Lily Holleman is deceptive. To see Lily's work opposite her childhood hero Tracey Ullman in the Showtime series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (2008)(four episodes in the show's first three seasons), or on the Oxygen series Campus Ladies (2006), Lewis Black's Root of All Evil (2008) on Comedy Central, or on the Disney Channel's Sonny (2009), is to be certain that she was born to play comedy. Then you see her as the earnest, compassionate and spirited best friend of Nikki Blonsky in the Lifetime movie Une taille de reine (2008)(also starring Annie Potts), or in a recurring guest-star role as the recovered meth addict and unwed mother fighting for the right to keep her child in John Wells' NBC/TNT police drama Southland (2009), and you begin to realize the range that Lily Holleman possesses. And Lily's feature film work further demonstrates that it's impossible to categorize her. In the college comedy Tenure (2008)(starring Luke Wilson and Gretchen Mol), Lily plays a lovely, enthusiastic coed. In How I Got Lost (2009), a film festival favorite starring Aaron Stanford and Rosemarie DeWitt, Lily plays the tough-as-nails proprietor of a rural gas station.
Los Angeles theatre audiences know that every time you think you have Lily Holleman figured out, she surprises you. The wide-eyed, teen-aged, pregnant waif "Jewel" in the Boston Court's "Bleed Rail" (for which Lily earned both Ovation and LA Weekly award nominations) might seem like the role she was born to play, but then you go to another theatre across town and see "All About Walken" and you quickly change your mind. Lily has played the Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken before sold-out audiences for five years. Her performance is hilarious. And truth be told, it's also somewhat disturbing. When director Sam Gold and playwright Annie Baker brought their Obie-winning Off-Broadway sensation "Circle Mirror Transformation" to Southern California's South Coast Rep, Lily played the pivotal role of "Lauren".
Currently, Lily can be seen playing the lead in the award-winning independent film @urFRENZ (2010). Since its premiere at Slamdance, the film has earned Lily rave reviews (Variety described her performance as "iconic") and numerous awards, including both the "Rising Star" and "Best Actress" awards from Method Fest. In theatres starting September 23, @urFRENZ (2010) becomes available on V.O.D. October 1st. In October, Lily will be back on-stage at South Coast Rep, co-starring in a revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful. Most recently, Lily recorded a pilot presentation for the proposed animated series "Captain Daddy", for which the cast includes Fred Willard, Edward Asner and Traci Lords, and for which Lily also sings the title song.
A native of Washington, D.C., and a graduate of the prestigious National Cathedral School, Lily attended Washington and Lee University, where she earned a degree in Art History and won the John Graham Award in Fine Arts (given annually to the student contributing the most to theater, studio art, music, and art history). When you first see Lily Holleman, you might be deceived about the kind of character and performance you're liable to get from her. Unless, of course, what you see when you look at her is ferocity, integrity, innate decency and an insatiable appetite for exploration. If it is, then on second thought, Lily Holleman might not be that deceptive after all.
