Evangeline Lilly facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Evangeline Lilly
Lilly at the 2023 GalaxyCon
Born	Nicole Evangeline Lilly (1979-08-03) August 3, 1979 (age 45) Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada
Alma mater	University of British Columbia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2002–2024
Spouse(s)	Murray Hone ​ ​ (m. 2003; div. 2004)​
Partner(s)	Dominic Monaghan (2004–2007) Norman Kali (2010–present)
Children	2

Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979) is a Canadian actress who recently retired from acting. She became very popular for her first main role as Kate Austen in the TV show Lost (2004–2010). This role earned her many awards nominations, including a Golden Globe Award.

Evangeline Lilly also starred in movies like the war film The Hurt Locker (2008) and the sports drama Real Steel (2011). She played Tauriel in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movies, including The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). From 2015 to 2023, she was known as Hope van Dyne / Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Besides acting, Lilly is also an author. She wrote a children's book series called The Squickerwonkers.

About Evangeline Lilly's Life

Growing Up in Canada

Evangeline Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, on August 3, 1979. She grew up in British Columbia. Her mother worked with produce, and her father was a home economics teacher. She has two sisters, one older and one younger.

When she was young, Lilly was raised in a Christian family. She went to W. J. Mouat Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia. There, she played soccer and was the vice president of the student council. To help pay for her college, she worked as a waitress and even changed oil on big trucks. She also worked as a flight attendant for Royal Airlines.

Lilly was very interested in helping people around the world. This led her to study how countries work together, called International Relations, at the University of British Columbia.

Starting Her Acting Journey

Evangeline Lilly's acting career began when a talent agent from Ford Modelling Agency noticed her. This happened while she was in Kelowna, British Columbia. She took the agent's card but didn't immediately try acting. Later, she called the agency. They helped her get roles in commercials and small, non-speaking parts in TV shows like Smallville and Kingdom Hospital. She also appeared on a video game show for G4TV.

Evangeline Lilly's Acting Career

Becoming Famous with Lost (2004–2010)

Evangeline Lilly in 2007

In 2003, a friend encouraged Lilly to try out for a new TV show called Lost. She didn't think she would get the part. The show's creators kept the story a secret. Actors could only read small parts of the script. They only knew it was about people surviving a plane crash on a tropical island. Lilly thought it would be a "mediocre TV show."

About 75 women tried out for the role of Kate Austen. The show's co-creator, Damon Lindelof, saw Lilly on a tape and said, "That's the girl!" It was almost hard for Lilly to get the role because she needed a special work visa to enter the United States. After almost 20 tries, her application was finally approved. She arrived in Hawaii to start filming just one day late.

Lost was on TV for six seasons, from 2004 to 2010. It became one of ABC's most popular shows. It won a Golden Globe Award and ten Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2005, it won the award for Outstanding Drama Series. IMDb even called Lost the top-rated TV show of that decade.

Lilly was between 24 and 30 years old while working on Lost. She appeared in 108 out of 121 episodes. Her character, Kate Austen, was the main female lead. In 2006, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. A TV critic from USA Today praised Lilly's acting in one episode.

After filming the last episode of Lost, Lilly thought about taking a break from acting. She wanted to focus on her charity work. She told Vulture that acting was just a "day job" for her. She said it wasn't her main dream. She uses her famous roles to help with her humanitarian efforts, not to become a huge star.

Becoming an Established Actress (2008–2014)

Evangeline Lilly at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008

In 2008, Lilly appeared in the movie The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. This film was highly praised and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. It won six of them, including Best Picture. Lilly and the other actors in the film won awards for Best Ensemble Cast. In the same year, Lilly also had a main role in the thriller movie Afterwards.

In May 2010, Lilly shared on The View that being a mother was her most important job. She said she liked acting as a "day job" and would keep doing it when she could. She took a short break that year and didn't work in Hollywood.

In 2011, Lilly played Bailey Tallet in the movie Real Steel, even though she had turned down other film offers. Bailey was a boxing gym owner, and Lilly starred alongside Hugh Jackman. She took the role after the director, Shawn Levy, sent her the script. Levy said Lilly was "magnificent to look at." He also said he needed someone who seemed like they grew up in a world of men. Bailey needed to be strong and tough, but still womanly. Real Steel was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 84th Academy Awards. While promoting the film, Lilly turned down a role in the X-Men movies. She said she "wasn't into superhero movies" at that time.

