Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979 in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta) is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Kate Austen in Lost. Since the end of the series, she has been seen in movies such as The Hurt Locker and Real Steel. She appeared in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies as a new character, the elf warrior Tauriel. She's currently enjoying success in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Wasp.
Before acting, Lilly worked as a flight attendant and as a Christian missionary in the Philippines.
Selected Filmography
- Lost (2004 – 2010) as Kate Austen
- The Hurt Locker (2009) as Connie James
- Real Steel (2011) as Bailey Tallet
- The Hobbit trilogy as Tauriel:
- Marvel Cinematic Universe as Hope van Dyne / The Wasp II:
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- What If...? (2021)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- Little Evil (2017) as Samantha Bloom
Tropes associated with her work:
- Actor Allusion: In Ant-Man Hope believes her mother died in a plane crash - as a nod to Lost.
- Actor-Inspired Element:
- Kate in Lost climbs trees a lot because that is one of Evangeline's favorite things to do.
- She lobbied for Michelle Pfeiffer to be cast as Janet in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: Having been in semi-retirement since Lost finished, she travelled all the way to Los Angeles to audition for Real Steel after seeing the script.
- Creator Backlash:
- She's not too fond of the love triangle Tauriel ended up in - which was forced by the studio on re-shoots for The Hobbit.
- In 2018 she came out and said she was uncomfortable doing a semi-nude scene in Lost and it made her vow never to do nudity again.
- Fake American: She's Canadian so she plays a lot of Americans.
- Fake Brit: As Tauriel in The Hobbit.
- She Also Did:
- She worked as an extra before becoming an actress. Among the shows and films she can be glimpsed on are Tru Calling, Dead Like Me, Smallville, White Chicks, Freddy vs. Jason, The Lizzie Mc Guire Movie and Stealing Sinatra.
- She's also authored several children's books.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Has said that she never intended to become an actress, and going on auditions was just her way of challenging herself. Then she got a role on Lost having never acted outside of commercials or extra work.
- What Could Have Been:
- Hope's role in Ant-Man was much smaller in Edgar Wright's drafts. During rewrites it was beefed up considerably, thanks to Adam McKay consulting the actors on their characters and expanding them.
- Tauriel's role in The Hobbit was meant to be a straightforward romance with Kili. Executive Meddling turning it into three films had Legolas being made part of a love triangle - when he and Tauriel were Platonic Life-Partners originally.
- She was nearly recast in Lost because of trouble getting her work visa. It took twenty tries for her application to be accepted.
