Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff

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Birth name: Hilary Erhard Duff
Date of birth: 28 September 1987
Place of birth: Houston, Texas, USA
Nickname: Hil
Height: 5′ 4″ (1.63 m)

Famous Quote: “I love clothes. I can’t control myself. I have a huge fetish for shoes and clothes and make-up. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to wear things over and over again. I love my mom. I totally look up to her, and she just doesn’t let anybody take advantage of me. People might call that a stage mom.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Hilary Duff
Curtis Talent Management
9607 Arby Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA 

Biography:  Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, pop singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. After gaining fame for playing the title role in the television show Lizzie McGuire, Duff went on to have a film career; her most commercially successful movies include Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), and A Cinderella Story (2004).

Duff has expanded her repertoire into pop music, with three RIAA certified-platinum albums and over thirteen million albums sold worldwide. Her first studio album, Metamorphosis (2003), was certified triple platinum and she followed it up with two more platinum albums, Hilary Duff (2004) and Most Wanted (2005). Duff’s latest studio album, Dignity, was released in April 2007 and was certified Gold in August 2007.

She has also launched a clothing line, Stuff by Hilary Duff, and an exclusive perfume with Elizabeth Arden. Duff and her mother were listed as producers for the movie Material Girls, As of December 2007, her upcoming films include the action thriller War, Inc., animated comedy Foodfight! and independent films Greta and Safety Glass.

As talented as she is appealing, the bubbly blonde actress Hilary Duff became a showbiz veteran at an early age, making her professional debut in the Columbus Ballet production of “The Nutcracker” at the tender age of six. She starred in a number of feature projects including “Casper Meets Wendy” (1998) and “Soul Collector” (1999) before gaining wide exposure as the title character in the teen sitcom “Lizzie McGuire” (2001). The popular Disney show chronicled the life of a teenage junior high student and her friends. The show uses a cartoon version of Lizzie (her alter ego) as a commentator, which added originality to the highly rated show.

Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987. She is the second child of Susan Colleen (née Cobb), a homemaker, and Robert Erhard Duff, a partner in a chain of convenience stores. She has an elder sister, Haylie Duff, who is also an actress/singer. After Duff’s mother encouraged Duff to take an acting class alongside her elder sister, Haylie, both girls won parts in various local theater productions. At the ages of eight and six, respectively, the Duff sisters participated in the ballet, The Nutcracker Suite with Columbus BalletMet in San Antonio. The siblings became more enthusiastic about the idea of acting professionally, and eventually relocated to California with their mother. Duff’s father stayed at the family home in Houston to take care of their business. After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various television commercials.

Duff’s early career was marked by playing minor roles, starting off with an uncredited appearance in Hallmark Entertainment’s western miniseries True Women in 1997. She also served as an extra, again uncredited, in writer-director Willard Carroll’s ensemble dramedy Playing by Heart in 1998. Her first major part was as a star of the 1998 film Casper Meets Wendy, a direct-to-video sequel to Casper in which she plays the young witch Wendy, who encounters the animated character Casper. The film was released to mostly unenthusiastic reviews.

In 1999, Duff appeared in a supporting role in the television film The Soul Collector, which was, based on a Kathleen Kane novel and starred Bruce Greenwood and Melissa Gilbert. Duff won a Young Artist Award for “Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot (Supporting Young Actress)” for her role in the movie.

Duff’s first serious shot at fame came when she was cast as one of the children in the pilot episode of the NBC sitcom Daddio in 2000. Actor Michael Chiklis, co-star of Daddio, stated, “After working with her the first day, I remember saying to my wife, ‘this young girl is going to be a movie star’. She was completely at ease with herself and comfortable in her own skin.”

Duff was dropped from the cast of Daddio before it being aired, which made her reluctant to pursue her acting career further. However, her manager and mother spurred her on, and a week later she successfully auditioned for a children’s television series, Lizzie McGuire. In the series, Duff portrayed the title role of Lizzie McGuire, a clumsy but an average middle school girl. The show focused on her life and her slow growth into teenhood. Her co-stars included Lalaine, Adam Lamberg, Jake Thomas, Clayton Snyder, Ashlie Brillault, Robert Carradine, and Hallie Todd.

