Lily Collins

Lily Jane Collins is an English and American actress. Born in Guildford, England, and raised in Los Angeles, she began acting as a toddler on television before gaining broader public recognition in prominent film and television projects. She is widely known for playing marketing executive Emily Cooper in the Netflix series Emily in Paris, as well as for her roles in films such as The Blind Side, Rules Don't Apply, and To the Bone.

Born on March 18, 1989, Collins is the daughter of English musician Phil Collins and American former Beverly Hills Women's Club president Jill Tavelman. Her maternal grandfather was a Canadian Jewish immigrant who owned a Beverly Hills clothing store. Following her parents' 1996 divorce, Collins moved to Los Angeles with her mother. She graduated from Harvard-Westlake School and studied broadcast journalism at the University of Southern California. During her youth, she wrote for publications such as Elle Girl, presented as a debutante at the 2007 Bal des débutantes, and covered the 2008 U.S. presidential election for Nickelodeon.

Collins began performing at age two in the BBC sitcom Growing Pains. In her late teens, she appeared on the drama series 90210 before achieving her breakthrough in the 2009 sports drama The Blind Side as Collins Tuohy. The film was a major commercial hit, grossing over $250 million. Collins subsequently starred in the 2011 thrillers Priest and Abduction. In 2012, she portrayed Snow White in Mirror Mirror, making her singing debut on the soundtrack, and co-starred in Stuck in Love.

In 2013, Collins starred as Clary Fray in the fantasy film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, earning a Teen Choice Award nomination, and later led the 2014 romantic drama Love, Rosie. Her performance as aspiring actress Marla Mabrey in the 2016 film Rules Don't Apply brought her a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2017, she earned praise for playing a young adult with anorexia in To the Bone, drawing on her own youth struggles described in her 2017 memoir, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.

Collins continued to broaden her portfolio through varied television and biographical roles. In 2017, she appeared in Bong Joon-ho's Netflix film Okja. She played Fantine in the BBC miniseries Les Misérables from 2018 to 2019. Her biographical film credits include playing Elizabeth Kendall in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), Edith Tolkien in Tolkien (2019), and Rita Alexander in Mank (2020).

Since 2020, Collins has portrayed marketing executive Emily Cooper in Emily in Paris, receiving Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2024, she made her West End stage debut in London as Irene in the play Barcelona. Outside of acting, Collins serves as an ambassador for the anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution. She married director Charlie McDowell in 2021, and the couple welcomed a daughter via surrogacy in 2025.