Evangeline Lilly Bio

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Evangeline Lilly Pictures

Evangeline Lilly (born Nicole Evangeline Lilly) is a Canadian actress and writer, best known for her Golden Globe nominated role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama Lost from 2004 to 2010.

Evangeline Lilly: Personal life

Evangeline Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, to a devout Protestant family. Her father was an economics teacher, and her mother was a secretary. Lilly also has two sisters.

Lilly had a happy childhood, growing up in a small Canada town. She supported herself financially from the age of 15.

Lilly previously served as a foreign missionary and a flight attendant with Royal Airlines. She speaks French very well. She attended the University of British Columbia and attained a degree in International Relations.

On December 20, 2006, Lilly's house in Kailua, Hawaii, was completely destroyed by fire while she was on the Lost set. The cause of the fire was an electrical problem.

From 2004 to 2009, Lilly dated Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan. She had her first child, a son named Kahekili (a Hawaiian name meaning "The Thunder"), with boyfriend Norman Kali in May 2011.

Evangeline Lilly: Career

Lilly studied acting at The Yaletown Actors Lab.

She appeared on G4's Judgment Day and in an uncredited role in the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason as a high-school girl leaning against a locker, and some appearances in one episode of Smallville as an extra. She had a guest appearance on the ABC supernatural horror series Kingdom Hospital (2004). Lilly's first speaking role was on Lost.

In 2006, Lilly appeared in Just Yell Fire, a video aimed at teaching teenage girls how to defend themselves against rapists.

When cast as Kate Austen in Lost, her main concern was acquiring a work visa to enter the United States. With production literally days away and no news about the visa, casting directors were forced to grudgingly begin re-casting the role of Kate. After nearly 20 auditions, Lilly's work visa was approved.

Lilly at the Emmy Awards

On the heels of her role in Lost, she was voted one of the Breakout Stars of 2004 by Entertainment Weekly and on December 14, 2006, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Lead Actress-Drama. Action figures of Lilly's Lost character were released during the holiday season of 2006. 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.

Lilly stated her intention on writing a children's books called The Squickerwonkers and to focus on feature films.

In October 2011, she appeared as Bailey Tallet in Real Steel, starring 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 Shawn Levy, the director, sent her the script because of the emotional impact the story had on her. Levy cast her because, in his words, "She's 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." She has mentioned she is uninterested in acting in nude or overly sexual scenes.

In 2012 Lilly will play the role of the Woodland Elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson's upcoming two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, due for release in December 2012 and 2013 and currently in production in New Zealand. 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. Her character will only appear briefly in the first film, more substantially until the second. 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.