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Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, author, philanthropist, and singer.

1987–99
Hilary Erhard Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987. The second child of Bob and Susan Duff, she has an older sister, Haylie Katherine (born February 19, 1985). Her father co-owned Timewise Food Stores, a local convenience store chain, while her mother sold cosmetics. Duff spent her early childhood between Houston and the nearby Bastrop, where her parents owned a historic ranch. The Duffs were a tight-knit family that was heavily involved in both communities. From the age of five, Duff watched television with her sister and acted out the scenes together once the program ended. According to Duff, she would always play the boy since she had short hair. Haylie, who explored ballet and appeared in school productions from the age of eight, taught the routines that she learned to her sister when she returned home.

At the age of six, Duff made her stage debut in touring company, BalletMet Columbus', production of The Nutcracker. To further pursue her daughters "love of the stage", Susan relocated them to San Antonio, Texas, where they attended St. Mary's Hall, a prestigious private school known for its arts program. Duff took voice lessons while attending the school. Soon after, she booked her first television commercial for a local Texas cable company. Influenced by the lack of work in Texas, Susan took her daughters to Los Angeles, California to "see just how difficult it would be to break them in to acting". Over a period of a few months, when producers cast for television pilots, they booked several television commercials and then returned to San Antonio. In 1996, the sisters landed background roles in the Hallmark Entertainment miniseries True Women (1997). It was filmed partly in Hills Prairie, Texas at a two-story home that Duff's grandparents, Ken and Mary, owned. Their roles in True Women "gave the girls an eyeful of the entertainment business–and helped them to fuel their interest in acting". Susan paid a talent agent $1,000 to help relocate the family to Los Angeles and to book more work for her daughters. The talent agent "took the money and ran", which led the family to return to San Antonio in disappointment.

Determined to help her daughters break into show business, Susan began studying the different aspects of the business, such as management and agent skills, and how to be competitive during pilot season. Going back and forth between San Antonio and Los Angeles, the family went on "every audition under the sun". The hard work paid off; while Haylie was cast in the direct-to-video film Addams Family Reunion (1998), Duff was auditing for the role of Wendy the Witch in the direct-to-video film Casper Meets Wendy (1998). After Haylie completed filming of Addams Family Reunion, the family returned to San Antonio. After suffering many failed auditions, Duff won the lead role in Casper Meets Wendy. The director, Sean Patrick McNamara, who found her to be a natural born star, cast her for her bubbly personality. Duff received a Youth in Film nomination for her role at the 20th Youth in Film Awards. Although she did not win the award, she was honored by the nomination and it boosted her confidence as an actress.

Susan moved to Los Angeles permanently with her two daughters, while Bob stayed in Texas to maintain the family's homes. Bob would visit the family in Los Angeles once a month. Susan thought that while Casper Meets Wendy may not be a prestigious role, it would help them in future casting auditions; "she could simply hand over a video with her daughter excelling in a leading role for an hour and a half." The sisters did not attend public school and instead took a Christian-influenced homeschooling program. Their first project together was a pilot for a science fiction series called Underworld. From there, they were only getting work sporadically.

Following a tough audition process, Duff landed the role of Ellie in The Soul Collector, a 1999 television film that followed the story of an angel that was sent to live among humans for a month. The Soul Collector gained a large cult following, despite being unavailable on DVD. Duff received a Youth in Film Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot (Supporting Young Actress) at the 21st Young Artist Awards for her role in the film. Duff struggled to find more work until she was cast as a small role in the theatrical film Dancing About Architecture. It marked the first time Duff was on a real movie set. Despite the film starring big names such as Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie and Ryan Phillippe, it was pushed back several times and eventually released in late 1988 under the name Playing by Heart. The film was a commercial failure; the $20 million production budget was matched with a domestic gross of $4 million. Duff received a much bigger role in the film Human Nature (2001), portraying a young version of Patricia Arquette's character Lila Jute. The film was critically acclaimed, despite being a commercial failure, earning $705,308 at the worldwide box office.

2000–02
In 2000, Duff was chosen to portray Molly Kidman in the pilot episode of Daddio, a sitcom that tells the story of a stay-at-home dad. It was expected to become a "long-running, lucrative series" and Duff was ecstatic about the role. The producers reassessed their choice and decided that she was not right for the role. Duff was extremely disappointed and wanted to give up on her dreams, asking her mother if they could go back to Texas. Susan encouraged her daughter to keep auditioning and urged her to try out for the lead role in the Disney Channel series What's Lizzie Thinking?, which Duff thought of cancelling. She audited for the role as scheduled and was called back several times over a period of two weeks.

For the role, the producers wanted to find "a young actress who did not have to stretch to come across as a likable, normal girl, someone other girls would at once look up to and relate to as a peer." The role was eventually narrowed down to three choices and Duff, who was not previously convinced she would get the role, became excited of the idea of having her own television show. At the age of twelve, Duff was offered the role of Elizabeth Brooke "Lizzie" McGuire, and received a starting salary of $15,000 per episode. Production for What's Lizzie Thinking? began in August 2000 in Los Angeles. The Disney Channel ordered twenty episodes of the series, all in which were filmed during a short time period. The show was renamed Lizzie McGuire during production; "a way of getting viewers to focus on the star of the show, and of creating a brand". Duff met American singer Aaron Carter at his birthday party in 2000 and the two began dating after he shot a guest appearance on an episode of the series. The two had an on-again, off-again relationship that lasted, according to Carter, for "about a year".

