Hilary Duff Biography

Hilary Duff	Hilary Erhard Duff Born: 1987-09-28 Birthplace: Houston, TX Race: White Field: Actor, Musician Famous for: Disney product Hilary Duff Offical Website: http://www.hilaryduff.com/
Field: Actor

Hilary Ann Duff is an American actress and pop music singer. After gaining prominence in the television show Lizzie McGuire, she has since gone onto a successful film career, with roles in mainstream pictures such as Cheaper by the Dozen and independent films such as Material Girls.

Hilary Ann Duff was born in Houston, Texas the second child of Bob Duff, owner of a chain of convenience stores, and his wife Susan, a homemaker. After her mother encouraged her to take an acting class alongside her older sister, Haylie Duff, both girls won parts in various local theatre productions. At the age of six, the Duffs participated in the ballet The Nutcracker Suite with Columbus Ballet Met in San Antonio. The siblings became more and more enthusiastic about the idea of acting professionally, and they eventually relocated to California with their mother. Bob Duff stayed at the family home in Houston to maintain their business. Through years of auditions and meetings, both sisters managed to clinch appearances in several television commercials.

Most of Duff's first few acting roles were small, starting off with an uncredited appearance in Hallmark Entertainment's western miniseries True Women (1997), an adaptation of the novel by Janice Woods Windle. She also served as an extra, again uncredited, in writer and director Willard Carroll's comedy drama Playing by Heart (1998), whose ensemble cast included Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie, star of True Women from the previous year.

Her first major part was as the star of the 1998 film Casper Meets Wendy, playing the young witch Wendy who encounters the animated character Casper. Like Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997), the first sequel to the hugely successful Casper (1995), the film went direct-to-video with generally unenthusiastic reviews.

Duff later appeared in a supporting role in the television movie The Soul Collector in 1999, which was based on a Kathleen Kane novel, and starred Bruce Greenwood as an angel who helps out a female farmer (Melissa Gilbert) whose husband has recently died. Duff ended up winning a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot (Supporting Young Actress).

Duff's first serious shot at fame came when she was cast as one of the children in the pilot episode of the NBC sitcom Daddio (2000). Said Michael Chiklis, star of Daddio, "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, before the show had even aired, Duff was dropped from its cast lineup, an unfortunate turn of events which made the twelve-year-old reluctant to continue her acting career. But her manager and mother, Susan Duff, spurred her on, and she successfully auditioned for the family comedy show Lizzie McGuire just a week later.

Lizzie McGuire, which first aired on the Disney Channel in January 2001, was a ratings hit, drawing in 2.3 million viewers per episode, and became the career breakthrough Duff had been waiting for. Her performance in this role as a typical teenager led to appearances on the covers of many teen magazines, and she became highly popular among children between the ages of seven and fourteen, with Richard Huff of the New York Daily News calling her "a 2002 version of Annette Funicello." After fulfilling her entire sixty-five episode contract, as well as participating in a film spin-off, Disney toyed with the idea of continuing the franchise in further movies and a prime-time television series to be broadcast on ABC, but Duff refused the proposal. There was a dispute over the amount of pay Duff would receive; reportedly, she had been receiving $15,000 per episode, but she and her representatives, including her mother, wanted that figure to be raised to $100,000. Disney offered to raise it up to $35,000 but Duff would not relent and all plans of continuing the series were abandoned.

Duff's second role in a theatrical motion picture was in Human Nature, an independent US/French co-production released in most countries in 2002 following a good reception at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, the film follows a female naturalist, played by Patricia Arquette, who has body hair growing all over her body. Tim Robbins and Rhys Ifans co-starred. Duff played the younger version of Arquette's character.

She starred in the Disney Channel television movie Cadet Kelly (2002) with Christy Carlson Romano and Gary Cole. It became the network's most watched program ever.

Her first hit movie was Agent Cody Banks with Frankie Muniz in 2003.

Duff then reprised the role of Lizzie McGuire in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which was her first million-dollar movie role.

She played the part of Lorraine Baker in the Twentieth Century Fox film Cheaper by the Dozen with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt.

In 2004, she appeared in the romantic comedy A Cinderella Story, a twenty-first century update of Charles Perrault's classic fairy tale Cinderella. Comedienne Jennifer Coolidge played the wicked stepmother of the picture, which was directed by Mark Rosman, a veteran of Duff's Lizzie McGuire. Trashed upon its release in the summer, the film nonetheless became a modest sleeper hit, and many critics were impressed by Duff's performance, as well as her chemistry with co-star Chad Michael Murray, another actor popular with teens, who plays Duff's love interest in the film.

Later that year, she starred in the romance film Raise Your Voice, which marked the third collaboration between Duff and director Sean McNamara (after Casper Meets Wendy and episodes of Lizzie McGuire). While some critics praised Duff for appearing in a more dramatic role than she had previously been seen in, the film was heavily panned, with many slating in particular the striking similarities to the musical film Fame (1980). Reviews were, by and large, negative to Duff's vocals (several critics have pointed out what appears to be her digitally enhanced voice) and indifferent towards her acting performance, although she did receive a Razzie award nomination for "Worst Actress" (in addition to her work in A Cinderella Story). The film also received a muted reception at the fall box office, where it became Duff's least commercially successful film to date.

In Duff's latest film, The Perfect Man, she plays the eldest daughter of a divorced woman, played by Heather Locklear, who moves to New York City as she desperately searches for a good man to settle down with. The movie saw Duff once again united with director Mark Rosman. Reviews were mostly negative.

Duff has recently filmed the satirical comedy Material Girls. The Martha Coolidge-directed film, co-produced by Madonna's independent film production company Maverick Entertainment, stars Hilary and her real-life sister Haylie Duff as wealthy siblings who must fight to reclaim their fortune following a scandal. The Duff sisters are also due to lend their vocal talents to the computer animated comedy Foodfight!, to be distributed by Lions Gate Films in the fall of 2006. The film's director, Larry Kasanoff, said that he is "absolutely thrilled to have Hilary and Haylie Duff as part of the cast."