Lily Collins
☼ Born on 18 December 1989, in Guildford, Surrey, England, UK
BiographyLily Jane Collins was born in Guildford, Surrey, England. Her father is English musician Phil Collins, while her mother, Jill Tavelman, who is from Los Angeles, California, was president of the Beverly Hills Women's Club for three terms. Lily moved with her mother to LA at the age of five, after her parents split up. She is of Russian Jewish (from her maternal grandfather), English, and German descent.
Her first screen role was at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains, in 1992. Collins performed at the Youth Academy for Dramatic Arts as a child, but her main interest was journalism. She graduated from the Harvard-Westlake School, and attended the USC, where she majored in broadcast journalism. She began writing a column ("NY Confidential") for the British magazine Elle Girl in her teens as well as contributing to Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and the Los Angeles Times magazines.
After some early television appearances as a presenter/reporter (for instance, covering the 2008 US Presidential campaign as a host on the Nickelodeon show, Kids Pick the President (2000)), she made a couple of appearances on 90210 (2008) in 2009. She co-starred as the daughter of Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock's characters in the massive box office hit The Blind Side (2009). More dramatic roles followed, and she came to worldwide attention when she played the starring role in Mirror Mirror (2012), following it up by headlining The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) and Love, Rosie (2014).
In the role of actor
MaXXXine (06/07/2024)
A serial killer stalks Hollywood in MaXXXine. Six years after being the sole survivor of the massacre in Texas, adult film star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) plans to crossover into the mainstream by being cast in the horror film The Puritan II, directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). However, Maxine is tracked down by Louisiana […]
Mank (06/12/2020)
The events that lead to the writing of the screenplay for Citizen Kane are dramatized in Mank. Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is a washed-up, alcoholic screenwriter who is hired in 1940 by RKO to write a screenplay for Orson Welles (Tom Burke). Put up in a secluded house while recovering from a broken leg, […]
Okja (04/07/2017)
A young Korean girl tries to save her pet superpig from the slaughterhouse in Okja. Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) becomes CEO of Mirando Corporation, taking over from her twin sister Nancy. Lucy’s first major announcement is the discovery of a new breed of superpig, which have been sent to 26 farms around the world, as part […]
Windfall (15/06/2012)
I first became familiar with wind turbines about a decade ago when a turbine was installed within Exhibition Place in Toronto. Also, on the route to my family’s cottage, I often pass a big wind farm in Shelburne, Ontario, which has hundreds of these generators. Being a city-dweller, I often don’t think twice about wind […]
Mirror Mirror (13/04/2012)
It’s been a busy week with my 30th birthday among other things, so I haven’t been able to find the time and write my thoughts on the film that I went out and saw for my birthday. I was one of the many people who were less than impressed by the trailer for this whimsy-looking […]
Priest (14/05/2011)
Priest is the second religion-based action/horror collaboration in a row between director Scott Stewart and star Paul Bettany. I thought that, their previous film, Legion had a campy glee to it, which made it an enjoyable film. I can’t really say the same about this film, which takes place in a futuristic society where the church has totalitarian rule and priests […]