Lizzie McGuire, which first aired on the Disney Channel on January 12, 2001, was a ratings hit, drawing in 2.3 million viewers per episode. Her participation in the show led to her becoming highly popular among children between the ages of seven and 14, with critic Richard Huff of the New York Daily News calling her “a 2002 version of Annette Funicello”. After Duff fulfilled her 65 episode contract with Lizzie McGuire, Disney considered continuing the franchise in further films and a prime-time television series to be broadcast on ABC, but the plans failed to take off because Duff’s representatives claimed she was not being paid enough for the proposed series. However in 2003, she went on to reprise her role as Lizzie McGuire in the feature film spin-off, The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

During her time on Lizzie McGuire, Duff starred opposite Christy Carlson Romano and Gary Cole in the Disney Channel television film Cadet Kelly (2002), which became the network’s most watched program in its 19-year history. In the movie, she plays a free-spirited girl who enrolls in a military school and finds it hard to adjust to its strict and disciplined environment.

Duff also made several guest appearances in television shows; her first as a sick child in the medical drama Chicago Hope in March 2000. In a 2003 episode of George Lopez, she had a role as a makeup salesperson; she later reappeared in the show in 2005 as a feminist poet friend of the character, Carmen (Masiela Lusha). In 2003, she acted opposite her sister Haylie in American Dreams, while in 2005, she played a classmate and idolizer of the title character of Joan of Arcadia. During her Most Wanted tour, she performed in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she filmed a brief appearance on the soap opera Rebelde. She was also the guest star on The Andy Milonakis Show for its third season premiere in 2007.

Duff’s first role in a theatrical motion picture was in Human Nature (2002), an independent film shot before Lizzie McGuire and first shown at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, the film follows a female naturalist, played by Patricia Arquette. Duff played the younger version of Arquette’s character.

The following year, Duff was cast in her second Disney project, but this time she starred as a free-spirited teen enrolled in a straight-laced military school in “Cadet Kelly” (2002). The original television feature delivered the network’s highest household rating ever, leading to her big screen debut in the 2003 action feature “Agent Cody Banks.” The film starred Frankie Muniz as an elite undercover agent for the CIA. Duff was cast as Muniz’s love interest who’s father becomes the CIA’s targeted subject.

She then headlined a frothy, fluffy big screen outing for her TV persona, “The Lizzie Maguire Movie” (2003), where Lizzie jets to Italy, is mistaken for a look-alike international pop star and is transformed from gawky teen to glam idol. Shortly after the movie established her as a viable film star, Duff also released a successful 2003 pop album Metamorphosis and #1 hit single “So Yesterday.” She closed out her breakthrough year by playing Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt’s fashion-conscious daughter Lorraine in the bland but popular remake of “Cheaper By the Dozen” (2003).

Duff took center stage in her next film, “A Cinderella Story” (2004), a sugary, clunky and nonsensical attempt at a contemporary retelling of the classic fable that squandered the charms of its teen star. Somewhat better was the uneven “Raise Your Voice” (2004), a melodramatic but slightly more mature tale than the previous Duff fare which cast her as a small town teen chanteuse who travels to L.A. to attend a performing arts high school and learn rote coming-of-age lessons. Duff next appeared in yet another cute and cuddly romantic comedy, “The Perfect Man” (2005), wherein she tries to hook up her mom (Heather Locklear) with the right guy so she’ll stop moving to another city whenever she breaks up with her latest beau. The movie was rocked by a spate of bad reviews, leaving one critic on the verge of vomiting from its sugary sweetness.

Duff then rejoined the original cast for the sequel, “Cheaper By the Dozen 2” (2005), then appeared alongside her sister, Haylie, in “Material Girls” (lensed 2005), a fish-out-of-water comedy about two young heiresses who lose their father’s fortune and are forced to make their own way in the real world. Duff then provided her voice for “Foodfight!” (2006), an animated tale about the after-hour antics of grocery store produce. 

Her first major role in a feature film was in the family action film Agent Cody Banks, with Frankie Muniz, in 2003. The film received positive reviews and was successful enough to spawn a sequel, in which Duff did not participate. Later that year, Duff reprised her role as Lizzie McGuire for The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which exceeded box office expectations, earning $42.6 million at the US box office and $55 million worldwide. It received mixed reviews, with certain critics calling it “an unabashed promotion of Duff’s image, just as Crossroads was for Spears”, while other reviews were generally positive and encouraging.

Later that year, Duff played one of the 12 children of Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the family film Cheaper by the Dozen, which remains her highest grossing film to date. She reprised her role in the sequel to the film called Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), which failed to be as successful as the original film and was panned by critics.

