Lily Collins

Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is an English-American actress, model, and writer.[1] The daughter of English musician Phil Collins, and an American mother, Jill Tavelman, she was born in Surrey and moved to Los Angeles as a child. Her first screen role was at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains. She went on to study broadcast journalism at the University of Southern California, and as a teenager, wrote for Seventeen magazine, Teen Vogue, and The Los Angeles Times. She was named International Model of the Year by Spain's Glamour magazine after being selected by Chanel to wear one of their dresses at the Hotel de Crillon in 2007. In 2008, she was named Newest Red Carpet Correspondent and One to Watch by Young Hollywood.

She has had leading roles in films such as the sci-fi action-horror film Priest (2011) and the psychological action-thriller Abduction (2011), and the fantasy Mirror Mirror(2012) in the role of Snow White. In 2013, she received wider recognition after taking on the role of Clary Fray in the fantasy The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, for which she was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Action and an MTV Movie Award. She is also known for her roles in independent films, such as the romantic comedy-drama Stuck in Love (2012), the romantic comedy The English Teacher (2013), and the romantic comedy-drama Love, Rosie(2014). In 2016, she won the New Hollywood Film Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her role as Marla Mabrey in Rules Don't Apply. In 2017, her performance as a young adult with anorexia in the Netflix drama To the Bone was praised, with Collins herself having overcome an eating disorder in the years before the film, and she and director Marti Noxon were honored at Project Heal for the film.[2][3]

Collins is also a published author, with her first book, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, being released in 2017 to critical praise.[4]

Early life
Lily Jane Collins was born on 18 March 1989 in Guildford, Surrey,[5] the daughter of English musician Phil Collins and his second wife, Jill Tavelman, an American who is the former president of the Beverly Hills Women's Club.[6] Her maternal grandfather was a Canadian-Jewish immigrant who for many years owned a men's clothing store in Beverly Hills, California.[7][8][9][10] After her parents' divorce in 1996, when she was seven, Collins moved to Los Angeles with her mother. She graduated from Harvard-Westlake School and attended the University of Southern California, majoring in broadcast journalism.[11] She was presented as a debutante at the Bal des débutantes in Paris in 2007.[12] Collins is the half-sister of musician Simon Collins and actress Joely Collins from her father's first marriage, and she has two other younger half-brothers from her father's third marriage. As a teenager, Collins suffered from an eating disorder that she later revealed in her book, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.[13]

Career
Collins began acting at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains.[14] As a teenager, Collins wrote a column, "NY Confidential", for the British magazine Elle Girl.[15] She has also written for Seventeen,[16] Teen Vogue,[17] and the Los Angeles Times.[18] She was selected by Chanel to wear one of their gowns at the 2007 Bal des débutantes at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, which was featured on season three of the reality television series The Hills.[15][19] She was picked by Spain's Glamour magazine in 2008 as its International Model of the Year,[20] and appeared on the magazine's cover in August 2009. Collins covered the 2008 US presidential election as a host on the Nickelodeon series Kids Pick the President.[18][21] She won a 2008 Young Hollywood Award for Newest Red Carpet Correspondent.[22]

In 2009, Collins appeared in two episodes of the teen drama series 90210, including the first season's finale. Collins was one of 20 women named by Maxim magazine as one of the Hottest Daughters of Rock Stars in 2009.[23] In 2009, Collins co-starred in the film The Blind Side as Collins Tuohy, the daughter of Sandra Bullock's character Leigh Anne Tuohy. In 2011, she played the warrior priest's daughter Lucy in the thriller Priest, opposite Paul Bettany.[24][25] MTV Networks' NextMovie.com named her one of the Breakout Stars to Watch for in 2011.[26] She co-starred in the 2011 action film Abduction with Taylor Lautner.[27]

The following year, Collins played Snow White in Mirror Mirror, an adaptation of the fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, co-starring Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen Clementianna. Robbie Collin from the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph wrote of Collins: "She has an adorable, sensational, almost perfect face for cinema; think Audrey Hepburn with the eyebrows of Liam Gallagher. Her smile is the platonic ideal of cheeky."[28] She made her singing debut in the film, performing an English re-written cover of "I Believe (in Love)". Also in 2012, Collins portrayed Samantha in Stuck in Love, starring alongside Jennifer Connelly, Logan Lerman, and Greg Kinnear.[29] Collins was initially cast as the lead in the 2013 remake of Evil Dead, but dropped out due to a scheduling issue.[30][31]

Collins then starred as Clary Fray in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, a film adaptation of the first book in The New York Times best-selling The Mortal Instruments novels, written by Cassandra Clare.[32] In October 2013, Collins appeared in the music video for "City of Angels" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.[33]

In 2014, Collins starred as Rosie Dunne in the film adaptation of Love, Rosie, alongside Sam Claflin, written by Cecelia Ahern.[34] Collins then had a leading role as aspiring actress Marla Mabrey, alongside Alden Ehrenreich, in the romantic comedy-drama Rules Don't Apply (2016), from filmmaker Warren Beatty, who also starred as billionaire Howard Hughes.[35] In 2016, Collins was part of a pilot produced for The Last Tycoon which is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's last book The Last Tycoon. Collins plays Cecelia Brady, who is the daughter of Pat Brady, who is played by Kelsey Grammer. Amazon picked up the pilot to series on 27 July 2016.[36] In March 2016, Collins joined the anorexiadrama film To the Bone in the lead role, written and directed by Marti Noxon.[37]That same month, she was cast in the Netflix drama film Okja alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton, directed by Bong Joon-ho.[38]

Beginning 30 December 2018, Collins stars in the BBC adaptation of Les Misérables, in the role of Fantine.[39]

Personal life
Collins stated in 2013 that she does not like to discuss the interest in her relationships publicly due to witnessing the difficulties caused by the media coverage of her parents' divorce.[40]

Activism
Collins is an outspoken anti-bullying advocate and is serving as a Celebrity Ambassador to anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution,[41] founded by author MacKenzie Bezos.[42]