Hilary Duff

When she was just 13 years old, Hilary Duff became the idol of millions of girls, thanks to a starring role in Disney's "Lizzie McGuire" (Disney Channel, 2001-04), and a good-girl image that differed from the other teen queens of her time. Since then, Duff has focused on acting, music and establishing an empire that includes her own clothing line and fragrance.

She was born Hilary Erhard Duff on September 28, 1987 in Houston, TX. Her father, Robert Erhard Duff, owned a chain of convenience stores, while her mother, Susan Colleen, was a homemaker. She had an older sister named Haylie who started acting and singing in preschool. Duff wanted to follow in her sister's footsteps, and after the pair booked a few commercials in Texas, Susan decided to move with her daughters to Los Angeles for pilot season. When Duff was nine, she worked on a pilot with her sister titled "The Underworld" that never came to light. She had minor roles in the films "True Women" (1997) and "Playing by Heart" (1998) before getting her first starring role in the direct-to-video project "Casper Meets Wendy" (1998). After getting a role in the series "Daddio" (NBC, 2000), Duff was dropped from the cast before the show even aired.

However, her manager and mother urged her on and a week later she auditioned successfully for the title role of a newly developed children's television series, Lizzie McGuire. The show focused on the growth of the central character, "Lizzie McGuire" into teenhood. Lizzie McGuire first aired on the Disney Channel on January 12, 2001, and was a ratings hit. It attracted about 2.3 million viewers per episode. Her participation in the show made her popular among children between the ages of 7 and 14. Richard Huff, a New York Daily News critic, called her "a 2002 version of Annette Funicello". After Duff fulfilled her 65 episode contract with Lizzie McGuire, Disney considered expanding the franchise to films and a prime-time television series. The plans however failed, because Duff's representatives said she was not being paid enough for the proposed series.

Duff's first role in a theatrical motion picture was in Human Nature in 2002. The film was showcased first at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. In the film, Duff portrayed the younger version of a female naturalist, played by Patricia Arquette. Duff also starred in the Disney Channel television film Cadet Kelly (2002), which became the network's most watched program in its 19-year history. In the film, she played the role of a free-spirited girl who struggles in a strict military school.

In 2003, Duff received her first major role in a feature film when she was cast alongside Frankie Muniz in Agent Cody Banks. The film received positive reviews and was successful enough to spawn a sequel in which Duff was however not cast. That year, Duff reprised her role as Lizzie McGuire for The Lizzie McGuire Movie. It received mixed reviews, with certain critics calling it "an unabashed promotion of Duff’s image, just as Crossroads was for Britney Spears". Later that year, Duff played one of the 12 children of Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the family film Cheaper by the Dozen, which remains her highest grossing film to date. She reprised her role in the sequel Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), which was less successful as the original film and was panned by critics.

Duff also made several guest appearances in television shows, her first being as a sick child in the medical drama Chicago Hope in March 2000. In a 2003 episode of George Lopez, she had a role as a makeup salesperson; she later reappeared in the show in 2005 as Kenzie, a feminist poet friend of the character Carmen (Masiela Lusha). In the same year, she acted opposite her sister Haylie in American Dreams, while in 2005, she played a classmate and idolizer of the title character of Joan of Arcadia.

In 2004, Duff starred in the romantic comedy A Cinderella Story. Though the reviews were mostly negative, the film went on to become a moderate box office hit, and critics were impressed by Duff's performance. Later that year, she starred in the film Raise Your Voice, her first role in a drama film. While some critics praised her for appearing in a more mature and serious role than her previous films, the film itself was heavily panned and was not successful at the box office. Several reviews were indifferent towards her acting performance and were critical of Duff's vocals, with critics pointing out what appeared to be her digitally enhanced voice. The same year, Duff received her first Razzie nomination for worst actress for her roles in Raise Your Voice and A Cinderella Story. In 2005, Duff starred in The Perfect Man, in which she played the eldest daughter of a divorced woman (Heather Locklear). In the same year, Duff was again nominated for a Razzie Award, for The Perfect Man and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Later that year, the Duff sisters lent their voices to the computer animated comedy Foodfight!, which was to be distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment but was never released. The director of the film, Larry Kasanoff, said that he was "absolutely thrilled to have the Duff sisters as part of the cast". She also starred in the 2006 satirical comedy Material Girls, in which she co-starred with her sister Haylie Duff. Duff along with her sister Haylie, received two more nominations for Razzie Awards for their roles in the film.

On September 7, 2007, Duff confirmed on MuchOnDemand, that she would be filming two independent films According to Greta, and What Goes Up. Duff starred opposite John Cusack in War, Inc. which was released in theatres in Los Angeles and Manhattan, New York on May 23, 2008. In June 2008, Duff joined the cast of the Polish brothers comedy Stay Cool. She co-starred alongside Winona Ryder, Mark Polish, Sean Astin, Chevy Chase, and Jon Cryer. In the film, she portrayed the character of Shasta O'Neil, described as a sexy high school senior, the film was released in 2010.

In early 2008, she was offered the lead role of Annie Mills in the CW Network's Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff, but she turned it down because she was more interested in looking for projects outside the teen genre. In July 2009, She attained a role in Gossip Girl as a recurring guest star. She played the character of Olivia Burke, a movie star who enrols at NYU in search of a traditional college experience. The following year, she won a Teen Choice Award for "Best Female Scene Stealer" for her role as Olivia Burke. Duff starred in Beauty and the Briefcase, a romantic comedy based on the book Diary of a Working Girl, by Daniella Brodsky and directed by Gil Junger. The film premiered on ABC Family on April 18, 2010. In the film, Duff plays a fashion magazine columnist who writes about her dating struggles in the city.

In May 2011, Duff starred in Bloodworth, an adaptation of the novel Provinces of Night by William Gay, where Duff plays Raven Halfacre, a teenage daughter of a promiscuous, alcoholic mother. As of August 2011, Duff is scheduled to appear in an independent film called She Wants Me, directed by Rob Margolies, in which, she plays a young Hollywood actress named Kim Powers.

Personal Life

She dated Aaron Carter on and off between 2001 and 2003. In July 2004, Duff began dating Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden. After a long period of tabloid speculation, Duff's mother Susan announced their relationship in a June 2005 interview for Seventeen magazine. In November 2006, Duff and Madden broke up. The same year, Duff's parents separated after 22 years of marriage. She wrote about the pain caused by the separation in her songs "Stranger" and "Gypsy Woman". In a June 2006 interview with Elle magazine, Duff was quoted as saying: "...(virginity) is definitely something I like about myself. It doesn't mean I haven't thought about sex, because everyone I know has had it and you want to fit in". Duff later told MuchMusic that she did not say the quotes attributed to her in the article and that the subject was "definitely not something that I would talk about..." She denied the quotes again in a 2008 interview with Maxim magazine.

In 2007, Duff began dating NHL player Mike Comrie. In February 19, 2010, Duff and Mike announced their engagement. The couple got married on August 14, 2010 in Santa Barbara, California and a year later on August 14, 2011, Duff announced via her official website that she and her husband are expecting their first child together. On October 17, 2011, she revealed on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show that the baby is a boy. Their son Luca Cruz Comrie was born on March 20, 2012

Sources: Wikipedia, Yahoo Movies

• Residence: Los Angeles
• Residence: Houston
  • Reference: Biographical Summaries of Notable People - SmartCopy: Jun 7 2020, 20:09:21 UTC