Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, pop singer/songwriter and entrepreneur. After gaining fame for playing the title role in the television show Lizzie McGuire, Duff went on to have a film career; her most commercially successful movies include Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), and A Cinderella Story (2004). She earned $15 million in 2005^[1] and $12 million in 2006 and 2007^[2][3].

Duff has expanded her repertoire into pop music, with three RIAA certified-platinum albums and over thirteen million albums sold worldwide.^[4] 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's latest studio album, Dignity, was released in April 2007 and was certified Gold in August 2007. So far, the album has sold 896,550 copies worldwide.

She has also launched a clothing line, Stuff by Hilary Duff, and an exclusive perfume with Elizabeth Arden. Duff and her mother were listed as producers for the movie Material Girls,^[5] and she will soon produce her sister's debut album.

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Her upcoming films include the 2007 action thriller War, Inc., animated comedy Foodfight! and independent films Greta and Safety Glass.^[6]

Early life and career

Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987.^[7] She was the second child of Robert Erhard Duff, owner of a chain of convenience stores, and Susan Colleen (nee Cobb), a homemaker. She has an elder sister, Haylie Duff, who is also an actress/singer. After Duff's mother encouraged Hilary to take an acting class alongside her elder sister, Haylie, both girls won parts 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 Ballet Met in San Antonio. The siblings became more enthusiastic about the idea of acting professionally, and eventually relocated to California with their mother. Bob Erhard Duff stayed at the family home in Houston to take care of their business.^[8] After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various television commercials.^[9]

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 extra, again uncredited, in writer-director Willard Carroll's ensemble dramedy Playing by Heart in 1998. Her first major part 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 direct-to-video with mostly unenthusiastic reviews.^[10][11]

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.

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."^[9]

Lizzie McGuire

Duff was dropped from the cast of Daddio prior to it being aired, which made her reluctant to pursue her acting career further.^[9] 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 in January 12, 2001, was a ratings hit, drawing in 2.3 million viewers per episode,^[9] and became the career breakthrough Duff had been waiting for. Her participation in the show led to her becoming highly popular among children between the ages of seven and fourteen,^[12] with critic Richard Huff of the New York Daily News calling her "A 2002 version of Annette Funicello".^[9] After Duff fulfilled her sixty-five episode contract with Lizzie McGuire, Disney considered continuing the franchise in further films and a prime-time television series to be broadcast on ABC, but the plans failed to take off because Duff's representatives claimed she was not being paid enough for the proposed series.^[13] However, she went on to reprise her role as Lizzie McGuire in the feature film spin-off, The Lizzie McGuire Movie in 2003. The Lizzie Mcguire Movie raked in $42.6 million at the US box office^[14] and received mixed reviews with certain critics calling it, "an unabashed promotion of Duff’s image, just as Crossroads was for Spears"^[15], while other reviews were generally positive and encouraging.^[16][17][18]

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 nineteen-year history.^[9] 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.^[19] 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.^[20]

Film career

Duff's first role in a theatrical motion picture was in Human Nature (2002), an independent film shot before Lizzie McGuire and first shown at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals.^[21] Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, the film follows a female naturalist, played by Patricia Arquette. Duff played the younger version of Arquette's character.

2003–2004

Her first major role in a feature film was in the family action film Agent Cody Banks with Frankie Muniz in 2003. The film received positive reviews and was successful enough to spawn a sequel, in which Duff did not participate. Afterwards, Duff reprised her role as Lizzie McGuire for The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which exceeded box office expectations earning $55,534,455 worldwide.^[22]

Later that year, Duff played one of the twelve children of Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the family film Cheaper by the Dozen, which remains her highest grossing film to date.^[23] She reprised her role in the sequel to the film called Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), which failed to be as successful as the original film and was panned by critics.^[24][25]

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.^[26][27] A Cinderella Story earned $66,068,046 worldwide and was a commercial success.^[28] Later that year, she starred in the film Raise Your Voice, her first role in a drama film. Some critics praised Duff for appearing in a more mature and serious role than her previous films, but the film itself was heavily panned, with the Las Vegas Weekly writing: "Effortlessly combining Duff's bad acting and bad singing with bad writing and bad direction, Raise Your Voice is an insulting waste of time that begs to be silenced".^[29] Several reviews were particularly harsh towards Duff's vocals, with critics pointing out what appeared to be her digitally enhanced voice^{[30][31][32][33]} and indifferent towards her acting performance. The film received a lukewarm response at the box office, and is Duff's least successful film commercially, with total theater receipts of just $13,573,284.^[34] The same year, Duff received her first Razzie nomination for worst actress for her roles in Raise Your Voice and Cinderella Story.^[35]