In 2004, Duff starred in the romantic comedy A Cinderella Story. Though the reviews were mostly negative, the film went on to become a moderate box office hit, and critics were impressed by Duff’s performance. A Cinderella Story earned $66,068,046 worldwide and was a commercial success. Later that year, she starred in the film Raise Your Voice, her first role in a drama film. Some critics praised Duff for appearing in a more mature and serious role than her previous films, but the film itself was heavily panned, with the Las Vegas Weekly writing: “Effortlessly combining Duff’s bad acting and bad singing with bad writing and bad direction, Raise Your Voice is an insulting waste of time that begs to be silenced”. 

Several reviews were indifferent towards her acting performance and were particularly harsh towards Duff’s vocals, with critics pointing out what appeared to be her digitally enhanced voice. The film received a lukewarm response at the box office, and is Duff’s least successful film commercially, with total theater receipts of $13,573,284. The same year, Duff received her first Razzie nomination for worst actress for her roles in Raise Your Voice and Cinderella Story.

In 2005, Duff starred in The Perfect Man in which she played the eldest daughter of a divorced woman (Heather Locklear). The film received mostly harsh reviews and did not live up to box office expectations, grossing $19,770,475 globally. That year, Duff was again nominated for a Razzie Award, for both The Perfect Man and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.The 2006 satirical comedy Material Girls, in which she co-starred with her sister Haylie, was also not well received by critics, grossing only $16,847,695 worldwide. The film, directed by Martha Coolidge and co-produced by Madonna’s independent film production company Maverick Entertainment, starred the Duff sisters as wealthy siblings who must fight to reclaim their fortune following a scandal. Hilary received nominations for another two Razzie awards for her role in the film.

In early 2007, the Duff sisters lent their voices to the computer animated comedy Foodfight!, which is to be distributed by Lions Gate Films and scheduled to release in April 2008. The film’s director, Larry Kasanoff, said that he is “absolutely thrilled to have the Duff sisters as part of the cast”. Duff also stars opposite John Cusack in War, Inc., due for limited release in May 2008. On September 7, 2007, Duff confirmed on Much On Demand, that she would be filming two independent films Greta, and Safety Glass. Both movies were filmed in late 2007 and are due to be released in late 2008 or early 2009.

Duff’s fourth album, Most Wanted (2005), comprised her favorite tracks from her previous two albums, remixes, and new songs inspired by pop-rock musicians such as The Killers and Muse. In an appearance on Total Request Live, Duff stated that it was not a greatest hits album, but that her label told her it was time to release a new album. She had more creative control over Most Wanted compared to her previous releases, co-writing the new material with producers Joel Madden and his brother, Benji, both members of Good Charlotte. The lead single, “Wake Up”, became Duff’s highest peaking single on the U.S. Hot 100 at the time, and its video received heavy rotation on MTV. The video for the second single, “Beat of My Heart”, was also popular, but the single itself did not chart in the U.S. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became her third number one debut in Canada. An Italy-only compilation, 4Ever, was released in 2006. Duff recorded new songs for her movie, Material Girls, which included a Timbaland-produced cover version of Madonna’s “Material Girl” with her sister.

For Duff’s fourth studio album, Dignity, she co-wrote the material with Kara DioGuardi, who co-produced the album with Rhett Lawrence, Richard “Humpty” Vission, Tim & Bob and others. Duff stated that compared to her previous music, it is “more dancey” and makes use of more real instruments. She said, “I don’t know exactly how to explain what we’re doing, but it’s fun and funky and different, something new for me. It’s really cool”. She also described the album’s sound as “a little less pop-rock and more electronic-sounding”.

The first single, “Play with Fire”, became a minor club hit but failed to chart in the U.S.; the second single, “With Love”, was more successful, becoming Duff’s biggest U.S. Hot 100 hit and topping the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. The music video for “With Love” was used as a commercial for Duff’s first fragrance, With Love… Hilary Duff, which was launched in September 2006; the video reached number one on Total Request Live. Initially slated for release in late 2006, the album was released in April 2007 in North America and earlier elsewhere. It reached the top five in the U.S. and Canada, the top twenty in Australia and the top forty in the UK. 

The Dignity tour began in mid-2007. A third single, “Stranger”, was a number one U.S. club hit. In September 2007, Duff announced that she will be recording her next single “Reach Out”, which samples Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”. Duff has also confirmed that she has written a song titled “I Will” for singer Vanessa Hudgens’s upcoming album.

