Hilary Duff
American actress and singer (born 1987)
Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, singer-songwriter, businesswoman, and author. Duff began her acting career at a young age, and was soon labeled a teen idol after playing the title character in the Disney Channel comedy series Lizzie McGuire (2001–2004) and the film based on the series, The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003). Thereafter, she appeared in numerous mainstream films such as Cadet Kelly (2002), Agent Cody Banks (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), A Cinderella Story (2004), and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005).
In 2026, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
She also appeared in independent films playing a wider range of adult-themed roles, such as War, Inc. (2008), According to Greta (2009), Bloodworth (2011), and The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019). Duff starred as Kelsey Peters in TV Land's longest-running original series Younger (2015–2021) which earned her award nominations, and produced and starred as Sophie Tompkins in the Emmy-winning Hulu sitcom How I Met Your Father (2022–2023).
In 2002, Duff entered the music industry, and her debut studio album, the Christmas-themed Santa Claus Lane, was released that year through Walt Disney Records. Duff later signed with Hollywood Records and achieved greater success with her second album, Metamorphosis (2003), which topped the Billboard 200 chart and earned a 4× Platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She also enjoyed significant commercial success with her subsequent albums, Hilary Duff (2004) and Dignity (2007), as well as the 2005 compilation Most Wanted which all went to be certified platinum and gold.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Hilary Duff” is american actress and singer (born 1987). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hilary, Duff and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american actress and singer (born 1987)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122020. VIAF identifies the subject as 45407916. The Library of Congress control number is n2003036151. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987, 2001, 2004 and 2003.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Hilary Duff”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Hilary Duff primary sources, Hilary Duff archive and Hilary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Hilary Duff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.