Evangeline Lilly (August 3, 1979) was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, to a devout Protestant family. Her father was an economics teacher, and her mother is a secretary at Sandy Hill Elementary. Lilly also has two sisters. Her youngest sister, Andrea, has been described by Evangeline as “the actor in the family.”
Before leaving the town of Fort Saskatchewan for Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, Evangeline briefly attended three elementary schools, Fort Elementary, Rudolph Hennig and James Mowat Elementary. Lilly recalled, “When I was a kid, the Fort was tiny. I could ride my bike at five years old from one end of town to the other…. To me Fort Saskatchewan holds a lot of really great memories. I just consider it a little happy hideaway.” In Abbotsford, Lilly completed her high school years at W. J. Mouat Secondary School, and went on to study international relations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Lilly also served briefly as a foreign… read more
Evangeline Lilly (August 3, 1979) was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, to a devout Protestant family. Her father was an economics teacher, and her mother is a secretary at Sandy Hill Elementary. Lilly also has two sisters. Her youngest sister, Andrea, has been described by Evangeline as “the actor in the family.”
Before leaving the town of Fort Saskatchewan for Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, Evangeline briefly attended three elementary schools, Fort Elementary, Rudolph Hennig and James Mowat Elementary. Lilly recalled, “When I was a kid, the Fort was tiny. I could ride my bike at five years old from one end of town to the other…. To me Fort Saskatchewan holds a lot of really great memories. I just consider it a little happy hideaway.” In Abbotsford, Lilly completed her high school years at W. J. Mouat Secondary School, and went on to study international relations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Lilly also served briefly as a foreign missionary and lived in a grass hut in the Philippines. She was offered permanent missionary work there for two years, an offer she nearly accepted but eventually declined because of her parents’ wishes. Lilly was a flight attendant with Royal Airlines and also did some modelling for phone chat line Livelinks. She speaks French very well. She also worked at Green Bay Bible Camp near Kelowna and at the Earls Restaurant in Abbotsford.
She studied acting at The Yaletown Actors Lab with writer, director David Palffy and was first discovered by agent Jeff Palffy, formerly of Ford Models, now with PMG Management in Vancouver.
Lilly 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 a few episodes of Smallville as an extra. She had a guest appearance on the ABC supernatural horror series Kingdom Hospital (2004). She also appeared on a Live Links chat line commercial. Lilly’s first speaking role was on Lost, a role in which Palffy was instrumental in helping her to obtain.
When Lilly was 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/cleared but she arrived on set a day late.
Her salary in 2004 for Lost was $80,000 per episode. 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 is planning to write children’s books called The Squickerwonkers.
On June 19, 2011, it was announced that Lilly would play the role of the 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.
On Oct 17, 2011, Lilly stated on Jimmy Kimmel Live that she is trying to distance herself from her character in the TV show “Lost” and is now focusing on her future film projects.
Lilly has stated that she “live[s] in a bubble”, specifying that she is not familiar with popular culture and does not watch television or own a TV set. She has also said that she would not appear in a nude scene or perform in sexual scenes that she would consider “gratuitous”.
In the May 9, 2007 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Lilly described her deep need to leave her home town after her high-school graduation. She did much travelling at this point in her life, moving from town to town approximately every six months. She stated that in each town she took on a persona; for example, she would decide in one town to take on the role of a “nerdy bookworm” and in another, a ditzy “cheerleader” type. She has jokingly stated that, as such, she would frequently date different men.
Lilly has also used her celebrity status to help promote Just Yell Fire, a 2006 video aimed at teaching teenage girls how to defend themselves against rapists.
Her fellow Lost actor Josh Holloway also calls her “Freckles”, sharing the nickname his on-screen character Sawyer gave her. She was also known on set for being a tomboy, and “potty mouth”.
On December 20, 2006, Lilly’s house in Kailua, Hawaii, was completely destroyed by fire while she was on the Lost set with one of her two roommates, both of whom work as her stand-ins on the show. The second roommate was off-island at the time of the blaze, which occurred on the final day of shooting before the show’s holiday break. The cause of the fire was an electrical problem.
Lilly was once married to Canadian hockey player Murray Hone. 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. —Wikipedia
