Lily Collins

Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is an English and American actress. Born in Guildford and raised in Los Angeles, she began performing on screen at the age of two in the BBC sitcom Growing Pains. In the late 2000s, she began acting and modelling more regularly, and gained recognition for her supporting role in the sports drama film The Blind Side (2009). She went on to star in several films, including the horror film Priest (2011), the thriller Abduction (2011), and the fantasy films Mirror Mirror (2012) and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013).

Collins was critically acclaimed for her portrayals of a young actress in the romantic comedy Rules Don't Apply (2016), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and a young adult with anorexia in the drama To the Bone (2017). She appeared in the biopics Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), Tolkien (2019) and Mank (2020).

She played Fantine in the BBC miniseries Les Misérables (2018–2019), and since 2020 has portrayed marketing executive Emily Cooper in the Netflix romantic comedy series Emily in Paris, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series (as producer). She has written the memoir Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me (2017), discussing her struggles with mental health and body image.

Lily Jane Collins was born on 18 March 1989, 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. Her maternal grandfather was a Canadian Jewish immigrant who for many years owned a men's clothing store in Beverly Hills, California.

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. She was presented as a debutante at the Bal des débutantes in Paris in 2007. As a teen, she suffered from an eating disorder that she later described in her autobiography Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.

Collins began acting at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains. She appeared in two episodes of the teen drama series 90210, including the first season's finale. Later that year, she had her breakthrough starring in the film The Blind Side as Collins Tuohy, the daughter of Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock's character). It was a commercial success, grossing over $250 million and emerging as the highest-grossing sports drama of all time.

In 2011, she played the warrior priest's daughter Lucy in the thriller Priest, opposite Paul Bettany. Although it was a critical and commercial failure, she was praised for her performance, and MTV Networks' NextMovie.com named her one of the Breakout Stars to Watch for in 2011. She co-starred in the 2011 action film Abduction with Taylor Lautner.

In 2012, Collins played Snow White in Mirror Mirror, an adaptation of the fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Robbie Collin from the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph wrote of her: "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." Collins made her singing debut in the film, performing an English rewritten cover of "I Believe (in Love)". Also in 2012, she portrayed Samantha in Stuck in Love.

Collins was cast in the Netflix drama film Okja directed by Bong Joon-ho. The film competed for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and received a four-minute standing ovation after its premiere. It was released on Netflix on 28 June 2017. In 2017, it was revealed that Les Misérables would be adapted by Andrew Davies into a BBC mini series directed by Tom Shankland. Collins starred as Fantine, a young woman in Paris who is abandoned by her wealthy lover, forcing her to look after their child, Cosette, on her own. Filming began in February 2018 in Belgium and Northern France. Critics praised Collins's performance as Fantine; Alexandra Pollard of The Independent wrote that "[Collins] plays the tragic Fantine with steeliness and grace," in a "magnificent" performance, while another critic stated that "Lily Collins does not sing her anguished soul out when she is abandoned by her lover. So much so, she impressed me from the get-go with her emotionally rich performance."

In 2019, Collins co-starred with Zac Efron in the drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, directed by Joe Berlinger. She plays Elizabeth Kendall, Ted Bundy's long-time girlfriend, who struggles to accept that her boyfriend is a serial killer. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 26 January. Also that year, Collins co-starred as Edith Tolkien, the wife of author J. R. R. Tolkien, in the biographical film Tolkien. Filming began in October 2017 and wrapped in December, and Tolkien was released on 10 May 2019.

In 2020, Collins starred in the thriller Inheritance directed by Vaughn Stein, and in Emily in Paris, a Netflix television series about a young American working in Paris. For Emily in Paris, Collins received a second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. That same year, she portrayed Rita Alexander, an English transcriber to writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, in the critically acclaimed film Mank. Collins is scheduled to star in The Cradle directed by Hope Dickinson Leach, and in Gilded Rage, directed by Charlie McDowell.

In June 2021, it was announced that Collins would produce a film to be directed by Lena Dunham about the children's toy Polly Pocket. Collins will be playing the title role. In February 2026, it was announced that Collins would play Audrey Hepburn in a film about the making of the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

In 2024, she made her West End debut in London, England in Bess Wohl's play Barcelona as Irene, opposite Álvaro Morte. She received critical praise for her performance, with The Standard praising her performance as "sensational" and noting that "her appearance generates a crackle of excitement."

As a teenager, Collins wrote a column, "NY Confidential", for the British magazine Elle Girl. She has also written for Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and the Los Angeles Times. 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. She was picked by Spain's Glamour magazine in 2008 as its International Model of the Year, 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. She won a 2008 Young Hollywood Award for Newest Red Carpet Correspondent. She was one of 20 women named by Maxim magazine as Hottest Daughters of Rock Stars in 2009.

Collins is an outspoken anti-bullying advocate and is a celebrity ambassador for the anti-bullying organisation Bystander Revolution.

In the 2024 United States presidential election, Collins endorsed Kamala Harris.

Collins stated in 2013 that she did not like to discuss her relationships publicly after witnessing the difficulties caused by the media coverage of her parents' divorce.

In September 2020, Collins announced her engagement to American film director and writer Charlie McDowell. They were married on 4 September 2021 at Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado. Collins purchased Case Study House No. 10 in Pasadena, California, in 2022. In March 2023, it was reported that they had bought a townhouse in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2025, Collins announced on Instagram that their first child, a daughter, was born via surrogacy.