Kiri in Avatar: Who Plays Her and Why She Is Special

Kiri is the adopted daughter of Jake Sully and Neytiri, a young Na'vi who lives with the Sully family and appears in the second and third films of James Cameron's Pandora saga. She does not appear in Avatar (2009), and she is credited in the films as Kiri and Young Kiri.

Sigourney Weaver plays her, which settles a question many viewers ask: Kiri and Grace are played by the same actor. Weaver is billed third in both Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), and she is also billed third as Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009).

When The Way of Water opens, sixteen years after the Na'vi drove the humans off Pandora, Kiri lives in the household of Jake Sully and Neytiri, alongside their sons Neteyam and Lo'ak and their daughter Tuk. The human boy Spider grew up with them. Of the Sully children, Kiri is the one whose bond with Pandora itself drives much of the plot. If you want the whole household in one place, our Avatar characters hub lists each of them.

Kiri's closest relationships are with the Sully family, with Spider and with her mother, Grace Augustine. Jake and Neytiri raise her as their adopted daughter, and the household includes Neteyam, Lo'ak and Tuk.

Her mother is Grace Augustine. In the ending of Fire and Ash, Spider connects with the underwater spirit trees and meets deceased Na'vi, and Kiri introduces him to her mother, Grace. That scene links the later films back to Avatar (2009), where Grace is fatally wounded in the escape from the RDA. The plots as reported do not explain how Grace's daughter came to be born, and neither names her father. Anyone following the lineage can start with the plot of Avatar (2009).

Is Kiri in love with Spider? The plots as reported show her helping him, not courting him: she uses mycelia so he can breathe Pandoran air, and she later brings him to her mother. Neither plot describes a romance between them. Spider is also the son of Quaritch, which leaves Kiri in an uneasy position when the Mangkwan take Quaritch, Jake and the children. The Metkayina, including Tonowari and Ronal, become her extended clan once Tonowari declares the Sullys part of it.

In my opinion, Kiri's strongest scenes are the ones where Pandora responds to her, because they carry the saga's central idea more clearly than any battle does. These are my picks, and a reasonable viewer could order them differently.

1. The Spirit Tree seizure in The Way of Water. Perhaps the most striking choice in the second film, because scientists diagnose epilepsy while the Metkayina Spirit Tree sits beside it. It could be argued that the film wants us to hold both readings at once.
2. Saving Neytiri and Tuk in the final battle. Kiri acts decisively here, and the fragile girl of the reef becomes capable in a battle already marked by Neteyam's death.
3. Using mycelia so Spider can breathe. It solves a problem the Sullys could not fix with a mask, and it shows her abilities changing the plot again in the third film.
4. Reaching Eywa and stopping Varang. It pays off the second film's mystery, and I think it works better than a physical rescue would have, since Kiri's power is not a weapon like Quaritch's firearms or the Mangkwan's flamethrowers.
5. Introducing Spider to Grace. In the quiet final scene Weaver's two roles finally meet through the story, and it is gentler than any other return from the dead in the saga, including the recombinant Quaritch.