August 3rd, 2008 - Happy Birthday Evangeline Lilly!

She is known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama Lost.

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.

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 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.

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.

Lilly was once married to Canadian hockey player Murray Hone, and was recently engaged to 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 “live[s] 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”.

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