'Godzilla vs. Kong' Star Kaylee Hottle Dead at 18

9:22 AM PT -- Authorities say Kaylee Hottle was riding in a 1995 Honda Accord when the driver veered off a Maryland road and slammed into a roadside ditch early Tuesday ... TMZ has learned.

Kaylee Hottle -- a deaf actress best known for playing Jia in two 'Godzilla' films -- is dead.

Her father, Joshua Hottle, tells TMZ ... his daughter was killed in a car accident early Tuesday morning in Maryland.

Joshua also shared the tragic news in a nearly 23-minute-long social live stream ... explaining in ASL that he had to fly from Texas to claim her body.

Joshua says he learned Kaylee was involved in a serious car accident ... and officials called him shortly after this initial shock to inform him her heart stopped on the way to the hospital.

Kaylee -- an Atlanta, Georgia native -- comes from a multi-generational deaf family. She got her start in commercials ... notably a PSA for the live video messaging app Glide, which is used by many members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, when she was just 9 years old.

In 2021, Kaylee played Jia in "Godzilla vs. Kong" ... a teenager who communicates with King Kong via sign language and lives on Skull Island with Rebecca Hall's character Dr. Ilene Andrews. She reprised the role in the 2024 movie "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire."

Kaylee is also credited with an appearance in the "Magnum P.I." reboot series ... playing a character named Joon in a season 4 episode.

She was just 18 years old.