Hilary Erhard Duff was born on 28th September 1987 in Houston, Texas, USA. Her father, Robert Erhard Duff, owned a chain of convenience stores, while her mother, Susan Colleen, was a homemaker. She had an older sister named Haylie who started acting and singing in preschool. Duff wanted to follow in her sister’s footsteps, and after the pair booked a few commercials in Texas, Susan decided to move with her daughters to Los Angeles for pilot season.When Duff was nine, she worked on a pilot with her sister titled “The Underworld” that never came to light. She had minor roles in the films “True Women” (1997) and “Playing by Heart” (1998) before getting her first starring role in the direct-to-video project “Casper Meets Wendy” (1998). After getting a role in the series “Daddio” (NBC, 2000), Duff was dropped from the cast before the show even aired.However, the actress claimed she was not being paid enough and parted ways with Disney. She eventually agreed to reprise her role in “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” (2003), which earned an impressive $42.6 million in the U.S. and $55 million worldwide. Her follow-up project was the 2003 ensemble film “Cheaper by the Dozen,” where she played one of Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt’s 12 kids.The clip played everywhere, even before the film was finally released in May 2008, proving the former teen star had grown up. It was reported that she was offered the lead role in the CW Network’s remake of “Beverly Hills, 90210” (2008 - ), but she turned it down because she wanted to move away from the teen genre. Duff instead worked on the independent film “Greta” (2008) with Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn and the dark comedy “Safety Glass” (2009).
