Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress and recording artist. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, Duff gained fame for playing the title role in the television series
Lizzie McGuire. Duff subsequently ventured into feature films, with her most commercially successful movies being
Cheaper by the Dozen (2003),
The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), and
A Cinderella Story (2004).
Duff expanded her repertoire into
pop music with the release of three
RIAA-certified platinum albums and over thirteen million records sold worldwide as of February 2007.
Her first studio album,
Metamorphosis (2003), was certified triple platinum and she followed it up with two more platinum albums,
Hilary Duff (2004) and
Most Wanted (2005). Duff had a musical comeback with the release of her third studio album,
Dignity (2007), which was
certified gold in August 2007
and released two singles, "
With Love", her biggest US single to date and "
Stranger".
In November 2008, she released another Greatest Hits compilation,
Best of Hilary Duff with her third #1 on the Billboard
Hot Dance Club Play single "
Reach Out" .
Duff has also launched clothing lines including, "
Stuff by Hilary Duff", and
Femme for DKNY Jeans and two exclusive perfume collections with
Elizabeth Arden. Duff and her mother were listed as
producers for the movie
Material Girls. Duff is credited as
executive producer for the upcoming independent film
Greta.
Early life and career
Duff was born in
Houston,
Texas on September 28, 1987.
She is the second child of Susan Colleen (
née Cobb), a
homemaker and a
film producer, and husband Robert Erhard Duff, a partner in a chain of
convenience stores, who resides at the family home in Houston to maintain the family's convenience store business. She has an elder sister,
Haylie Duff, who is also an actress/singer. Duff's mother encouraged Hilary to take up acting classes alongside her elder sister, Haylie, which resulted in both girls winning roles in various local
theatre productions. At the ages of eight and six, respectively, the Duff sisters participated in the
ballet,
The Nutcracker Suite with Columbus BalletMet in
San Antonio.
The siblings became more enthusiastic about the idea of choosing acting as a profession, and eventually relocated to
California with their mother. Duff's father stayed at the family home in Houston to take care of their business.
After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various
television commercials.
Career
Early work
Duff's early career was marked by playing minor roles, starting off with an uncredited appearance in Hallmark Entertainment's western miniseries
True Women in 1997. She also served as an uncredited
extra, in writer-director Willard Carroll's ensemble dramedy
Playing by Heart in 1998. Her first major role was as a star of the 1998 film
Casper Meets Wendy, a
direct-to-video sequel to
Casper: A Spirited Beginning in which she plays the young witch
Wendy, who befriends the animated character
Casper. The film 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. Duff won a
Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot (Supporting Young Actress)" for her role in the movie.
Duff's first serious rise to fame came when she was cast as one of the children in the
pilot episode of the
NBC sitcom
Daddio in 2000. 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."
Duff was dropped from the cast of
Daddio before it was aired, which made her reluctant to pursue her acting career further.
However, her manager and mother urged her on, and a week later she successfully auditioned for the
children's television series Lizzie McGuire, where she portrayed
the title role of a clumsy but average middle school girl. The show focused on her growth into
teenhood.
2001–2003
Lizzie McGuire, which first aired on the
Disney Channel. Her participation in the show led to her becoming highly popular among children between the ages of seven and fourteen,
with critic Richard Huff of the
New York Daily News calling her "a 2002 version of
Annette Funicello".
After Duff fulfilled her 65 episode contract with
Lizzie McGuire, Disney considered continuing the franchise further, through films and a prime-time television series to be broadcast on
ABC. However, the plans failed because Duff's representatives said she was not being paid enough for the proposed series.
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 movie, she plays a free-spirited girl who is enrolled in a military school and finds it hard to adjust to its strict and disciplined environment.
Duff's first role in a theatrical motion picture was in
Human Nature (2002), an independent film shot around the time of the start of
Lizzie McGuire. It was first showcased at the
Cannes and
Sundance film festivals.
The film, written by
Charlie Kaufman and directed by
Michel Gondry, follows a female
naturalist, played by
Patricia Arquette. Duff played the younger version of Arquette's character. The same year, 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. Her first album was
Santa Claus Lane (2002), a collection of Christmas songs that included duets with her sister
Haylie,
Lil' Romeo, and
Christina Milian. Accompanied by the Disney Channel-only single "
Tell Me a Story (About the Night Before)", it peaked at 154 on the U.S.
Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold.
