Evangeline Lilly Biography

Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979) is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Kate Austen in one of ABC's most successful programs of all time, Lost, a role for which she won multiple Saturn Awards and Teen Choice Awards and a Golden Globe nomination. Lilly is also known for her roles in the feature films Afterwards, The Hurt Locker, and Real Steel. Lilly will appear in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the final two movies of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy.

Personal life

Evangeline Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, and raised in British Columbia by a father who taught home economics and a mother who worked as a beauty consultant. She graduated from W. J. Mouat Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where she played soccer and was vice president of the student council. She speaks fluent French.

While in college, Lilly worked as a flight attendent for Royal Airlines, a waitress, a mechanic, and as a model to pay for her tuition. Her modeling and acting career began when she was discovered walking the streets of Kelowna, British Columbia, by a Ford Modeling Agency agent. Lilly took the card but did not immediately pursue modeling or acting. She eventually called and the agency landed her several roles in commercials and non-speaking parts in the TV show Smallville and Kingdom Hospital and the films Freddy vs. Jason and The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

On December 20, 2006, an electrical problem set fire to Lilly's house in Kailua, Hawaii, destroying the house and all of her possessions while she was on the set of Lost. Though she lost all she owned, Lilly said the fire "was almost liberating. I'm in no hurry to clutter up my life again."

Lilly was previously married to Canadian hockey player Murray Hone. From 2004 to 2009, she dated Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan. She had her first child, a son named Kahekili (Hawaiian for "the thunder"), with boyfriend Norman Kali in Hawaii in May of 2011.

Philanthropy

Lilly grew up Christian and her faith influenced her decision to take part in a three-week mission trip to the Philippines when she was 18. Her interest in humanitarian causes and global development led her to major in International Relations at the University of British Columbia. Lilly continues to work with nonprofits such as the GO Campaign. In 2009, Lilly auctioned off custom lingerie in support of Task Brasil, "a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the lost street children of Brazil by providing them secure housing." In 2010, she auctioned off three lunches in Vancouver, Honolulu, and Los Angeles to help widows and orphans in Rwanda, a country Lilly has made numerous trips to as part of her charity work.

After shooting the final episode of Lost, Lilly said she was considering taking a break from acting to focus on her charity and humanitarian efforts. She told Vulture, "I consider acting a day job "? it's not my dream; it's not my be-all, end-all." She has claimed to use her actress earnings to further her humanitarian efforts, not the other way around.

Lost

Lilly was encouraged to try out for Lost by a friend and she did not expect to get cast. Around 75 women auditioned for the part of Kate Austen. Damon Lindelof, writer and co-creator, said he and J.J. Abrams, executive producer and co-creator, "were fast-forwarding through a tape, and he saw her and said, 'That's the girl.'" The character almost had to be recast, as Lilly had trouble acquiring a work visa to enter the United States. Her application was finally accepted after nearly 20 tries and she arrived in Hawaii for filming one day late.

Lost ran for six seasons, airing from 2004-2010. It was one of the top shows on ABC's primetime schedule during its run, won one Golden Globe, and was ranked the top-rated TV show of the decade (2002-2012) by IMDB.

Lilly appeared in 116 of the show's 121 episodes, and her character, Kate Austen, was the show's female lead. Entertainment Weekly voted Lilly one of its "Breakout Stars of 2004." In 2006, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Lead Actress-Drama. Robert Bianco of USA Today praised Lilly's performance in "Eggtown," saying that it was almost worthy of a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 2007, Lilly's portrayal was voted #1 Sexiest Woman on Television by TV Guide and made FHM's Top Sexiest.

Action figures of Lilly's Lost character were released during the holiday season of 2006.

Film career

In 2008, Lilly starred in the Academy Award-winning film The Hurt Locker. She and the rest of the cast won the Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble. Lilly followed her role in The Hurt Locker with a leading part opposite John Malkovich in Afterwards, a psychological thriller directed by Gilles Bourdos.

In 2010, Lilly stated her intention on writing a children's book called The Squickerwonkers and to focus on feature films. On May 11, 2010, Lilly announced on The View that she places writing and being a mother as top priorities, but she likes acting as a day job and she will continue acting when possible.

In 2011, Lilly appeared as Bailey Tallet in Real Steel alongside Hugh Jackman. Despite having turned down a number of movie offers, she traveled to Los Angeles to acquire the part a few days after director Shawn Levy sent her the script. Levy said he cast her because Lilly is "magnificent to look at, she's soulful, and she's sexy with Hugh. I needed someone who you believed had grown up in a man's world. Bailey needed to have a strength and a toughness that was not at the expense of her being womanly."

In 2012, Lilly was cast to play the role of the Woodland Elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The character, which does not appear in the original book by Tolkien, was created by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh as the head of the Elven guard who, like Legolas (who also appears in the film), wields a bow and two daggers as weapons. Lilly, who had been a fan of Tolkien's books since she was 13, underwent training for swordplay and archery, as well as in the Elvish language for the role.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Freddy vs. Jason	School Student	uncredited
2003	The Lizzie McGuire Movie	Police Officer
2003	Stealing Sinatra	Model in commercial
2005	The Long Weekend	Simone
2006	Just Yell Fire	Herself
2008	Afterwards	Claire
2009	The Hurt Locker	Connie James	Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2011	Real Steel	Bailey Tallet
2013	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	Tauriel	Post-production (additional filming 2013)
2014	The Hobbit: There and Back Again	Tauriel	Post-production (additional filming 2013)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Reviews on the Run	Hardware girl
2002"2004	Smallville	Various	5 episodes
2003	Tru Calling	Party guest	1 episode: "Morning After"
2004	Kingdom Hospital	Benspoln's girlfriend	1 episode: "Heartless"
2004"2010	Lost	Kate Austen	114 episodes Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama Nominated"?National Television Award for Most Popular Actress Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress " Drama Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress " Drama Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress " Drama Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress " Drama Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress " Drama Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress " Drama Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Performance " Female Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Chemistry

Other awards

Year	Award	Work	Result
2010	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	The Hurt Locker
2010	Denver Film Critics Society	The Hurt Locker

Advertising

Year	Brand	Country
2005	LiveLinks	USA
2006	Karastan Carpets	USA
2006	Michelle K Footwear	USA
2007"2008	Davidoff Coolwater Women	Europe
2009	Baume et Mercier
2009"present	L'Oreal Paris	International