2005–2006

In 2005, Duff starred in The Perfect Man in which she played the eldest daughter of a divorced woman (Heather Locklear). The film received mostly harsh reviews and did not live up to box office expectations, making $19,770,475 globally.^[36] That year, Duff was again nominated for a Razzie Award, for both The Perfect Man and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.^[37] The 2006 satirical comedy Material Girls, in which she co-starred with her sister Haylie, was also not well received by critics,^[38] grossing only $16,847,695 worldwide.^[39] The film, directed by Martha Coolidge and co-produced by Madonna's independent film production company Maverick Entertainment, starred the Duffs as wealthy siblings who must fight to reclaim their fortune following a scandal. Hilary received nominations for another two Razzie awards for her role in the film.^[40]

2007

In early 2007, the Duff sisters lent their voices to the computer animated comedy Foodfight!, which is to be distributed by Lions Gate Films due out in April 2008. The film's director, Larry Kasanoff, said that he is "absolutely thrilled to have the Duff sisters as part of the cast".^[41] Duff also stars opposite John Cusack in War, Inc., due for release in July 2008. On September 7, 2007, Duff confirmed on Much On Demand, that she would be filming two independant films Greta, and Safety Glass, of which the former was completed in mid November 2007.

Music career

2002–2004

In 2002, Duff recorded a cover 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 Lil' Romeo, Christina Milian, and her sister Haylie. Accompanied by the Disney Channel-only single "Tell Me a Story (About the Night Before)", it reached the lower half of the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold.^[42] The track "Santa Claus Lane" was included on the soundtrack to The Santa Clause 2 and another song, "What Christmas Should Be", was used in Cheaper by the Dozen. Duff sang several tracks for the 2003 soundtrack to The Lizzie McGuire Movie, including "Why Not", which peaked at number fourteen in Australia.^[43]

Duff's second album and first studio album, Metamorphosis (2003), reached number one on the U.S. and Canadian charts.^[44] It became one of the biggest selling albums of the year in the U.S. and has since gone to sell over 3.7 million copies.^[45] The lead single, "So Yesterday" (co-written and produced by The Matrix), was a top ten hit in several countries and its music video received heavy airplay on MTV; its follow-up, the Laguna Beach theme song "Come Clean", became Duff's first top forty U.S. hit^[46] and reached the top twenty in UK, Australia and New Zealand.^[47][48] 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 in the major cities included on the tour were sold out.^[49]

The second DisneyMania disc, DisneyMania 2, was released in January 2004 and contained a duet, "The Siamese Cat Song" with her sister. Another song, "Circle of Life", featured Duff and other Disney Channel stars. Duff and her sister recorded a cover of The Go-Gos' "Our Lips Are Sealed" for the soundtrack to A Cinderella Story, which included two other songs by Duff. The video for "Our Lips Are Sealed" was popular on MTV's Total Request Live, but the song failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.^[46]

Duff's third album was the self-titled Hilary Duff in which she co-wrote some songs. She described the album as more personal and having a rock feel than Metamorphosis.^[50][51] It was released on her seventeenth birthday (in September 2004) and debuted at number two in the U.S. and at number one in Canada. The album sold over 1.5 million copies in the U.S. in eight months,^[45] but its only U.S. single, "Fly", failed to chart on the Hot 100,^[46] despite being accompanied by a popular video. "Fly" reached the top forty in Australia, where the album produced a second top forty single, "Someone's Watching over Me",^[52] which was the theme song of the film Raise Your Voice. Duff contributed the song "(I'll Give) Anything but Up!" for the 2004 album Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long (2004), before continuing nine more months of the Most Wanted Tour.

2005–2006

Duff's fourth 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 lead single, "Wake Up", became Duff's highest peaking single on the U.S. Hot 100 at the time,^[46] and its video received heavy rotation on MTV. The video for the second single, "Beat of My Heart", was also popular, but the single itself did not chart in the U.S.^[46] The album itself debuted at number one on the Billboard 200^[53] 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.^[54] According to a statement made by Haylie Duff, a single was not released for the Material Girls soundtrack due to scheduling conflicts.

2007

For Duff's fourth studio album, Dignity, she co-wrote the material with Kara DioGuardi, who co-produced the album with Rhett Lawrence, Richard "Humpty" Vission, Tim & Bob and others. 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".^[55] She also described the album's sound as "a little less pop-rock and more electronic-sounding".^[56]

The first single, "Play with Fire", became a minor club hit but failed to chart in the U.S.; the second single, "With Love", was more successful, becoming Duff's biggest U.S. Hot 100 hit and topping the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.^[46] The music video for "With Love" was used as a commercial for Duff's first fragrance, With Love... Hilary Duff, which was launched in September 2006; the video reached number one on Total Request Live. Initially slated for release in late 2006,^[57] the album was released in April 2007 in North America and earlier elsewhere. It reached the top five in the U.S. and Canada, the top twenty in Australia and the top forty in the UK.^[43] The Dignity tour began in mid 2007. A third single, "Stranger", was a number-one U.S. club hit.^[46] Duff is currently recording her next single "Reach Out", which samples Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus".^[58]

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.^[59] 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.