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 did not participate. The same 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 Spears",
while other reviews were generally positive and encouraging.
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 failed to be as successful as the original film and was panned by critics.
Duff's first full-length
studio album,
Metamorphosis (2003), reached number one on the U.S. and Canadian charts
and had sold over 3.7 million copies by May 2005.
The lead single, "
So Yesterday" (co-written and produced by
The Matrix), 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 Canada and 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 completely sold out.
Duff also made several guest appearances in television shows, her first 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 2003, 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.
2004–2006
[
Duff 4.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Duff poses with a fan in [[Fayetteville, North Carolina], before her annual concert for military families.]]
Duff's second full-length album was the self-titled
Hilary Duff in which she co-wrote some songs.
It was released on her seventeenth birthday (in September 2004) and debuted at #2 in the U.S. and at #1 in Canada. The album sold over 1.5 million copies in the U.S. in eight months with its only US single,
Fly.
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 Duff for appearing in a more mature and serious role than her previous films, the film itself was heavily panned.
Several reviews were indifferent towards her acting performance and were particularly harsh towards 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.
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 role in the film.
Duff's third album,
Most Wanted (2005), comprised her favorite tracks from her previous two albums, remixes, and new songs inspired by pop-rock musicians such as
The Killers and
Muse. In an appearance on
Total Request Live, Duff stated that it was not a
greatest hits album, but that her label told her it was time to release a new album. She had more creative control over
Most Wanted compared to her previous releases, co-writing the new material with producers
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. An Italy-only compilation,
4Ever, was released in 2006. Duff recorded new songs for her movie,
Material Girls, which included a
Timbaland-produced cover version of Madonna's "
Material Girl" with her sister.
2007–present
[
Duff crop 2.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Duff at the premiere of [[War, Inc.] at the
Tribeca Film Festival]] in April 2008
During her
Still Most Wanted tour, she performed in
Guadalajara,
Mexico, where she filmed a brief appearance on the soap opera
Rebelde. She was also the guest star on
The Andy Milonakis Show for its third season premiere in 2007.
In April 2008, Duff 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.
She is also a model signed to
IMG Models New York.
[
Duff crop 3.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Hilary Duff at the [[MuchMusic Video Awards] in 2007.]]
Duff co-wrote the material for her third studio album
Dignity, along with
Kara DioGuardi, who co-produced the album with
Rhett Lawrence,
Tim & Bob, and
Richard Vission. Duff stated that compared to her previous music, it is "more
dancey" and makes 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 late 2005, the Duff sisters lent their voices to the computer animated comedy
Foodfight!, which is to be distributed by
Lions Gate Entertainment, but has no scheduled release date. The director of the film, Larry Kasanoff, said that he was "absolutely thrilled to have the Duff sisters as part of the cast".
Duff also starred opposite
John Cusack in
War, Inc. which was released in theatres in Los Angeles and Manhattan, New York on May 23, 2008.
On September 7, 2007, Duff confirmed on
MuchOnDemand, that she would be filming two independent films
Greta, and
What Goes Up.
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 and the film is scheduled for release in 2009.
In November 2008, Duff's second 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 previous month, the song became Duff's third #1 dance hit.
Duff thereafter announced that she would be leaving her record label
Hollywood Records after six years of service.
She later announced to MTV that she would begin work on her new album in December 2008.
In January 2009, it was announced that she would star in an
indie feature,
The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, an adaptation of
Bonnie & Clyde.
In April 2009, Duff began filming
Provinces of Night, which is based on a book by the same name written by
William Gay. Duff plays Raven Halfacre, the teenage daughter of a promiscuous, alcoholic mother.
[www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090424/ARTICLES/904249983?Title=Hilary-Duff-among-actors-filming-Provinces-in-Pender-County] Duff has signed on for a seven-episode arc as Olivia Burke, a movie star who enrolls at NYU in search of a traditional college experience and ends up rooming with Vanessa (
Jessica Szohr) in
Gossip Girl.
In August 2009, it was announced that Duff will star in
The Business of Falling in Love, a romantic comedy based on the book "Diary of a Working Girl," by Daniella Brodsky and directed by Gil Junger. The film is set to appear on the small screen for ABC Family. In the movie, Duff plays a fashion reporter who goes undercover in the business world hoping to find love while writing an article about dating men in suits.
