Background

Ethnicity: Blake Lively has English, as well as Scottish, German, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Welsh, and remote French-Canadian, ancestry.

Blake Lively was born on August 25, 1987, in Los Angeles, California, the United States, to a show business family. Her father, Ernie, was an actor and director, and her mother, Elaine, was a talent scout. She comes from a big family and is the youngest of five children, including three step-siblings from her mother's side. Apart from her parents, she and all of her siblings - Eric, Lori, Robyn, and Jason - are connected to the entertainment industry.

She got introduced to acting at a very early age as her parents used to take her to the acting classes they taught in, instead of leaving her with a babysitter back at home. As a result, she learned the tools of the trade when she was very young.

Lively, who trained her whole life to attend Stanford University, went to auditions for roles in movies to appease her brother Eric, who had asked his agents to send her to auditions. She is very close to her brother, who, during a tour of Europe with her, had discussed the possible career choices for her and found out acting to be fitting.

Education

Lively began the first grade when she was only three years old. Her six-year-old brother was so nervous about beginning first grade alone that her mother told the school that Blake (who was extremely tall for her age) was also six years old so that she could accompany him. "After a few weeks," Lively remembers, "they said they would have to put me in mentally disabled classes because I wasn't up to pace with the rest of the kids. They thought that I was slow because all I wanted to do was sleep while the other kids were doing their projects."

After getting that early, if perhaps ill-advised, jump on her primary education, Lively attended a staggering 13 different schools by the time she graduated from grade school. An alumnus of the Burbank High School, Blake Lively was very active during her school days. She was appointed senior class president, was part of the cheerleaders' group and performed in the championship choir.

Career

Despite strong pressure from her older siblings to ditch school and embark on an acting career, Lively initially expressed no interest in acting. Instead, she had her own dreams of attending Stanford University. Nevertheless, sensing her star potential, her older brother Eric relentlessly pushed her to try auditioning. "He was trying to get me to make life decisions at 15!" she recalls. He then began contacting agents and telling them about his beautiful, talented younger sister. "I was really busy at school," Lively remembers, "and I would have these agents calling and saying, 'We have an appointment for you.' It was really hard to say no because I didn't want to make my brother upset."

Just before beginning her senior year of high school, Blake landed a starring role opposite Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn in the major motion picture The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, with her real-life dad playing her screen father. Her performance earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination for Breakout Movie Star.

After filming Traveling Pants, Lively returned to Burbank for her senior year and graduated in 2005. After finishing her diploma, she immediately returned to acting, starring opposite Justin Long and Jonah Hill in the 2006 comedy Accepted. A year later, in 2007, Lively landed her most famous role to date on the CW's hit teen drama Gossip Girl. The show follows a cohort of privileged teenagers on New York's Upper East Side, with Lively playing the lead role of Serena van der Woodsen, a stylish blonde and somewhat reformed party girl.

Bolstered by intense media coverage, including a provocative and controversial photoshoot in Rolling Stone magazine, Gossip Girl quickly developed a cult-like fan base. Its young and beautiful cast became nearly ubiquitous on celebrity magazine covers and websites. The fashion-forward show, and Lively's character in particular, also had enormous influence over style trends. In a case of onscreen romance breeding real-life love, in 2007, Lively began dating Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley, who plays Dan Humphrey on the show. Their Gossip Girl characters also date throughout season one. However, Lively and Badgely broke up in 2010.

Lively won the 2008 Teen Choice Award for TV Actress and TV Breakout Star for her performance. Gossip Girl aired its final episode in December 2012.

With her dazzling good looks, natural acting talent, and devoted backing from Gossip Girl fans, Lively seemed to be on the verge of breaking out as a top-flight movie star. In a January 2010 profile, Esquire called Lively "the most promising and interesting and talented young actress of the year." She displayed a grittier side in her role as a young mother in Ben Affleck's crime thriller The Town that same year. Both the film and Lively's performance drew widespread critical acclaim.

The following year, Lively co-starred with Ryan Reynolds in the film Green Lantern, a big-screen take on the classic comic book series. While the movie proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment, the on-screen pairing of Lively and Reynolds translated into a real-life romance.

