Lilly was born in
Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, on 3 August 1979. She was raised in
British Columbia by her mother, a daycare center owner, and her father, a home economics teacher. She has an older sister and a younger sister. Lilly was raised
Baptist and
Mennonite.[1][6][7]
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.[8] 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.[9][10] Her interest in humanitarian causes and world development led her to major in
international relations at the
University of British Columbia.[11]
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.[12] 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.[11][13][14] She was also on a video game news and review show on the gaming television channel G4TV.[15]
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.[16] 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.[16] It reminded Lilly of The Blue Lagoon, and she thought Lost would "at best be a mediocre TV show".[16] 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!'"[17][18] The character almost had to be recast, as Lilly had trouble acquiring a work visa to enter the United States.[19] Her application was finally accepted after nearly 20 tries; she arrived in Hawaii for filming one day late.[19]
Lost ran for six seasons, from 2004 to 2010.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] She told Vulture: "I consider acting a day job—it's not my dream; it's not my be-all, end-all."[25] She says she uses her high-profile roles to further her humanitarian efforts, not to achieve stardom.[26]
On 11 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.[35] She took a short hiatus that year and was not in contact with Hollywood.[36]
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.[37] She accepted the role after director
Shawn Levy sent her the script.[38] Levy noted that Lilly was "magnificent to look" 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".[39] 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.[40]Real Steel went on to be nominated for
Best Visual Effects at the
84th Academy Awards.[41][42]
In 2015, Lilly played
Hope van Dyne, daughter of
Hank Pym and
Janet van Dyne in the superhero film Ant-Man.[49] Lilly described her character as "capable, strong, and kick-ass", but said that being raised by two superheroes resulted in Hope being "a pretty screwed up human being [...] and the clear message sent by my name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name."[50] Lilly also signed a multi-film contract with Marvel.[51] The film received generally positive reviews.[52]
In February 2023, Lilly reprised her role as Hope van Dyne / Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released as the first film of
Phase Five of the MCU.[66][67] That same month, it was announced that Lilly would voice a character in the English version of the
animatedhistoric epic Israeli film, Legend of Destruction, which was originally released in 2021 in
Hebrew.[68] Lilly is set to voice the "last Jewish queen,
Berenice of Cilicia, who did her best to protect her people [...] even at the cost of her life", in which Lilly noted was "really brutal and sad, but it's true".[69]
In the media
Public image
After gaining recognition for her role as
Kate Austen in Lost, Lilly began to appear in the media and was regularly included in "Most Beautiful" lists.[70]Entertainment Weekly voted Lilly one of its "Breakout Stars of 2004".[71] That same year, Lilly was voted one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People".[72] In 2007, her portrayal of Austen was voted the number one "Sexiest Woman on Television" by TV Guide and made FHM's Top Sexiest.[73]
Lilly works with non-profits such as the
GO Campaign.[24] 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".[82] In 2010, she auctioned off three lunches in
Vancouver,
Honolulu, and
Los Angeles to help widows and orphans in
Rwanda, a country she has made numerous trips to as part of her charity work.[83] In 2012, Lilly auctioned off a Hawaiian hike to raise money for the
Sierra Club.[84]
Other ventures
The Squickerwonkers
On 18 July 2013, Lilly debuted her book series, titled The Squickerwonkers at the
San Diego Comic-Con centred around a young girl who joins a group of characters described as a "family" who are all "strange outcasts" and have "very particular vices".[85]
In 2014, Titan Books released the first title of The Squickerwonkers titled The Squickerwonkers: The Prequel (2014) with the foreword written by
Peter Jackson.[85][86][87] Three main titles titled The Squickerwonkers, Act 1: The Demise of Selma the Spoiled (2018), The Squickerwonkers, Act 2: The Demise of Lorna the Lazy (2018) and The Squickerwonkers, Act 3: The Demise of Andy the Arrogant (2019) were self-published by Quiet Cocoon Productions with Rodrigo Bastos Didier taking over as illustrator.[88][89][90] Lilly has stated that her literary inspirations are
Roald Dahl and
Edward Gorey.[91][92]
Personal life
Lilly was raised
Baptist and
Mennonite and described herself as "very devout and
evangelical". She has been involved in humanitarian work for 13 years in
Rwanda where she runs a
NGO.[93][94]
Lilly was married to hockey player Murray Hone from 2003 to 2004.[95] She was in a relationship with English actor and Lost costar
Dominic Monaghan from 2004 to 2007.[96] In 2010, Lilly began a relationship with Norman Kali. She gave birth to their first child, a son, in 2011.[97] Their second child, another son, was born in October 2015.[98]
On 20 December 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.[99] Though she lost all of her belongings, she said that the fire was "almost liberating" and that she was "in no hurry to clutter up [her] life again".[100]
On 16 March 2020, Lilly received mixed responses when she refused to
self-quarantine during the
COVID-19 pandemic, said it was "business as usual" on
Instagram, and claimed that she values "freedom over [her] life".[101] On 26 March, she apologized for her comments and called them "dismissive, arrogant, and cryptic".[102] On 27 January 2022, she posted a photo on Instagram showing that she had taken part in a march against
COVID-19 vaccine mandates in
Washington, D.C. and said that "nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will".[103][104] On 18 February, amidst the
Canada convoy protest against federal COVID-19 mandates, she urged Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau to meet with the protestors.[105][106]
Filmography
Key
†
Denotes productions that have not yet been released