[www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i0cdf40bc01587c41c6b46149b37d5df8] In September 2009, Duff released a second clothing line with DKNY Jeans as "
Femme for DKNY." She decided to design a new clothing line for girls her age which had detachable scarves and adjustable belt loops.
Entrepreneurship
Duff launched her clothing line, "
Stuff by Hilary Duff", in March 2004, with clothes distributed through
Target in the United States,
Kmart in Australia,
Zellers in Canada, and
Edgars Stores in
South Africa. The company, initially started as a clothing line, has expanded its business into furniture, fragrances, and jewelry, targeted at the teen and preteen crowd.
In 2007, the Internet website Stardoll.com previewed Duff's clothing line to customers by allowing them to dress up a paper doll on the website (which include Hilary Duff's own doll) with the clothes.
In February 2009, Duff and
DKNY Jeans announced their new design partnership and the launch of their collaborative apparel line. Duff co-designed a collection of special pieces with DKNY Jeans brand called
Femme for DKNY Jeans. The clothing line will debut in fine department and specialty stores nationwide in August 2009.
released a
celebrity doll of her in 2004.
In late 2006,
Mattel released a Hilary Duff
Barbie doll. As a fashion designer, she had designed clothes for Barbie dolls in the past
and with the release of her doll, she joined
Reese Witherspoon,
Beyoncé Knowles, and
Lucille Ball who have their own celebrity dolls.
In September 2006, Duff released her perfume, "
With Love... Hilary Duff", which was distributed by the
Elizabeth Arden company. The perfume was initially sold only in
Macy's in the U.S. and soon it was being sold in other regions like Japan and Canada. "With Love...Hilary Duff" was one of the three best-selling fragrances launched at U.S. department stores in late 2006. In 2007, Duff announced that she will be releasing a summer version of the perfume titled, "Wrapped With Love". It was released in January 2008, and a Spring Gift Set version was released in time for Valentine's Day.
Duff and her pet dog Lola made an appearance in the
Electronic Arts game
The Sims 2: Pets, which was released on October 2006. In console versions of the game, Duff's character visits public areas and allows the players to let their Sims socialize with her and Lola.
Animal rights' organization, "Animal welfare league" have criticized Duff and celebrities such as
Paris Hilton and
Jessica Simpson for displaying their dogs as fashion accessories rather than pets.
Philanthrophy
Duff is involved with various
charities, is an
animal rights enthusiast and a member of
Kids with a Cause.
She also donated $250,000 to help the victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
In 2005, she donated over 2.5 million meals to Hurricane Katrina victims in the south. In August 2006, Duff traveled to a
New Orleans elementary school and worked with USA Harvest to distribute meals.
She has also served on the Advisory Board of the "Audrey Hepburn Child Benefit Fund" and the Celebrity Council of "Kids with a Cause".
On October 8, 2008, Duff starred in a public service announcement for The
Think Before You Speak Campaign by
Ad Council and
GLSEN, to prevent youth from using anti-
LGBT vocabulary, such as the phrase "That's so Gay".
In July 2009, Duff was named as a Youth Ambassador to the children of the
Colombian capital,
Bogota.As a Youth Ambassador, she will spend five days in the country, distributing backpacks filled with food to needy children.
[ ]
Duff has stated numerous times that she’s a strong
animal rights supporter and has commented, when asked what she would be doing if she weren’t a celebrity, "I always wanted to be a
veterinarian when I was younger, but then I figured out that animals actually die there, so that was not the job for me. Definitely something with kids or animals or something like that."
[www.peta2.com/OUTTHERE/o-gossip104.asp]
Public image and personal life
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 2005, Duff's earnings were estimated to be
$15 million
and in December 2007, Duff was ranked at #7 in the
Forbes "Top 20 Earners Under 25", with an annual earnings of $12 million.
In 2007, Duff was ranked at #23 in
Maxim's "Hot 100" list.
In 2008, Duff was ranked #7 for the US edition of
FHMs "100 Sexiest Women in the World", while for the UK edition she ranked in at #8.
By 2005, Duff appeared to have lost weight, leading the media to speculate that she had developed an
eating disorder, though Duff denied this claim.
Duff was interviewed on the Australian current affair show
Today Tonight and stated that she lost weight by leading a more active lifestyle. Later in 2006, an article on
Digital Spy stated that Duff had slimmed down to a U.S.
size zero because of media reports suggesting she had gained fifteen pounds.
