Evangeline Lilly

Biography

Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979) is a Canadian actress and author. She gained popularity for her first leading role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama series Lost (2004–2010), which garnered her six nominations for the Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television and a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series. Lilly has also appeared in the war film The Hurt Locker (2008) and sports drama Real Steel (2011), and starred as Tauriel in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film series, appearing in The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). She has since portrayed Hope van Dyne / Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lilly is the author of a children's book series The Squickerwonkers.

== Early life == Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, on August 3, 1979. She was raised in British Columbia by her mother, a daycare centre owner, and her father, a home economics teacher. She has an older sister and a younger sister. Lilly was raised Baptist and Mennonite. Lilly graduated from W. J. Mouat Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia, with a 4.3 GPA; she was captain of the soccer team and vice president of the student council. She attended Wilfrid Laurier University for her undergrad. In university, she was a waitress, did "oil-changes and grease-jobs on big rig trucks", and was a flight attendant for Royal Airlines to pay for her tuition. Her interest in humanitarian causes and world development led her to major in international relations at the University of British Columbia.

== Acting career ==

=== 2002–2003: Early career === Lilly's acting career began when she was discovered by a Ford Modelling Agency agent while passing the time in Kelowna, British Columbia. She took the agent's business card but did not immediately pursue acting. She eventually called and the agency landed her several roles in commercials and non-speaking parts in the TV shows Smallville and Kingdom Hospital. She was also on a video game news and review show on the gaming television channel G4TV.

=== 2004–2007: Breakthrough with Lost ===

In late 2003, Lilly was encouraged by a friend to audition for ABC's Lost, but did not expect to be cast. The secrecy campaign meant auditioning actors could not see the full script, could read only short scenes, and knew only the basic premise of people surviving a plane crash on a tropical island. It reminded Lilly of The Blue Lagoon, and she thought Lost would "at best be a mediocre TV show". Around 75 women auditioned for the part of Kate Austen. Writer and co-creator Damon Lindelof said that he and executive producer and co-creator J. J. Abrams "...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; she arrived in Hawaii for filming one day late. Lost ran for six seasons, from 2004 to 2010. It was one of ABC's top primetime shows, winning one Golden Globe Award and ten Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, and was ranked the top-rated TV show of the decade by IMDb. Lilly was between 24 and 30 years of age during the show's run, appearing in 108 of 121 episodes, as her character, Kate Austen, was the show's female lead. In 2006 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. Robert Bianco of USA Today praised Lilly's performance in the episode named "Eggtown", saying it was almost worthy of a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series nomination. 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 says she uses her high-profile roles to further her humanitarian efforts, not to achieve stardom.

=== 2008–2014: Established actress ===

In 2008, Lilly appeared in the film The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film received widespread acclaim and went on to be nominated in nine categories at the 82nd Academy Awards, winning six of these including Best Picture. Lilly and the cast won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble. That same year, Lilly had a leading role in the psychological thriller film Afterwards. In May 2010, Lilly announced on The View that being a mother was her top priority, but that she liked acting as a "day job" and would continue it when possible. She took a short hiatus that year and was not in contact with Hollywood. In 2011, despite turning down a number of film offers, Lilly appeared as Bailey Tallet, a boxing gym owner, in Real Steel alongside Hugh Jackman. She accepted the role after director Shawn Levy sent her the script. Levy noted that Lilly was "magnificent to look at" and that he "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". Real Steel went on to be nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 84th Academy Awards. During promotion for the film, Lilly turned down a role in the X-Men franchise from Jackman, noting that she "wasn't into superhero movies" at the time. In 2012, Lilly was cast as the Mirkwood 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. For the role, Lilly underwent training for swordplay, archery and speaking the Elvish language. Lilly described Tauriel as a nonconformist, noting that she tends to "rebel against the established social order of the Elves". Lilly appeared as the character in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and its sequel, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).