Originally from a typical middle class home—her father was a grocery store produce manager, and her mom ran a day care out of their home—in Fort Saskatchewan, Albert, Canada, Lilly had dreams of becoming an actress early in life. She appeared in a few junior high and high school plays, but once she began attending the University of British Columbia, Lilly embarked upon a more altruistic path: she founded and ran a world development and human rights committee, then went on a mission to the Philippines. Lilly spent three weeks in the remote island nation living in grass huts in the jungle while assisting with her Christian group’s missionary work. Though unknown at the time, her experience with adapting to the jungle proved useful in the next stage of her life.
It was while walking down the street in Kelowna, British Columbia, that Lilly’s life changed forever. An agent for the Ford Modeling Agency called out, “Hey, you”, then tried to convince the lanky brunette to become a model. Insulted that a complete stranger would assume she wanted to build a career based on her looks, Lilly said thanks, but no thanks. She did, however, take his business card, and while faced with the daunting prospect of paying for her college tuition six months later, Lilly, at the insistence of a friend, grudgingly called the agent back. Soon she found herself doing commercials, which she hated, and appearing in television and film projects, mostly as a glorified extra. One such appearance was in “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital” (ABC, 2004), a supernatural miniseries about a haunted hospital built upon an ancient graveyard. Lilly was in a brief scene where she gets shot in the head while lying in bed. Though often embellished as a prominent role by PR pushers, Lilly managed to keep it in perspective.
Lilly’s fate took another profitable turn when she auditioned for “Lost” (ABC, 2004- ), an ambitious TV series about 48 plane crash survivors on an uncharted island. Lilly submitted her reel during the casting session, and after not hearing back, moved on with her life. But executive producer J.J. Abrams (“Felicity”, “Alias”) called out of the blue and asked the unknown Lilly to audition for ABC executives. A first for the actress, Lilly nailed the audition and soon got the part—a shocking development, because three years prior Lilly hadn’t even considered acting to be an ambition, let alone a viable career. After a successful first episode and consistently high ratings thereafter, “Lost” became a hit for ABC, and Lilly was propelled into the spotlight. Her stock continued to climb when she was mentioned for the role of Lois Lane in the new version of “Superman” (2006), directed by Brian Singer. At the time, Lilly was one of five actresses being considered to star opposite another virtual unknown, Brandon James Routh.