Lily Collins

About

Also Known As

Lily Jane Collins

Birth Place

Surrey, England, GB

Born

March 18, 1989

Biography

Filmography

Tolkien (2019)

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2018)

Okja (2017)

To the Bone (2017)

The Rules Don't Apply (2016)

The Mortal Instruments (2013)

Biography

While Lily Collins was born into a life of privilege and glamour, it was through sheer talent and passion that she was able to lead the enchanted life of a movie star. The daughter of musician Phil Collins, the British actress first gained attention as a columnist for popular teen magazines like Seventeen and Teen Vogue, and as host of several Nickelodeon-sponsored political campaigns. After a guest starring stint on the primetime drama "90210" (Fox, 2008-13), Collins landed a featured part opposite Academy Award-winning actress Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side" (2009), followed by a lead part in the action-thriller "Abduction" (2011). But it was her breakthrough role as Snow White in the modern retelling of the classic fairytale "Mirror Mirror" (2012) that launched Collins' career and paved the way for a bright future in Hollywood for the talented actress.

Lily Jane Collins was born on March 18, 1989 in Surrey, England to British singer Phil Collins and his second wife, Jill Tavelman. She made her acting debut on the short-lived British dramedy series "Growing Pains" (BBC, 1992-93) when she was just an infant. At five, Collins moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her parents separated. Collins performed at the Youth Academy for Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, but she also expressed an interest in journalism. To nurture her passion for reporting, Collins wrote a column called "NY Confidential" for the British magazine Elle Girls as well as contributed articles to Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Los Angeles Times magazines, and she majored in broadcast journalism at the University of Southern California. Collins further polished her reporting skills by interviewing celebrities on-set and hosting the Nickelodeon show "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Kids Pick the President" in 2000.

While journalism was her passion, Collins continued to make inroads in Hollywood. In 2009, Collins guest starred as a party girl on Fox's series "90210," a spin-off of the seminal 1990s teen drama "Beverly Hills, 90210" (Fox, 1990-2000). That same year, she had a featured role in the award-winning semi-biographical drama "The Blind Side." Based on Michael Lewis' 2006 novel "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game," the film followed Michael Oher's (Quinton Aaron) journey from his impoverished upbringing to becoming a first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring and strong-willed interior designer, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her family. Collins played Bullock's teenaged daughter who is initially concerned about a stranger moving into their home but later warms up to the idea of having a protective big brother.

In 2011, Collins starred in the critically panned thriller "Abduction," as the love interest of Taylor Lautner, whom she briefly dated while filming. She was also reportedly linked to actor Zac Efron. In 2012, Collins nabbed the biggest role of her career then to date in the adventure-comedy "Mirror Mirror," based on the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale. She played Snow White, a beautiful princess in exile who is trying to reclaim her kingdom from an evil Queen (Julia Roberts). That same year, an announcement was made that Collins was tapped to play the lead in the film adaptation of "City of Bones" (2007), the first book in Cassandra Clare's "Mortal Instruments" series about a seemingly ordinary teenager in New York City who discovers that she is a descendant of a line of half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle with demons, vampires, and other deadly creatures.

By Candy Cuenco