Duff launched her clothing line, “Stuff by Hilary Duff,” in March 2004, with clothes distributed through Target in the United States, Kmart in Australia, Zellers in Canada and Edgars Stores in South Africa. The company, initially started as a clothing line, has expanded its business into furniture, fragrances, and jewelry, targeted at the teen and preteen crowd. In 2007, the Internet website Stardoll.com previewed Duff’s clothing line to customers by allowing them to dress up a paper doll on the website (which include Hilary Duff’s own doll) with the clothes.

Playmates Toys released a celebrity doll of her in 2004.[64] In late 2006, Mattel released a Hilary Duff Barbie doll. As a fashion designer, she had designed clothes for Barbie dolls in the past but with the release of her doll, she joined Reese Witherspoon, Beyonce Knowles and Lucille Ball who have their own celebrity-dolls.

In September 2006, Duff released her perfume, “With Love… Hilary Duff”, which was distributed by the Elizabeth Arden company. The perfume was initially sold only in Macy’s in the U.S. but is currently being sold in other regions like Japan and Canada. In 2007, Duff announced that she will be releasing a summer version of the perfume titled, “Wrapped With Love”. It was released in January 2008, and a Spring Gift Set version was released in time for Valentines Day.

Duff and her pet dog Lola made an appearance in the Electronic Arts game The Sims 2: Pets, which was released on October 2006. In console versions of the game, Duff’s character visits public areas and allows the players to let their Sims socialize with her and Lola. Animal rights’ organisation, “Animal welfare league” have criticised Duff and celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson for displaying their dogs as fashion accessories rather than pets.

Duff began dating singer Aaron Carter in 2001. They met on the sets of Lizzie McGuire, when Carter had a cameo role in a Christmas episode. The relationship lasted two years. It was reported that Carter left Duff for Lindsay Lohan, but soon broke up with Lohan and resumed dating Duff. Carter later stated that he also cheated on Duff with her best friend, and that Duff “got her heart broken” and he was “sorry” for his actions. 

Claymation facsimiles of Duff and Lohan appeared on the celebrity wrestling series Celebrity Death Match on March 23, 2007. Duff and Lindsay Lohan were later reported to have been involved in a “feud” with each other over their relationship with Carter. As of 2007, Duff and Lohan had reconciled. Lohan attended the release party for Duff’s album Dignity and Duff told People magazine that she thought Lohan was “fun” and “a nice girl”.

In 2007, Duff was photographed many times with NHL player Mike Comrie. Although Duff never revealed much about the relationship, the couple was seen hugging and kissing, with Duff even attending some of Comrie’s games. Comrie bought Duff a brand new $100,000 car for her twentieth birthday. Duff is involved with various charities, is an animal rights enthusiast and a member of Kids with a Cause. 

She also donated $250,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, she donated over 2.5 million meals to Hurricane Katrina victims in the south. In August 2006, Duff traveled to a New Orleans elementary school and worked with USA Harvest to distribute meals. She has also served on the Advisory Board of the “Audrey Hepburn Child Benefit Fund” and the Celebrity Council of “Kids with a Cause”.

In late 2006, Duff took legal action against an alleged stalker and his roommate. On November 3, 2006, Duff’s stalker, Maksim Miakovsky, was arrested for threatening to kill her. He was booked on charges of making criminal threats and stalking. According to legal papers filed by Duff, Miakovsky came to the U.S. “for the sole purpose of meeting and becoming romantically involved with Ms. Duff”. Miakovsky was being held on $200,000 bail at the Manhattan Beach jail. He was arraigned on November 7, 2006. On January 19, 2007, Miakovsky was sentenced to 117 days in jail and five years probation after pleading no contest to the charges.

By 2005, Duff appeared to have lost weight, leading the media to speculate that she had developed an eating disorder, although Duff denied this claim. Duff was interviewed on the Australian current affair show Today Tonight and stated that she lost weight by leading a more active lifestyle. Later in 2006, an article on Digital Spy stated that Duff slimmed down to a U.S. size zero because of media reports suggesting she had gained fifteen pounds. She later stated that she had been feeling the pressure to be thin, because she is perceived in the media to be either too fat or too thin. Duff called this “judgmental” and “mean”.

In January 2008, videos of Duff surfaced on YouTube, which showed her singing into her microphone at her concert in Mexico, but her voice was inaudible, leading people to believe that she was lip-syncing. Duff’s representative spoke out about the incident saying, “She was not lip-synching. It was faulty equipment. There was no sound coming out, but she was singing”. He also added that Duff was not using her regular sound equipment, but instead was using locally provided equipment and that her microphone was inadvertently set on mute for the first few minutes of the performance.

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