Ever since her role on the groundbreaking television series, Lost, Evangeline Lilly has been maintaining a careful level of privacy, all while starring in major movies.
Somehow, she balances her acting with charity work, writing, working out, and even being a mother of two!
Even with most of her private life under wraps, there are still a lot of fascinating things out there about the actress/author, so check out these 30 crazy facts you might not know about Evangeline Lilly!
Her birth name is Nicole Evangeline Lilly, she is 44 years old, and was born August 3, 1979, in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.
She was raised in British Colombia by both of her parents. Because her grandparents were missionaries in Africa, her father was raised in Nigeria.
Evangeline Lilly has two sisters. They all have English and Irish ancestry.
As a child, she almost drowned two times. She was afraid of the water until she overcame her fear at 22.
From kindergarten until the 7th grade, Lilly went to a French immersion school. She remains to be fluent in French.
Her family had to declare bankruptcy when she was a little girl.
In high school, she was invited to the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. She turned down the opportunity so she could graduate with her friends.
At 18 years old, Lilly traveled to the Philippines for 3 weeks as a missionary.
Evangeline Lilly Attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where she studied International Relations.
While in college, Lilly held various jobs to pay for her tuition. Some of these included waitressing, working as a flight attendant for Royal Airlines, bartending, and doing oil changes and grease jobs on big rig trucks.
At age 21, she smashed her front tooth out in an inebriated dancing accident.
Lilly was discovered by a Ford Modeling agent while she was walking down the street in Canada.
She has a habit of playing with earlobes – her own and other people’s!
Evangeline has never had a puff of a cigarette.
In 2003, Evangeline Lilly married Murray Hone, her long-time boyfriend who was also a hockey player. The marriage lasted just over a year.
Evangeline auditioned for the role of Kate Austen in Lost along with 75 other women. Even with no previous acting experience aside from extra work, she was offered the role almost instantly.
However, it was difficult for her to obtain a work visa for the United States. It took 20 attempts before she was finally given the visa she needed, at which point she immediately flew to Hawaii and arrived on the set of Lost one day late.
As of 2017, her net worth is $15 million dollars.
Evangeline Lilly’s nickname on the set of Lost was “Monkey” because she climbed trees on set. If she’s shown climbing a tree in the show – it’s real.
In 2006, an electrical issue caused her house in Kailua, Hawaii, to burn down which destroyed the house and all of her possessions. Lilly had previously taken the original letter Sawyer had in Lost, as a souvenir – this letter was also lost in the fire.
Lilly met her long-term boyfriend, Normal Kalo while working on Lost. Normal was a production assistant for the film crew.
Together, they have two children. They had their first child in 2011, Kahekili, which is Hawaiian for “the thunder” because he was born during a thunderstorm. They also have a daughter who was born in 2015.
Both children were delivered at home – the first one was even delivered outside!
Evangeline Lilly has been a fan of Tolkien’s books since the age of 13, so she jumped at the opportunity to play Tauriel in The Hobbit. In order to prepare for the role, she underwent training for swordplay, archery, and learned some of the Elvish language.
She is a published author for the children’s book series, The Squickerwonkers. She said that the idea for the books first came to her when she was 14 years old.
Lilly debuted her first book for the series in 2013.
She has said that she considers acting to be a day job, while motherhood and writing are her top priorities.
Evangeline has contributed to many humanitarian efforts, auctioning off lunches with herself, and running an organization that helps widows and children in Rwanda, among many other efforts.
In her spare time, she likes to draw and paint.
Evangeline Lilly is a notoriously bad driver. She has been in at least 8 car accidents, and none of them were with another car.
