Portrait of Lily James

Birthday profile

Lily James

Lily James, English actress

Born
April 5, 1989
Age in 2026
37
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1989

About Lily James

Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson (born 5 April 1989), known professionally as Lily James, is an English actress. She studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and began her career in the British television series Just William (2010). Following a supporting role in the period drama series Downton Abbey (2012–2015), her breakthrough was the title role in the fantasy film Cinderella (2015). James went on to portray Natasha Rostova in the television adaptation of War & Peace (2016) and starred in several films, including the action film Baby Driver (2017); the period dramas Darkest Hour (2017), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018) and The Dig (2021); the musicals Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) and Yesterday (2019); and the sports drama The Iron Claw (2023). Her portrayal of Pamela Anderson in the biographical series Pam & Tommy (2022) earned her nominations for a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award. She took her father's first name as her stage name when she learned there was already an actress named Lily Thomson.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Lily James was born

Lily James was born in 1989. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1989

  • #1 song"Look Away" – Chicago
  • Top movieDriving Miss Daisy
  • Top TV showRoseanne
  • Best-selling bookThe Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentSan Francisco earthquake interrupts the World Series
  • Top headlineFall of the Berlin Wall signals end of the Cold War
  • Technology milestoneWorld Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee
  • Defining fadGame Boy
  • Notable inventionGame Boy
  • World population5.19 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderGeorge H.W. Bush
  • Sports championOakland Athletics (World Series)
  • Also wonDetroit Pistons (NBA)
  • U.S. population246.8M

1989 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Lily James's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19892026
Gas$1.02$3.45/gal
Average home$93,100$435,000
Average income$34,213$67,500
Minimum wage$3.35$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$3.97$11.95
Postage stamp$0.25$0.73
Population246.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.