The Disney Channel was very pleased with how the episodes of Lizzie McGuire turned out, although they decided to air them out of the order in which they were shot. Even though "Rumors" was the third episode they filmed for the series, the Disney Channel thought that it was the strongest of the bunch and it aired on January 19, 2001 as the first episode of Lizzie McGuire. It received the highest-rated debut of any Disney Channel series. Duff initially hated seeing how she "looked and acted" and was her own "hardest critic". She refused to watch the episodes when they aired, but often watched rough cut's of the episodes to make sure her performance was the best of her ability. When "Aaron Carter's Coming to Town", the seventh episode of the series, aired on March 23, some of Carter's fans were "titillated by Hilary and Aaron's on-screen lovey-dovey behavior", while others were "flat-out angry". Many of Carter's fans lashed out at Duff on internet message boards for "stealing their heartthrob".

Duff was required to promote Lizzie McGuire in a variety of ways, such as filming segments for the Disney Channel and appearing at the 19th Annual Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade. By July, twenty-two more episodes of Lizzie McGuire had been ordered and Duff began to attract the attention of popular magazines for young girls. Later that same month, Duff began filming the Disney Channel Original Movie Cadet Kelly. In the film, Duff stars as Kelly Collins, a teen who is sent from a private school in New York City to a military academy. She was required to go through two weeks of cadet training for the role. That fall, Lizzie McGuire began airing on Saturday mornings on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which further improved Duff's popularity.

Cadet Kelly premiered on March 8, 2002 and it was a hit for the Disney Channel, being seen by 7.8 million viewers. Duff met her future-manager Andre Recke backstage at a Radio Disney concert later that spring. After their initial meeting, Duff was "determined to become a music star" and began taking vocal lessons again. Duff recalled the events in 2004, stating that: "there were all these pop acts backstage at the concert. They were all getting ready backstage and warming up, and I was like, 'I want to do this so bad.'" "Becoming a music star was only a dream" to her, as Duff later admitted that singing "took a back seat" to acting once she began landing film and TV projects. As production of Lizzie McGuire was still underway, Recke "took things slowly with the aspiring singer", as she rehearsed and worked with several different producers. By the end June of 2002, production for Lizzie McGuire had been completed and Duff's $15,000 an episode salary had seen an increase to $35,000 an episode. Immediately after filming the final episode of the series, Duff flew to Vancouver to shoot the teen action film Agent Cody Banks, which left her "no time to mourn" over the end of Lizzie McGuire. Duff's supporting role in the film landed her a $500,000 fee.

Duff made her recording debut in August 2002 with "I Can't Wait", a cover version of Brooke McClymont's debut single, for the soundtrack of Lizzie McGuire. The song received extremely little mainstream radio play, but reached number one on Radio Disney in the United States by November 2002, with one station playing the song 850 times over a six-week period. The Los Angeles Times reported that music industry critics attributed the success of the song to Buena Vista Records' status as a sister company to Radio Disney, which had an affiliation with the Disney Channel. This was believed to be in violation of the Federal Communications Commission's broadcasting rules, which prohibits corporations from using broadcast licenses "for their own benefit or to gain a competitive advantage in any transaction". Duff's Christmas-themed debut studio album, Santa Claus Lane, was released on October 15 by Buena Vista Records. The album features guest appearances from fellow teen stars Lil' Romeo and Christina Milian, as well as Haylie Duff. Having enjoyed her time portraying Lizzie, Duff decided to reprise the character in a theatrical film entitled Caio, Lizzie!. Filming began in October and continued over a five-week period. She received $1 million fee for her role in the film. During this time, Duff also began recording sessions for her second studio album and recorded several songs for the film's soundtrack.

2003–04
Agent Cody Banks was released in the United States on March 14, 2003 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the film, Duff portrays Natalie Connors, the daughter of a "clueless scientist" who is kidnapped by "evil agents". With a production budget of $28 million, the film was a commercial success, earning a total of $58.8 million at the worldwide box office. The film received generally negative reviews, with the general consensus being that the film "should satisfy young teens", but offers "nothing new for those who are familiar with the formula". Caio, Lizzie! was re-titled The Lizzie McGuire Movie and released on May 2, 2003 to mixed reviews, with the general consensus being that the film is a "harmless piece of fluff that ought to satisfy fans of the TV show". The film was a commercial success; with a production budget of $17 million, it earned a total of $55.5 million at the worldwide box office.

Two weeks prior to the debut of The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Bob Iger, the president of The Walt Disney Company, began negotiations with Susan and Duff's lawyer for a sequel to the film and a proposed ABC series, which would follow Lizzie in high school. For the series, Duff wanted at least $100,000 per episode, while Disney made her an offer of $35,000, which she rejected as being "insultingly low". For a sequel to The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Disney agreed to pay her a $4 million advance and 4% of the studio's gross of the film. Disney also agreed to pay Duff a $500,000 bonus if The Lizzie McGuire Movie grossed at least $50 million at the box office. Duff's representatives demanded that the bonus be paid regardless of its performance, which was met with Disney's refusal and negotiations were dismissed. Duff and Disney's split made national headlines, with the mainstream press failing to report that Duff remained a member of Disney's music division.

For Metamorphosis, Duff did not want a "really poppy album", as that was not the type of music she listened to. She further explained: "I wanted to do music that I really like, and that I would actually listen to. It is pop music but it has some more rock and edginess to it."

In a maneuver to not rush her film career, Duff accepted the small supporting role of Lorraine Baker, "the second-oldest daughter in a family of twelve", in the family film Cheaper by the Dozen. The film was released on December 25, 2003 to negative reviews, with the general consensus being that the film contains "much chaos", but "little hilarity". Cheaper by the Dozen was a commercial success; with a production budget of $40 million, the film made $190 million at the worldwide box office.

List of works

 * For a full chronology of Duff's film work, see Hilary Duff filmography.
 * For a full chronology of Duff's music work, see Hilary Duff discography.