42 Facts About Lily Cole

Lily Luahana Cole was born on 27 December 1987 and is a British model, author, film director, actress and entrepreneur.

Lily Cole was booked for her first British Vogue cover at age 16, named "Model of the Year" at the 2004 British Fashion Awards and has worked with many well-known brands, including Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Jean Paul Gaultier and Moschino.

In 2020, Lily Cole published Who Cares Wins, a book about how humans' lives impact the planet and how humans can respond to climate emergency challenges.

Lily Cole's first leading role as an actress was as Valentina in the 2009 film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Lily Cole was born in Torquay, Devon, to Patience Owen, an artist and writer, and Chris Lily Cole, a fisherman and boat builder.

Lily Cole has no contact with her father, who left home when she was a baby; she and her sister were raised by their Welsh mother in London.

Lily Cole attended Hallfield Primary School, the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and St Marylebone School.

Lily Cole gained a place to read Social and Political Sciences at King's College, Cambridge in 2006, deferring entry twice.

Lily Cole was photographed in 2001 at age 13 by fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco.

Lily Cole signed with Storm and in 2003 was photographed by Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue.

Lily Cole worked with many prominent photographers, including Craig McDean, Nick Knight, Juergen Teller, Arthur Elgort, Irving Penn and Tim Walker.

Lily Cole has appeared on the covers of Playboy in France, Vogue, Citizen K, and V, among others.

Lily Cole featured on Vogue "best dressed" list in December 2005, and had cover appearances on Numero and Interview.

Lily Cole modelled on the international runway circuit and at many fashion shows on behalf of Chanel, Shiatzy Chen, DKNY, Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Alexander McQueen, Jasper Conran, John Galliano and Louis Vuitton.

Lily Cole was nominated, for the second time, for the "Model of the Year" award at the 2007 British Fashion Awards.

Lily Cole has additionally graced the covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and i-D.

Lily Cole has appeared in advertising campaigns for Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Hermes, Longchamp, Cacharel, Topshop and Anna Sui cosmetics, as well as being the face for Moschino's perfume "I Love Love".

In September 2007, Lily Cole was announced as the follow-up model for Accessorize, taking the place of Claudia Schiffer, designing a line of handbags for the collection.

Lily Cole launched a campaign in June 2010 at Gatwick Airport for modelling agency, Storm Model Management.

Lily Cole made her acting debut as Polly in the 2007 comedy St Trinian's, a rework of the black and white films of the 1950s and '60s, alongside Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Russell Brand, Jodie Whittaker and Stephen Fry.

Lily Cole's first leading role came in Terry Gilliam's 2009 fantasy film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, playing Valentina, the teenage daughter of Christopher Plummer's title character, Dr Parnassus, whom Parnassus has promised to the Devil upon her 16th birthday.

Lily Cole appeared at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival in December 2009 to promote Parnassus.

Lily Cole was featured as herself in one episode of the online series T Takes, a series of short, improvised films published by The New York Times.

Lily Cole appeared as "Lettuce Leaf", a celebrity supermodel in the 2009 film, Rage, directed by Sally Potter.

Lily Cole played "Aline" in the 2011 film There Be Dragons.

Lily Cole made a minor appearance in the music video for the Girls Aloud and Sugababes cover of "Walk This Way" in aid of the charity Comic Relief, in which she struts up and down a catwalk in "hilarious ways", interspersed by the bands and several well-known British television personalities.

Lily Cole had another minor role in Primal Scream's 2008 video "Can't Go Back", in which she and other models featured in a horror-style video based on the films of Dario Argento.

Lily Cole again starred in a music video for Paul McCartney's song "Queenie Eye" featuring a number of actors and musicians including Gary Barlow, James Corden, Jude Law and Johnny Depp.

Lily Cole ultimately made her stage debut at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge, as Nina in a student production of The Seagull.

Lily Cole appeared in "The Curse of the Black Spot", the third episode of the sixth series of science fiction series Doctor Who, in May 2011.

In 2017, Lily Cole starred in the title role in the three-part docu-drama miniseries Elizabeth I, which aired on Channel 5 from 9 to 23 May.

In December 2009, Lily Cole attended a party, hosted by Elton John for which guests were asked to design their ideal bar with the designs then sold at auction in aid of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

In 2016 Lily Cole was appointed a Fellow of the Foundling Museum in London.

In 2005 Lily Cole announced she would no longer model for De Beers after being alerted to the situation of the Kalahari Bushmen being evicted from their lands in Botswana.

Lily Cole wrote the foreword for Tamsin Blanchard's 2007 book Green Is The New Black, a guide to being fashionable while remaining eco-friendly.

In 2013 it was announced that Lily Cole would receive the Doctor of Letters for her "outstanding contribution to humanitarian and environmental causes" from the chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Lily Cole was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the 2015 general election.

Lily Cole is part-owner of a London bookshop and an advisor to Wikitribune.

Lily Cole was involved in creating an environmentally friendly knitwear company, The North Circular, which launched in 2009.

Lily Cole launched a womenswear range for the company in February 2010.

On 28 February 2015, Lily Cole announced she was expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Kwame Ferreira.

In 2021, Lily Cole came out as queer during an interview with The Sunday Times Style.