Lily Gladstone is a respected Native American actor from Montana who has become famous around the world for her powerful movie roles. She was born on August 2, 1986, in Kalispell, Montana, and grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation near Browning before moving to the Seattle area when she was in middle school.

As a child, Lily loved stories and performing. One of her first acting experiences was with the Missoula Children's Theatre, where she played an evil stepsister in the play "Cinderella." In Seattle she joined a youth theater group called Stone Soup Theatre, acting in school plays and student films while she learned more about acting.

Lily later went to the University of Montana, where she studied acting and performed in many plays before graduating in 2008. After college, she not only acted but also taught acting workshops in Native communities and worked with groups that help Native women and children.

Her big break in movies came in 2016, when she played Jamie, a quiet ranch hand, in the film "Certain Women," a role that won her several important critics' awards and nominations. In 2023 she became even more widely known for playing Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in the movie "Killers of the Flower Moon," directed by Martin Scorsese. For this role she earned many honors and more people learned about Native stories and history.

In January 2024 Lily Gladstone made history when she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, becoming the first Indigenous (Native American) person ever to win an acting Golden Globe. She was also the first Native American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the first Indigenous actor to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for best female actor in a leading role. Today, Lily Gladstone continues to act in movies and television and inspires many Native and non-Native kids by showing that their stories matter and can be shared on big and small screens.