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Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979) is a Canadian Golden Globe-nominated actress. She is known for her role as Katherine "Kate" Austen in ABC's hit drama Lost. Ever since Lana Turner’s miraculous discovery at Schwab’s drugstore (or the Top Hat Café, depending on the source), the myth of being discovered at random in Hollywood has permeated American culture. Most often, however, actors and actresses make it in the business through years of hard work, undaunted determination, and, perhaps, a bit of casting coach expertise. Not so for newcomer Evangeline Lilly, who was literally plucked out of obscurity while walking the streets; the only difference being she was in British Columbia, not Los Angeles. Regardless of where she was found, Lilly managed to turn her good fortune into a promising acting career. Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada to a devoutly Christian family. Her father is a home economics teacher, and her mother is a beauty consultant. Lilly also has a younger sister, whom she has described as "the actor in the family". During her childhood, the family did not have a television. Originally from a typical middle class home her father was a grocery store produce manager, and her mom ran a day care out of their home in Fort Saskatchewan, Albert, Canada, Lilly had dreams of becoming an actress early in life. She appeared in a few junior high and high school plays, but once she began attending the University of British Columbia, Lilly embarked upon a more altruistic path: she founded and ran a world development and human rights committee, then went on a mission to the Philippines. Lilly spent three weeks in the remote island nation living in grass huts in the jungle while assisting with her Christian group’s missionary work. Though unknown at the time, her experience with adapting to the jungle proved useful in the next stage of her life. Before leaving the city of Fort Saskatchewan at the age of 10, she attended three elementary schools. She briefly attended Fort Elementary, Rudolph Henning and James Mowat Elementary. During a phone interview with the local paper, The Record, Evangeline was quoted saying, "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." Lilly served briefly as a foreign missionary and lived in a grass hut in the Philippines at the age of 18. She was offered a missionary post there for two years, an offer she nearly accepted but eventually declined because of her parents' wishes. Lilly is a former flight attendant of Air Canada, and speaks French fairly well. It was while walking down the street in Kelowna, British Columbia, that Lilly’s life changed forever. An agent for the Ford Modeling Agency called out, “Hey, you”, then tried to convince the lanky brunette to become a model. Insulted that a complete stranger would assume she wanted to build a career based on her looks, Lilly said thanks, but no thanks. She did, however, take his business card, and while faced with the daunting prospect of paying for her college tuition six months later, Lilly, at the insistence of a friend, grudgingly called the agent back. Soon she found herself doing commercials, which she hated, and appearing in television and film projects, mostly as a glorified extra. One such appearance was in “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital” (ABC, 2004), a supernatural miniseries about a haunted hospital built upon an ancient graveyard. Lilly was in a brief scene where she gets shot in the head while lying in bed. Though often embellished as a prominent role by PR pushers, Lilly managed to keep it in perspective. Lilly was discovered on the streets of Kelowna, British Columbia by Ford modeling agency. Although she initially decided to pass on a modeling career, she went ahead and signed with Ford anyway, to help pay for her University of British Columbia tuition and expenses. Despite being signed to Ford Models, she was never actually a fashion model, working instead with their acting branch. She was previously featured in several provocative television commercials for LiveLinks Chatline, a service billed as the "best place to meet local singles for dating, friendship, or phone chat." Her image is still used to promote the service. She also appeared on G4's Judgment Day. She appeared uncredited in the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason as a high-school girl leaning against a locker, and in an episode of Smallville in a pool hall scene. She also had a guest appearance on the ABC supernatural horror series Kingdom Hospital (2004). Lilly's first speaking role was on Lost. She also appeared in the 2003 teenager film The Lizzie McGuire Movie as an (uncredited) Italian police officer. Lilly’s fate took another profitable turn when she auditioned for “Lost” (ABC, 2004- ), an ambitious TV series about 48 plane crash survivors on an uncharted island. Lilly submitted her reel during the casting session, and after not hearing back, moved on with her life. But executive producer J.J. Abrams (“Felicity”, “Alias”) called out of the blue and asked the unknown Lilly to audition for ABC executives. A first for the actress, Lilly nailed the audition and soon got the part—a shocking development, because three years prior Lilly hadn’t even considered acting to be an ambition, let alone a viable career. After a successful first episode and consistently high ratings thereafter, “Lost” became a hit for ABC, and Lilly was propelled into the spotlight. Her stock continued to climb when she was mentioned for the role of Lois Lane in the new version of “Superman” (2006), directed by Brian Singer. At the time, Lilly was one of five actresses being considered to star opposite another virtual unknown, Brandon James Routh. When Lilly was cast as Kate 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. Although Lilly placed 8th in the FHM "100 Sexiest Women in the World" of 2006 and initially placed 2nd on Maxim's "Hot 100" list of 2005, she slipped to 67th in Maxim's 2006 list. On December 14, 2006, Lilly 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. Lilly was once married to Canadian hockey player Murray Hone, and is believed to have ended her relationship with her former Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan. Her known nicknames include "Evie" and "Monkey". Her Lost castmates nicknamed her "Monkey" because of her ability to climb trees with ease, a skill which has been incorporated into her character. Her fellow Lost-actor Josh Holloway also calls her 'Freckles', sharing the nickname his on-screen character Sawyer gave her. She is also known on set for her tomboyishness, Christian faith, and her "potty mouth". Lilly has stated that she "lives 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". On the May 9, 2007 Episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Evangeline 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 she decided to be a ditzy "cheerleader" type and 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 video aimed at teaching teenage girls how to defend themselves against rapists. During the summer break between the first and second seasons of Lost, Lilly spent time visiting the poor in Rwanda. 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 has now been determined as an electrical fault. |
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