Emilie de Ravin

Emilie de Ravin (/ˈɛməli də ˈrævɪn/; born 27 December 1981) is an Australian actress. She first gained recognition for playing Tess Harding on The WB's science fiction television series Roswell (2000–2002). She went on to portray Claire Littleton on the ABC drama series Lost (2004–2008, 2010), and Belle on the ABC fantasy adventure series Once Upon a Time (2011–2018). De Ravin's film credits include Santa's Slay (2005), The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Ball Don't Lie (2008), Brick (2005), Public Enemies (2009) and Remember Me (2010).

De Ravin was born in Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia, an outer southeastern suburb of Melbourne. She has French ancestry. Having studied ballet since the age of nine at Christa Cameron School of Ballet in Melbourne, and being home schooled by her mother, she was accepted into the Australian Ballet School at fifteen, where she performed in productions with The Australian Ballet as well as Danceworld 301.

She studied acting at Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, and with the Prime Time Actors Studio in Los Angeles.

De Ravin's first major role was a recurring part as Curupira in the supernatural series Beastmaster. She went on to appear as alien/human hybrid Tess Harding in The WB's teen television series, Roswell (2000–2002). She landed this role one month after moving to Los Angeles at the age of 18. E! Online described Roswell as "one of the first shows to develop a passionate and engaged online fanbase, with active fan sites, message boards and even campaigns that helped save the show from cancellation—twice."

In 2004, de Ravin was cast to portray Claire Littleton on the ABC drama series Lost. Speaking about the success of Lost, she said: "It's sort of hard to say. You read something and have a good feeling about it, it sounds great, ties nicely together and then shooting something, editing it, the music, the actors involved, everything sort of plays a huge part. Everyone involved had a great feeling towards it, but you never really know." De Ravin's character Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant plane crash survivor. She is a series regular until her disappearance in the fourth season finale. The character returned as a regular in the sixth season. Lost has regularly been ranked by critics as one of the greatest television series of all time. The first season had an estimated average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC, while the final season averaged over 11 million U.S. viewers per episode.

In 2005, de Ravin was cast to portray Emily Kostich, the heroin-addicted ex-girlfriend of Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), in the neo-noir film Brick. In an interview about the film, de Ravin told that she was attracted by the script because it was original and the teens in the film are very deep and emotional for their age.

A year later, de Ravin had a lead role and was cast as Brenda Carter in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. The film performed well at the box office. In 2007, Variety reported that she would be starring in the film Ball Don't Lie, which premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, which arrived in cinemas early 2009. De Ravin appeared in William Dear's The Perfect Game, and appeared in the 2009 film Public Enemies as a bank teller named Barbara Patzke.

De Ravin was cast in the movie adaption of the video game Onimusha, but due to producer Samuel Hadida's other project The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and star Heath Ledger's death, Hadida was forced to push back the release date of the film. Onimusha was postponed for an unknown amount of time and eventually cancelled; there was not any confirmation if de Ravin would continue the project. She portrayed Alyssa "Ally" Craig in the romantic drama film Remember Me (2010) opposite Robert Pattinson. The film received its wide release on 12 March 2010. Remember Me accumulated $56 million at the worldwide box office.