Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979) is a Golden Globe-nominated Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost. Evangeline Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, to a devoutly Protestant family. She is of Irish, Scottish, French, and Italian descent. Her father is an economics teacher, and her mother is a beauty consultant. Lilly also has two sisters. Her youngest sister, Andrea, has been described by Evangeline as "the actor in the family."
Before leaving the town of Fort Saskatchewan for Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, Evangeline briefly attended three elementary schools, Fort Elementary, Rudolph Hennig and James Mowat Elementary. Lilly recalled, "When I was a kid, the Fort was tiny. I could ride my bike at five years old from one end of town to the other.... To me Fort Saskatchewan holds a lot of really great memories. I just consider it a little happy hideaway." In Abbotsford, Lilly completed her high school years at W. J. Mouat Secondary School, and went on to study international relations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Lilly also served briefly as a foreign missionary and lived in a grass hut in the Philippines. She was offered permanent missionary work there for two years, an offer she nearly accepted but eventually declined because of her parents' wishes. Lilly was a flight attendant with Royal Airlines. She speaks French fairly well. She also worked at Green Bay Bible Camp near Kelowna and at the Earls Restaurant in Abbotsford.
Lilly was once married to Canadian hockey player Murray Hone. Since 2004 she has been dating her Lost co-star, Dominic Monaghan.[citation needed] Her fellow Lost actor Josh Holloway also calls her "Freckles", sharing the nickname his on-screen character Sawyer gave her. She is also known on set for being a tomboy, Christian, and "potty mouth".
Lilly has stated that she "live in a bubble", specifying that she is not familiar with popular culture and does not watch television or own a TV set. She has also said that she would not appear in a nude scene or perform in sexual scenes that she would consider "gratuitous".
On May 9, 2007, Episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Evangeline Lilly described her deep need to leave her home town after her high-school graduation. She did much travelling at this point in her life, moving from town to town approximately every six months. She stated that in each town she took on a persona; for example, she would decide in one town to take on the role of a "nerdy bookworm" and in another, a ditzy "cheerleader" type. She has jokingly stated that, as such, she would frequently date different men.
Lilly has also used her celebrity status to help promote Just Yell Fire, a video aimed at teaching teenage girls how to defend themselves against rapists. During the summer break between the first and second seasons of Lost, Lilly spent time visiting African countries.
On December 20, 2006, Lilly's house in Kailua, Hawaii, was completely destroyed by fire while she was on the Lost set with one of her two roommates, both of whom work as her stand-ins on the show. The second roommate was off-island at the time of the blaze, which occurred on the final day of shooting before the show’s holiday break. The cause of the fire was an electrical problem.