Lily Brooks O'Briant

Lily Brooks O'Briant is an American actress and singer born on July 10, 2006, in Memphis, Tennessee. She is recognized for her role as Ella McCaffrey on the Apple TV+ series Life by Ella and for her work in the touring production of the musical Matilda, in which she played the title character. Her Broadway credits include Matilda The Musical, with her involvement in the production dating to 2015.

O'Briant's on-screen career began at age eight with the film Shark Lake, directed by Jerry Dugan with a reported budget of $2 million. Filming commenced in January 2015, and she appeared alongside Dolph Lundgren, portraying Carly Gray, the daughter of Lundgren's character Clint, a black market dealer whose actions result in a dangerous shark being released into Lake Tahoe. That same year, she was cast as the lead in the US touring production of Matilda, traveling across the country in the role through much of 2016.

Following the Matilda tour, O'Briant accumulated credits in short films between 2016 and 2018. Among these was Marina, in which she played the lead role of a young girl born with spinal muscular atrophy. Her performance earned three Best Young Actress awards in 2018: a Wasserman Award, a New York City Independent Film Festival Award, and a Five Continents Film Festival Award. She also received a nomination in a comparable category at the Utah Film Awards and was honored for the short film Presentation at the Independent Shorts Awards. In 2018, she additionally began voicing the character Birdie Anders in the podcast Six Minutes.

In 2019, O'Briant secured a role in the Amazon series The Tick and joined the lead cast of the Netflix production The Big Show Show, playing Mandy Wight, the middle child of WWE superstar Paul Wight. The series premiered on April 6, 2020. That same year, she recorded remotely for the musical The Perfect Fit, a production by Joshua Turchin featuring Laura Benanti among its cast. Her relocation to Los Angeles coincided with her casting in The Big Show Show.

O'Briant landed the lead role on the Apple TV+ series Life by Ella in 2021, with the show premiering on September 2, 2022. The series follows teenager Ella McCaffrey as she returns to middle school after battling cancer and pursues a more fearless approach to life. In January 2023, it was announced that she had joined the cast of the daytime drama The Young and the Restless in the role of Lucy Romalotti. On September 9, 2022, she released her debut single, Slow, on Apple Music and Spotify.