Born Nicole Evangeline Lilly on August 3, 1979 in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian fashion model and actress best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost. The famous Ford modeling agency discovered her on the streets of Kelowna British Columbia. 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.
Lilly was born to a devout Protestant family. Her father was an economics teacher, and her mother is a secretary at Sandy Hill Elementary. Lilly also has two sisters. Evangeline described her youngest sister, Andrea as the actor in the family. Before leaving the town of Fort Saskatchewan for Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, Evangeline briefly attended three elementary schools, Fort Elementary, Rudolph Hennig and James Mowat Elementary. In Abbotsford, Lilly completed her high school years at W.J. Mouat Secondary School, and went on to study international relations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Since fourteen, Lilly has been volunteering for children’s project. She has also joined the missionary group and traveled to over 14 countries. She served briefly as a foreign missionary and lived in a grass hut in the Philippines. She was offered permanent missionary work there for two years, an offer she nearly accepted but eventually declined because of her parents’ wishes. Lilly was a flight attendant with Royal Airlines and did some modeling for phone chat line Livelinks. She speaks French very well. She also worked at Green Bay Bible Camp near Kelowna and at the Earls Restaurant in Abbotsford. Despite her joining the Peace Corps, she also founded and ran a world development and human rights committee at the University of British Columbia.
Between acting and modeling, Lilly spends her spare time ice-skating, canoeing, kayaking, snowboarding and rock climbing. She studied acting at The Yaletown Actors Lab with writer, director David Palffy and was first discovered by agent Jeff Palffy, formerly of Ford Models, now with PMG Management in Vancouver. When Lilly was cast as Kate Austen 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. She refused to do partial nude scene in the show. 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 and on December 14, 2006, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Lead Actress-Drama.
Lilly also had her role in TV series “Judgment Day” (2002) and “Kingdom Hospital” (2004), and movies “Stealing Sinatra” (2003) and “The Long Weekend” (2005). By 2008, she has added another big screen role into her resume, a slot in thriller flick “Afterwards” alongside the likes of John Malkovich, Romain Duris, and Reece Thompson.
Lilly was once married to Canadian hockey player Murray Hone. From 2004 to 2009, Lilly dated Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan. She had her first child, a son named Kahekili (a Hawaiian name meaning “The Thunder”), with boyfriend Norman Kali in May 2011.
Evangeline Lilly Photo Gallery
