Hilary Duff (1987)

 early life

Hilary Erhard Duff was born on September 28, 1987 in Houston, Texas, to Susan Colleen (née Cobb), a homemaker, and Robert Erhard Duff, a partner in a chain of convenience stores. Duff has an elder sister, Haylie, who is also an actress and singer. Her mother encouraged her to enroll in acting classes alongside Haylie. Both girls won roles in local theatre productions. At the ages of six and eight, the two sisters participated in a BalletMet Columbus production of The Nutcracker Suite in San Antonio. The sisters became increasingly interested in pursuing acting and their mother moved with them to California, while their father stayed in Houston to take care of his business. The sisters auditioned for several years and were cast in several television commercials. Due to her acting career, Duff was home-schooled.

 acting career

  1997–2002: Career beginnings and Lizzie McGuire

Duff primarily played minor roles during her initial acting years. In 1997, she had an uncredited role in the Hallmark Entertainment western miniseries True Women. The following year, she played an uncredited extra in an ensemble dramedy, Playing by Heart. Her first major role was as a young witch, Wendy, in Casper Meets Wendy. The film, however, was released to mostly unenthusiastic reviews. In 1999, Duff appeared in a supporting role in the television film The Soul Collector, which was based on a Kathleen Kane novel. For her performance, Duff won a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot .

Duff first rose to fame in 2000 when she was cast as one of the children in the pilot episode of the NBC sitcom Daddio. Her co-star, Michael Chiklis, stated, "After working with her the first day, I remember saying to my wife, 'this young girl is going to be a movie star'. She was completely at ease with herself and comfortable in her own skin." However,prior to the airing of the show, Duff was dropped from the cast which made her reluctant to pursue her acting career further. 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 , 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.

  2003–06: Breakthrough film roles

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 , 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 . 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 some 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 . 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.

  2007–present: Independent films and television appearances

A two-part introspective documentary television special, Hilary Duff: This Is Now was produced to chronicle Duff's return to the recording industry. The show took two weeks to film and was shot in Los Angeles, Europe, and Spain. It was broadcast on MTV on April 3 and April 9, 2007. Duff was the guest star on The Andy Milonakis Show for its third season premiere in September 2007.

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.

music career

In 2002, Duff recorded a cover version of Brooke McClymont's "I Can't Wait" for the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack, and "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room" for the first DisneyMania compilation album. She also released her first album, titled Santa Claus Lane which was a collection of Christmas songs which included duets with her sister, Haylie, Lil' Romeo, and Christina Milian. Accompanied by the Disney Channel-only single "Tell Me a Story ", the album peaked at 154 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold.

Duff's second studio album, Metamorphosis , reached number one on the U.S. and Canadian charts and sold over 3.9 million copies in the U.S by January 2007. The lead single, "So Yesterday" was a top ten hit in several countries; its follow-up was the Laguna Beach theme song "Come Clean". The third single, "Little Voice", was not released in the U.S. and was a minor hit in Australia. In late 2003, Duff embarked on her first concert tour, the "Metamorphosis" tour, and later the "Most Wanted" tour. Most shows scheduled in the major cities were sold out.

Duff's third studio album was the self-titled Hilary Duff, for which she co-wrote some songs. It was released on her seventeenth birthday and debuted at #2 in the U.S. and at #1 in Canada. The album sold over 1.8 million copies in the U.S. Most Wanted, her first compilation album, was released in August 2005. Most Wanted included songs from her previous two albums, remixes and three new songs which included "Wake Up" written by Joel Madden and his brother, Benji, both members of Good Charlotte. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became her third number one debut in Canada. It sold over two hundred thousand copies within its first week of release and was certified platinum by the RIAA a month after its release.
In 2006, an Italy-only compilation, 4Ever was released. Duff also recorded a cover version of Madonna's "Material Girl" with her sister for their movie, Material Girls.

Duff co-wrote the material for her fourth studio album Dignity, along with Kara DioGuardi, who co-produced the album with Rhett Lawrence, Tim & Bob, and Richard Vission. She stated that compared to her previous music, it was "more dancey" and made use of more real instruments. She said, "I don't know exactly how to explain what we're doing, but it's fun and funky and different, something new for me. It's really cool". In November 2008, Duff's first greatest hits album, Best of Hilary Duff was released and the album's first single "Reach Out", which samples Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", was released in the preceding month. The song became Duff's third #1 dance hit. She then parted ways with Hollywood Records after six years of service and then announced to MTV that she would begin work on her new album in December 2008. In October 2011, Duff mentioned plans of a possible new album to E! Online.