In 2015, Lively starred in the romantic fantasy The Age of Adaline, in which she plays a woman who, as a result of a freak accident, hasn't aged beyond 29 years. In 2016, she played the lead role in the horror shark film The Shallows. Two years later, she took on the role of a woman who disappears without an explanation in Paul Feig's comedy-thriller, A Simple Favor, opposite Anna Kendrick.

In 2017, she was announced to play the lead of The Rhythm Section, the film adaptation of the Mark Burnell novel of the same name, produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and directed by Reed Morano.

Achievements

• 

  In 2008, Blake Lively received two Teen Choice Awards for her role in the series Gossip Girl. She won another Teen Choice Award for the series in 2012.
  
  Her 2010 movie The Town' brought her two more awards. She received awards from the National Board of Review and Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association as part of the ensemble cast.
  
  In 2011, she won the Breakthrough Performer of the Year Award from CinemaCon. In the same year, she was named among 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and also topped the AskMen list of "most desirable" women. In 2012, People magazine named Blake as one of the Most Beautiful at Every Age.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Hick

    (Equal measures of David Lynch and Terrence Malick, with n...)

    2011
  • Savages

    (Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta...)

  • A Simple Favor

    (A Simple Favor, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Ste...)

    2018
  • Café Society

    (Woody Allen's Café Society follows Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg...)

    2016
  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

    (Coming of Age Adventure based on Ann Brashares' best-sell...)

    2005
  • Green Lantern

    (Protectors of peace and justice, the Green Lantern Corp m...)

    2011
  • Private Lives of Pippa Lee

    (After nearly two decades caught under the wing of an agin...)

    2009
  • All I See Is You

    (Blake Lively stars as a blind woman whose marriage is upe...)

    2017
  • The Age of Adaline

    (Blake Lively and Harrison Ford star in this stirring roma...)

    2015
  • Elvis and Anabelle

    (Anabelle is a small-town beauty queen being groomed for s...)

    2007
  • Accepted

    (From the producer of Bruce Almighty and Liar Liar comes a...)

    2006
  • Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

    (Having been apart all year, summer plans will take the gi...)

    2008
  • The Shallows

    (While surfing, Nancy (Blake Lively) finds herself on the ...)

    2016
  • The Town

    (A bank robber falls in love with a former robbery hostage...)

    2010
  • Simon Says

    (Five college friends choose to spend their vacation in de...)

    2006
  • New York, I Love You

    (In the city that never sleeps, love is always on the mind...)

    2009

• TV series

  • Gossip Girl Complete Seasons

    (Gossip Girl is an American teen drama television series b...)

Religion

Lively was raised a Southern Baptist. Even though Lively admits that her immediate family was not devout, she speaks of her childhood faith in such a way as to suggest that it still has an effect on how she conducts her life. At the very least, it’s affected how she handles members of the opposite sex. She says: "I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 17. I grew up in a Southern Baptist family. It was more my grandparents. My mother is a Christian but it was just like she…It wasn’t like they went to church all the time and were really strict but, you know, my mom was very much a good girl and I was raised [that way as well]."

Politics

During Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Lively filmed a political ad in support of his presidency via perhaps the most explicitly liberal organization in America-MoveOn. The video is hilarious. It’s set up like an intervention, likening voting Republican to being a drug addict, with lines like: "Voting Republican even once can have disastrous effects that last for years." Lively herself wraps up the video with: "And if you’re ever out somewhere and you’re considering voting McCain, just call me. I’ll pick you up, no questions asked."

Views

Blake is a passionate voice for the international Child Rescue Coalition, an organization dedicated to combating child pornography, convicting the perpetrators and helping children who have been abused by them. Blake herself made an emotional speech at Variety's 2017 Power of Women lunch highlighting how prevalent this form of child abuse has become, and what Child Rescue Coalition is doing to fight it.

Quotations: "With acting, I think half of it is just acting confident. We stand on these red carpets and pose in these dresses, but we're all only so confident. It doesn't mean we think we're great looking or anything. It's all a façade."