She later stated that she had been feeling the pressure to be thin, because she is perceived in the media to be either too fat or too thin. Duff called this "judgmental" and "mean".
In June 2006, when asked about her then-boyfriend Joel Madden, a native of
Waldorf, Maryland, in an interview with
Elle, Duff replied, "He's very real, like, he's from a pretty ghetto place in Maryland... I like that".
Duff's "ghetto" comments sparked a mixture of mild offense and bemusement from residents of the Waldorf area, as the suburban, mostly middle-class town did not fall into the traditional impoverished
inner city concept of a
ghetto.
Duff later claimed she was referring not to Waldorf, but actually a section of
Baltimore where Madden lived briefly as a young adult.
In late 2006 Duff took legal action against an alleged stalker and his roommate.
On November 3, 2006, Duff's stalker, Maksim Miakovsky, was arrested for threatening to kill her. He was booked on charges of making criminal threats and stalking. According to legal papers filed by Duff, Miakovsky came to the U.S. "for the sole purpose of meeting and becoming romantically involved with Ms. Duff".
Miakovsky was being held on $200,000 bail at the Manhattan Beach jail. He was arraigned on November 7, 2006.
On January 19, 2007, Miakovsky was sentenced to 117 days in jail and five years probation after pleading no contest to the charges.
In January 2008, videos of Duff surfaced on
YouTube, which showed her singing into her microphone at her concert in Mexico, but her voice was inaudible, leading viewers to believe that she was
lip-syncing. Duff's representative defended her saying, "She was not lip-synching. It was faulty equipment. There was no sound coming out, but she was singing". He also added that Duff was not using her regular sound equipment, but instead was using locally provided equipment and that her microphone was inadvertently set on mute for the first few minutes of the performance.
Relationships
Duff began dating singer
Aaron Carter in 2001. They met on the sets of
Lizzie McGuire, during Carter's guest appearance in a Christmas episode. The relationship lasted two years.
It was reported that Carter left Duff for
Lindsay Lohan, but soon broke up with Lohan and resumed dating Duff. Carter later stated that he also cheated on Duff with her best friend, and that Duff "got her heart broken" and he was "sorry" for his actions.
On March 23, 2007,
Claymation facsimiles of Duff and Lohan appeared on the celebrity wrestling series
Celebrity Deathmatch episode "
Where's Lohan?". Duff and Lindsay Lohan were later reported to have been involved in a "feud" with each other over their relationship with Carter.
In 2007, Duff and Lohan had reconciled. Lohan attended the release party for Duff's album
Dignity and Duff told
People magazine that she thought Lohan was "fun" and "a nice girl".
Duff began dating
Good Charlotte singer
Joel Madden in 2004.
After a long period of tabloid speculation, Duff's mother Susan announced their relationship in a June 2005 interview for
Seventeen magazine.
Duff and Madden broke up in November 2006.
The same year, Duff's parents separated after 22 years of marriage, due to infidelity on the part of her father. She wrote about the pain caused by the separation in her songs "
Stranger" and "
Gypsy Woman".
Duff began dating
NHL player
Mike Comrie in 2007. She frequently attends his games. Comrie bought Duff a
Mercedes-Benz for her 20th birthday.
Filmography
| Television guest appearances
|
| Year
| Title
| Role
| Notes
|
| 2000
| Chicago Hope
| Jessie Seldon
| "Cold Hearts" (Season 6, Episode 17)
|
| 2003
| American Dreams
| Shangri-Las
| "Change a Comin" (Season 2, Episode 8)
|
| George Lopez
| Stephanie
| "Team Leader" (Season 2, Episode 22)
|
| 2004
| Frasier
| Britney
| "Frasier-Lite" (Season 11, Episode 12)
|
| 2005
| Joan of Arcadia
| Dylan Samuels
| "The Rise & Fall of Joan Girardi" (Season 2, Episode 14)
|
| George Lopez
| Kenzie
| "George's Grand Slam" (Season 4, Episode 19)
|
| 2007
| The Andy Milonakis Show
| Herself
| "Andy Moves to L.A." (episode 1, season 3)
|
| 2009
| Ghost Whisperer
| Morgan Jeffries
| "Thrilled to Death" (Season 4, Episode 19)
|
| Law & Order: SVU
| Ashlee Walker
| "Selfish" (Season 10, Episode 19)
|
Discography
- Studio albums
- Other albums
Awards
Further reading