In 2012, Lilly was chosen to play Tauriel, a Mirkwood elf, in Peter Jackson's three-part movie series based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The character of Tauriel is not in the original book. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh created her as the leader of the Elven guard. For this role, Lilly learned how to use swords, shoot arrows, and speak the Elvish language. Lilly described Tauriel as someone who doesn't always follow the rules. She said Tauriel "rebels against the established social order of the Elves." Lilly appeared as Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).

Joining the Marvel Universe (2015–2023)

Evangeline Lilly at GalaxyCon in 2023

In 2015, Lilly played Hope van Dyne in the superhero movie Ant-Man. This film is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Hope van Dyne is the daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne. Lilly also signed a contract to appear in several Marvel films. The movie received good reviews.

In 2017, Lilly starred in the Netflix horror film Little Evil with Adam Scott. In 2018, she played Hope van Dyne again in Ant-Man and the Wasp. In this movie, she became the superhero the Wasp. This was hinted at in the first Ant-Man movie during an end credits scene. The film received positive reviews, and Lilly's performance was praised. The Wasp became the first female superhero to have her name in the title of an MCU film. Lilly also returned as the Wasp in Avengers: Endgame (2019).

In 2021, she starred with Armie Hammer and Gary Oldman in Crisis. In the same year, she also appeared in South of Heaven with Jason Sudeikis. For this role, she won Best Actress at the AFIN International Film Festival. Lilly also lent her voice to an alternate version of the Wasp in the Disney+ animated series What If...? (2021). She voiced Van Dyne in the episode "What If... Zombies?!", and her performance was well-received.

In February 2023, Lilly played Hope van Dyne / Wasp again in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This was the first film in Phase Five of the MCU. That same month, it was announced that Lilly would voice a character in the English version of the animated historic epic Israeli film, Legend of Destruction. This film was originally released in 2021 in Hebrew. Lilly voiced "the last Jewish queen, Berenice of Cilicia." Lilly noted that the story was "really brutal and sad, but it's true."

Retirement from Acting (2024)

In June 2024, Evangeline Lilly announced that she was taking a break from acting. She wants to focus on her family. She said she "might return to Hollywood one day, but for now this is where I belong."

Evangeline Lilly's Other Work

Charity Efforts

Evangeline Lilly at the premiere for Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018

Evangeline Lilly works with non-profit organizations like the GO Campaign. In 2009, she sold some custom clothing to support Task Brasil. This group helps street children in Brazil by giving them safe homes. In 2010, she offered three lunches in different cities to raise money for widows and orphans in Rwanda. She has visited Rwanda many times for her charity work. In 2012, Lilly auctioned off a hike in Hawaii to raise money for the Sierra Club, an environmental organization.

Writing Books

Evangeline Lilly at a book signing for The Squickerwonkers in 2014

While working on Lost in 2006, Lilly mentioned in an interview that she wanted to be a writer. On July 18, 2013, Lilly introduced her book series, The Squickerwonkers, at San Diego Comic-Con. The books are about a young girl who joins a group of "strange outcasts" who all have "very particular vices."

In 2014, Titan Books released the first book, The Squickerwonkers: The Prequel. Peter Jackson wrote the introduction for it. Later, three main books were self-published by Quiet Cocoon Productions. These were 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). Rodrigo Bastos Didier became the illustrator for these books. Lilly has said that her favorite authors who inspired her are Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey.

Evangeline Lilly's Personal Life

Evangeline Lilly was raised in a Christian family. She has been involved in humanitarian work for 13 years in Rwanda. She also runs a non-governmental organization (NGO) there.

Lilly was married to hockey player Murray Hone from 2003 to 2004. She was in a relationship with her Lost co-star, English actor Dominic Monaghan, from 2004 to 2007. In 2010, Lilly started a relationship with Norman Kali. They had a son in 2011, and their second son was born in October 2015.

On December 20, 2006, an electrical problem caused a fire at Lilly's house in Kailua, Hawaii. The fire destroyed her house and all her belongings while she was filming Lost. Even though she lost everything, she said the fire was "almost liberating." She felt she was "in no hurry to clutter up [her] life again."

In March 2020, Lilly shared some controversial opinions about the Covid-19 pandemic. She later apologized for her comments, calling them "dismissive, arrogant, and cryptic." In January 2022, she posted on Instagram that she had joined a march against vaccine mandates. She said that "nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will." In February, during protests in Canada, she asked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with the protestors.

Filmography

Movies

Television Shows

Video Games

Theme Park Rides

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Evangeline Lilly para niños