The 1990's have been a tremendous surge in independent film production, and the counter-Hollywood revolution has brought with it a whole new set of celebrities. The indie arena is seen as one in which actors, actresses and directors are free to create and perform without the monetary and demographic concerns of Hollywood. Of this new set of talented individuals, Lili Taylor stands apart as one of the best. She has entertained with one thought-provoking performance after another.

Lili was born February 20th, 1967, in Glencoe, Illinois. She was one of six children, divided with perfect symmetry into three boys and three girls. Lili was the second youngest. She grew up a tomboy, with a very physical and intense nature. She has commented in the past on how her appearance affected her childhood, and that in high school, she was not found very attractive. She has likened her high school experience to what she sees in Hollywood. Her parents, Park and Marie, made a comfortable living and Lili grew up in a warm family environment.

Lili started acting in Grade School and hasn't stopped since. In high school, drama was her salvation, Taylor also worked in the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, whose alumni include siblings John and Joan Cusack, Aidan Quinn and Jeremy Piven. She would attend Goodman Theatre School at DePaul University shortly hereafter, but not for very long. The school had a stipulation that students could not get paid to act while attending, so Lili chose to drop out.

Her first starring role was in Mystic Pizza, which also marked an early debut by a little known actress (at least back then!) named Julia Roberts. After Mystic, she went on to star in a number of films, but never quite managed to leave her mark. She soon turned to smaller pictures for her work and excelled. Now that small, intelligent pictures are going through a wave of popularity, so is Lili Taylor- although this wave shows no signs of subsiding.