Birth name Hilary Erhard Duff
Born September 28, 1987 (1987-09-28) (age 20)
Houston, Texas, USA
Genre(s) pop, bubblegum pop, dance
Occupation(s) Actress, singer, songwriter, fashion designer, film producer, spokesperson
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1998–present
Label(s) Disney/Buena Vista (2001–2004)
Hollywood (2002–present)
Early life and career
Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987.[5] She is the second child of Susan Colleen (née Cobb), a homemaker and 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 theater 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.[5] 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.[6] After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various television commercials.[7]
Early life and career
Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987.[5] She is the second child of Susan Colleen (née Cobb), a homemaker and 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 theater 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.[5] 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.[6] After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various television commercials.[7]
Television
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 in which she plays the young witch Wendy, who encounters the animated character Casper. The film was released to mostly unenthusiastic reviews.[8][9]
In 1999, Duff appeared in a supporting role in the television film The Soul Collector, which was, based on a Kathleen Kane novel and starred Bruce Greenwood and Melissa Gilbert. Duff won a Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot (Supporting Young Actress)" for her role in the movie.[10]
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 in 2000. Actor Michael Chiklis, co-star of Daddio, 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."[7]
Lizzie McGuire
Main article: Lizzie McGuire
Duff was dropped from the cast of Daddio before it being aired, which made her reluctant to pursue her acting career further.[7] However, her manager and mother spurred her on, and a week later she successfully auditioned for a children's television series, Lizzie McGuire. In the series, Duff portrayed the title role of Lizzie McGuire, a clumsy but an average middle school girl. The show focused on her life and her slow growth into teenhood. Her co-stars included Lalaine, Adam Lamberg, Jake Thomas, Clayton Snyder, Ashlie Brillault, Robert Carradine, and Hallie Todd.
Lizzie McGuire, which first aired on the Disney Channel on January 12, 2001, was a ratings hit, drawing in 2.3 million viewers per episode.[7] Her participation in the show led to her becoming highly popular among children between the ages of seven and fourteen,[11] with critic Richard Huff of the New York Daily News calling her "a 2002 version of Annette Funicello".[7] 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 to take off because Duff's representatives claimed she was not being paid enough for the proposed series.[12] In 2003, she went on to reprise her role as Lizzie McGuire in the feature film spin-off, The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
Other projects
During her time on Lizzie McGuire, Duff starred opposite Christy Carlson Romano and Gary Cole in the Disney Channel television film Cadet Kelly (2002), which became the network's most watched program in its 19-year history.[7] In the movie, she plays a free-spirited girl who enrolls in a military school and finds it hard to adjust to its strict and disciplined environment.
Duff also made several guest appearances in television shows; her first as a sick child in the medical drama Chicago Hope in March 2000.[13] In a 2003 episode of George Lopez, she had a role as a makeup salesperson; she later reappeared in the show in 2005 as 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. During her 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.[14] 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.[15][16] She is also a model signed to IMG Models New York.[17]
Subject: Hilary Duff 
and the one with chad.. 