"I'm not in the business of trying to win the approval of my cast members, my director, or my audience. If I were, I'd be so beaten down by insecurity that I'd never be able to perform. The only person I'm trying to prove something to is myself."

"I just don't believe that things are that simple in life. I think certain people are the way they are for certain reasons that we can't necessarily judge without knowing."

Personality

Blake is known for her flawless style and she says some of her style icons include Audrey Hepburn and Kate Moss. Blake's favorite movies include Waiting for Guffman, Wizard of Oz, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo and Juliet.

Despite playing a party girl in films like The Town and Savages, Lively told Vogue that she has never had a drink in her life. But she has broken the law: She sneaks spices in from other countries by hiding them in teddy bears. "I'm always traveling, and I get so excited when I find a new spice or a new sauce," Lively once said. "This is absolutely crazy, but I wanted a sauce from New Orleans, and they wouldn't send it because the Food and Drug Administration didn't approve it. I called the restaurant and I said, "Okay, can you buy a teddy bear and cut it open and put it in and send it?" They're like, ‘No, we are not the drug cartel; we’re not sending you your sweet-potato sauce in a teddy bear.’ "

Lively plays Guitar Hero competitively and her gaming skill was even written into a season-one episode of Gossip Girl. Two years prior to meeting now-husband Reynolds on the set of Green Lantern, Lively revealed that she was looking for a romantic partner who shared her love for the video game.

Interests

• cooking, video games

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Artists

  Marc Jacobs, Phillip Lim, Chloé, Chanel

• Music & Bands

  Beyoncé, Florence Welch, Dolly Parton, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Ray Charles

Connections

Lively is currently married to actor Ryan Reynolds. After they started dating in 2011, Lively and Reynolds quickly became inseparable. They bought a home together in upstate New York, in April 2012. Managing to keep their plans hidden from the media, the pair married in a special ceremony on September 9, 2012, near Charleston, South Carolina. About 70 guests attended the couple's nuptials held at Boone Hall Plantation. Lively's friend, singer Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, performed at the reception. Before dating and marrying Reynolds, she had been previously linked to actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In December 2014, Reynolds and Lively welcomed their first child, a daughter they named James. In September 2016, the couple celebrated the birth of their second daughter, Ines.

In May 2019, Lively revealed that she was expecting the couple's third child when she debuted her baby bump while walking the red carpet at the premiere of Reynolds' film Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. Keeping personal matters under wraps once again, she gave birth that summer, although the news wasn't reported until early October.

Father:

Ernie Lively

Blake followed in her father's footsteps to become an actress.

Mother:

Elaine Lively

Spouse:

Ryan Reynolds

Blake and Ryan met in early 2010 when they were both cast in Green Lantern. At the time, Blake was dating her Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley and Ryan had been married to actress Scarlett Johansson since 2008. In September 2010, Blake and Penn split but remain good friends, and in December 2010 Ryan and Scarlett release a statement announcing the end of their marriage. In 2011, Ryan flew from his home in Boston to visit Blake, who was filming Gossip Girl, in New York and shortly after they confirmed they were boyfriend-girlfriend.

O 9 September 2012, the couple were married at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Brother:

Eric Lively

Eric Lively is an American former actor. He played the role of Andy Evans in Speak.

half-sister:

Lori Lively

half-sister:

Robyn Lively

Lively is known for her role in the film Teen Witch, as well as for her roles in the TV shows Doogie Howser, M.D., Twin Peaks, Savannah, and Saving Grace.

Half-brother:

Jason Lively

Daughter:

James Reynolds

Daughter:

Inez Reynolds

ex-boyfriend:

Leonardo DiCaprio

colleague:

Keanu Reeves

colleague:

Winona Ryder

Friend:

Taylor Swift

colleague:

Sebastian Stan

colleague:

Harrison Ford

colleague:

Anna Kendrick

colleague:

Jesse Eisenberg

colleague:

Peter Sarsgaard

colleague:

Chloë Moretz

colleague:

Eddie Redmayne

References

• Blake Lively on Instagram
• Blake Lively on Twitter