Lily Collins Biography

Lily Collins is an English and American actress who began acting and modelling more regularly in the late 2000s. Since 2020, she has played the role of Emily Cooper in Emily in Paris. Her performance in Emily in Paris won her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. She also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for her work as a producer on the show. She wrote the memoir Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, which discusses her struggles with mental health and body image.

Lily Collins Age

Collins was born Lily Jane Collins on March 18, 1989, Guildford, Surrey, England. She is 36 years old as of 2025. Collins celebrates her birthday on March 18th.

Lily Collins Height

Collins stands at an approximate height of 5 feet and 5 inches.

Lily Collins Family

Collins was born to Phil Collins and his second wife, Jill Tavelman. Phil is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor who worked as the drummer and later the lead singer of Genesis, the rock band. He was born on January 30, 1951, and is 74 years old as of 2025. Some of his notable singles include In the Air Tonight, Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now), One More Night, Sussudio, Another Day in Paradise, Two Hearts, and I Wish It Would Rain Down. From his first marriage to Andrea Bertorelli, he had a son named Simon Philip Nando and an adopted daughter named Joely.

Simon is a British-Canadian drummer and the former lead vocalist of Sound of Contact, a progressive rock band. He was born on September 14, 1976, and is 48 years old as of 2024. Joely is a Canadian actress who was born on August 8, 1972, and is 52 years old as of 2024.

From Phil’s third marriage to Orianne Cevey, he had two sons, Nicholas and Matthew. Nicholas is a Swiss-born professional drummer. Matthew, on the other hand, was an aspiring footballer for the youth squad of WSG Tirol. He previously played in the youth systems of Bundesliga club Hannover 96 and Astoria Walldorf. Phil wrote the song, You’ll Be In My Heart, from Tarzan for her.

Jill is an American and the president of the Beverly Hills Women’s Club. Jill’s father was a Canadian Jewish immigrant who owned a men’s clothing store in Beverly Hills, California, for numerous years. Phil had an affair during his marriage to Jill. While touring with Genesis in 1992, he had an affair with Lavinia Lang, a former drama school classmate. In 1994, he openly shared that he had fallen out of love with Jill and had filed for divorce. Their divorce was finalized in 1996 with a £17 million settlement to Jill. Following their divorce, she moved to Los Angeles with Collins.

Lily Collins Husband

Collins got married to Charlie McDowell, an American film director and writer, on September 4, 2021, at Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado. She shared news of their engagement in September 2020. They met on the set of Gilded Rage.

In 2022, she bought Case Study House No. 10 in Pasadena, California. In March of the following year, a report revealed that the couple had purchased a townhouse in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. She shared that they had their first child, Tove Jane McDowell, was born via surrogacy via an Instagram post in 2025.

Charlie was born on July 10, 1983, and is 41 years old as of 2024. In 2014, he made his directorial film debut with The One I Love. Before Lily, he was in a relationship with Emilia Clarke from 2018 to 2019. Collins revealed that she would like to keep her relationships private in 2013 after witnessing the challenges caused by the media coverage of her parents’ divorce.

Lily Collins Net Worth

Collins has an estimated net worth of approximately $25 million, which she has earned through being an actress.

Lily Collins Emily in Paris

Since 2020, Collins has played the role of Emily Cooper in Emily in Paris. Emily is an American who relocates to Paris to provide an American perspective to a French marketing firm. While in Paris, she tries to surpass the struggles in her work, love life, and friendships.

Collins’ performance in Emily in Paris won her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. She also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for her work as a producer on the show.

Lily Collins Education

Collins studied at Harvard-Westlake School and the University of Southern California. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California. She was a debutante at the Bal des débutantes in Paris in 2007.

Lily Collins Career

At the age of 2, Collins started her acting career with a role in the BBC’s Growing Pains. In 2009, she appeared in two episodes of 90210, including the first season’s finale. Later that year, she had her breakthrough starring as Collins Tuohy in The Blind Side. She played the role of the warrior priest’s daughter, Lucy, in Priest in 2011. Her performance in the film won her praise, with the MTV Networks’ NextMovie.com naming her as one of the Breakout Stars to Watch for in 2011. That same year, she starred in Abduction with Taylor Lautner.

Collins portrayed Snow White in Mirror Mirror in 2012. She debuted as a singer in Stuck in Love, where she performed an English rewritten cover of I Believe (in Love) and portrayed Samantha. The following year, she joined the cast of  Evil Dead in one of the leading roles. However, she dropped out due to scheduling problems. She appeared in M83’s music video Claudia Lewis as an earth-visiting alien. She also appeared in the music video for  Thirty Seconds to Mars’ City of Angels in October 2013.

Collins played the role of Clary Fray in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Her performance won her a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2014. That same year, she starred as Rosie Dunne in Love, Rosie. She played the leading role of Marla Mabrey in Rules Don’t Apply. Her performance as Marla won her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical at the 74th Golden Globe Awards.

Collins starred in a pilot produced for The Last Tycoon in 2016. In March of the following year, she played the leading role in To the Bone. As a teen, she suffered from an eating disorder that she later described in her autobiography Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.

2017 to present

Collins joined the cast of Netflix’s Okja directed by Bong Joon-ho. She portrayed Fantine, a young woman in Paris who is abandoned by her wealthy lover, in Les Misérables. In 2019, she starred opposite Zac Efron in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. In the film, she portrayed Elizabeth Kendall, Ted Bundy’s long-time girlfriend, who struggled with accepting that Ted is a serial killer. That same year, she played the role of Edith Tolkien, the wife of author J. R. R. Tolkien, in Tolkien.

Collins appeared in Inheritance and Emily in Paris in 2020. Her performance in Emily in Paris won her a second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. That same year, she starred as English transcriber Rita Alexander in Mank. She is scheduled to star in The Cradle, directed by Hope Dickinson Leach, and in Gilded Rage, directed by Charlie McDowell. A June 2021 announcement revealed that she would produce a film to be directed by Lena Dunham about the children’s toy Polly Pocket. She is scheduled to star in Halo of Stars as Misty Dawn.

Public image

Collins wrote a column, “NY Confidential”, for Elle Girl when she was a teen. Further, she wrote for Seventeen, Teen Vogue,  and the Los Angeles Times. Chanel chose her to wear one of their gowns at the 2007 Bal des débutantes at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris. Spain’s Glamour magazine chose her as its International Model of the Year in 2008. She appeared on magazine’s cover in August of the following year.

Collins broadcast the 2008 US presidential election as a host on Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President. In 2008, she received a Young Hollywood’s Newest Red Carpet Correspondent Award. The following year,  Maxim magazine mentioned her among the 20 women in their Hottest Daughters of Rock Stars list.

Activism

Collins is an outspoken anti-bullying advocate. In this capacity, she serves as a celebrity ambassador to Bystander Revolution, an anti-bullying organization. She has served as an ambassador for the GO Campaign since 2018, raising awareness and funds to better the lives of orphans and vulnerable children globally. She endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.

Lily Collins Movies and TV Shows

Collins has starred in several movies and TV shows during her career such as

• The Blind Side
• Abduction
• Mirror Mirror
• The English Teacher
• Love, Rosie
• To the Bone
• 90210
• The Last Tycoon
• Here Comes the Grump
• Les Misérables
• Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
• Inheritance
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Windfall
• MaXXXine