Playmates Toys released a celebrity doll of her in 2004.^[60] In late 2006, Mattel released a Hilary Duff Barbie doll. The doll was anatomically correct and Duff designed the clothes for the doll herself.

In September 2006, Duff released her perfume, With Love... Hilary Duff, which was under the Elizabeth Arden company. Duff premiered it on The View.^[61] The perfume was initially sold only in Macy's in the U.S. but is currently being sold in other regions like Japan and Canada. In 2007, Duff announced that she will be releasing a summer version of the perfume titled, "Wrapped With Love".

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, the dog. However, in the PC expansion pack, players must download the Duff sim from the Maxis website before December 31 she and her dog will be fully playable characters, rather than a non-player character.^[62] Duff and celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson have often been criticized for displaying their dogs as fashion accessories rather than pets.^[63]

Personal life

Duff began dating singer Aaron Carter in 2001. They met on the sets of Lizzie McGuire, when Carter had a cameo role in a Christmas episode. The relationship lasted two years.^[64][65] 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.^[66] Claymation facsimiles of Duff and Lohan appeared on the celebrity wrestling series Celebrity Death Match on March 23, 2007. Duff and Lindsay Lohan were later reported to have been involved in a "feud" with each other over their relationship with Carter.^[67] As of 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".^[68]

Duff's parents separated in 2006 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".^[69]

Duff began dating Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden in 2004.^[70] After a long period of tabloid speculation, Duff's mother Susan announced their relationship in a June 2005 interview for Seventeen magazine.^[71] In a June 2006 interview with ELLE magazine, Duff stated "...(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".^[72] Duff later told MuchMusic that she didn't say the quotes attributed to her in the article and that the subject was "definitely not something that I would talk about..."^[73] Duff and Madden broke up in November 2006.^[74]

In 2007, Duff was photographed many times with NHL player Mike Comrie. Although Duff never reveals much about the relationship, the couple was seen hugging and kissing and Duff even attends some of Comrie's games. Comrie bought Duff a brand new $100,000 car for her 20th birthday.^[75] She confirmed their relationship with E! News at the Spirit of Life's red carpet event.

Duff is involved with various charities, is an animal rights enthusiast and a member of Kids with a Cause.^[76] She also donated US$250,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.^[77] 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.^[78]

In August 2005, Duff said she received veneers because she chipped off one of her front teeth on a microphone during a concert.^[79] She subsequently had her veneers redone to match the size of her original teeth.^[80][81] In December 2007, Hilary Duff was ranked at #7 in the Forbes Top 20 Earners Under 25 with an annual earnings of US$12 million.

Controversies

In 2004, reports emerged that Avril Lavigne and Duff were having a spat. "I read that I was supposedly mad at my fans for dressing like me", Newsweek quoted Lavigne as saying. Lavigne further added, "They quoted Hilary Duff saying, 'Avril needs to appreciate her fans more and blah, blah, blah.' I'm like, excuse me? First off, it's not even true. I never said that. And second, who the hell cares what she has to say about my fans? Whatever. Hilary Duff's such a goody-goody, such a mommy's girl".^[82] In June 2007, there were reports of a run-in between the two at a Maxim party in New York. Evidently, a complication in the arrival time of both, caused the unwanted run-in. Lavigne was said to be furious at this, pacing around and pressuring her company to leave.^[83]

In June 2006, when asked about her then-boyfriend Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden, a native of Waldorf, Maryland, in an interview with Elle Magazine, 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.^[84] Duff later claimed she was referring not to Waldorf, but actually a section of Baltimore where Madden lived briefly as a young adult.^[85]

In late 2006, Duff took legal action against an alleged stalker and his roommate.^[86] 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".^[87] Miakovsky is being held on $200,000 bail at the Manhattan Beach jail. He was arraigned on November 7, 2006.^[87] On January 19, 2007, Miakovsky was sentenced to 117 days in jail and five years probation after pleading no contest to the charges.^[88]

By 2005, Duff appeared to have lost weight, leading the media to speculate that she had developed an eating disorder, although Duff denied this claim.^[89] Duff was interviewed on the Australian current affair show Today Tonight and stated that she lost weight by leading a more active lifestyle. Later, an article on Digital Spy in 2006, stated that Duff slimmed down to a U.S. size zero because of media reports suggesting she had gained fifteen pounds.^[90] She said she has been feeling pressure to be thin, stating that she is perceived in the media to be either too fat or too thin. Duff called this "judgmental" and "mean".^[91]

Filmography

Films

Television

Discography

Official studio albums

• 2002: Santa Claus Lane
• 2003: Metamorphosis
• 2004: Hilary Duff
• 2005: Most Wanted (Contains new material plus new mixes of her previous songs)
• 2007: Dignity

Other albums

• 2006: 4Ever (Italy Release Only)

Awards