat Grant, a gossip columnist at the Daily Planet, who works alongside Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen [3] [2]. Gunn cast her without the usual audition process [3].

Hoover has a clear view of the character. She says Cat is far more interested in Clark than in Superman, and that Cat sees in Clark a kind, steady man of a sort she has not had before [3]. She told ComicBook.com she would like to see more of Cat and Clark together in later DC films, though the article does not confirm what she has in the next one, Man of Tomorrow [3]. She also said she kept a journal during filming and that her friendship with Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane, has carried on beyond the shoot [2].

How she became Chopper

The Chopper story is the one she tells most often. In 2025 she was filming Beef and, by her own account, wanted to concentrate on it. When the audition for a voice part arrived through her voice-over agent, the materials did not say which show it was for, and she passed [4]. Netflix's casting team then asked for her specifically and asked her to read again. After reading the sides she felt connected to the character, and she learned only at a Zoom callback that the job was Tony Tony Chopper [4].

The brief she had been given described "a strange little forest creature that had been kind of picked on his whole life" [4]. She imagined a slimy, green, one-eyed outcast [3]. Her reading is that Chopper sees himself as a monster rather than as cute, and she plays him that way [3]. She calls the emotional scenes in episodes seven and eight of season two heartbreaking [3]. She also says her 14-year-old dog is her muse for both Chopper and Floor [3].

Season two of One Piece reached Netflix on 10 March 2026, and PopCulture.com describes her Chopper as voice and performance capture [8]. TMDB lists the series under 2025 and also credits her voice in LEGO One Piece [1].

Best-known work

The table is a selection from TMDB and press coverage, not a full filmography. Where TMDB's year differs from the release year given elsewhere, the note under the table says so.

Year	Title	Role or format
2008	Sparky & Mikaela	Mikaela, web series [5]
2010	Super	Holly, film [1]
2014	Guardians of the Galaxy	Nova Prime's assistant, film [1]
2017	The Belko Experiment	Raziya Memarian, film [1]
2020	Holidate	Annie, film [1]
2020	The Suicide Squad	Camila, film [1]
2021	Love Hard	Chelsea Lin, film [1]
TMDB lists 2021	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3	Floor, voice and motion capture [1] [3]
2025	Superman	Cat Grant, film [1]
2026	One Piece (season 2)	Tony Tony Chopper, voice and performance capture [8]
2026	Beef (season 2)	Ava, TV series [9] [8]
2026	The People v. Gorilla Grodd	Cat Grant, series [1] [7]

TMDB dates The Suicide Squad to 2020 [1]. Its year for Vol. 3 is not the film's release year, so treat that cell as the database's own listing rather than a release date [1].

Beef season 2

In Beef season 2, Hoover plays Ava, the much younger wife of William Fichtner's character, Troy [8]. Rotten Tomatoes lists her under that character name [9]. ComicBook.com calls the part "quietly important" [3].

Awards, earnings and relationships

We found no major award or nomination for her in the sources we opened, and TMDB lists none [1]. No reliable outlet we opened reports a net worth figure for her, so we give none.

We found no on-record statement from her, and no report from a reliable outlet, about a husband, fiancé or boyfriend, so we name no partner. Searches for those terms are common, but gossip pages are not sources here. If she speaks about it in a future interview, this section will change.

What she is doing now

As of November 2026 she has three lines of work in view. The People v. Gorilla Grodd is an eight-episode comedy that HBO Max ordered straight to series in August 2026, from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television [7]. It follows Jimmy Olsen, played again by Skyler Gisondo, as he reopens the case of the ape Gorilla Grodd, played by Jimmy Tatro. Hoover, Beck Bennett and Wendell Pierce return from Superman, and James Gunn and Peter Safran are executive producers [7].

PopCulture.com also lists the dramedy Ramble On as an upcoming project, with John C. McGinley, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen and Jamie-Lynn Sigler in the cast [8]. Chopper continues in LEGO One Piece, where TMDB credits her voice for two episodes [1].