Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born 3 August 1979) is a Canadian actress and author. She is the recipient of various accolades including a Screen Actors Guild Award and an MTV Movie Award. She has also received nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, 9 Saturn Awards, an Empire Award and 10 Teen Choice Awards. She gained popular acclaim for her first leading role as Kate Austen in the ABC series Lost (2004–2010), which garnered her the nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series and won her a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2008, she starred as Connie James in the Academy Award–winning war film The Hurt Locker (2008). She followed this with roles in Real Steel (2011), Little Evil (2017), Crisis (2021) and South of Heaven (2021). Lilly is also the author of a children's book series, The Squickerwonkers. Lilly starred as Tauriel in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film series, appearing in The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). She has portrayed the superhero Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Ant-Man (2015) and most recently starring in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). Early life Lilly was born in Fort Saskatchewan in Alberta on 3 August 1979. She was raised in British Columbia by her mother, a produce manager, and her father, a home economics teacher. She has both an older sister and a younger sister. Lilly graduated from W. J. Mouat Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia; she played soccer and was vice president of the student council. In university, she was a waitress, did "oil changes and grease jobs on big rig trucks", and was a flight attendant for Royal Airlines to pay for her tuition. Her interest in humanitarian causes and world development led her to major in International Relations at the University of British Columbia. Career 2002–2003: Early career Lilly's acting career began when she was discovered by a Ford Modelling Agency agent while passing the time in Kelowna, British Columbia. She took the agent's business card but did not immediately pursue acting. She eventually called and the agency landed her several roles in commercials and non-speaking parts in the TV shows Smallville and Kingdom Hospital. She was also on a video game news and review show on the gaming television channel G4TV. 2004–2007: Breakthrough with Lost In late