Lily Gladstone Bio
Lily Catherine Gladstone, born on August 2, 1986, in Kalispell, Montana, is an American actress recognized for grounded, culturally rooted performances across independent and major studio productions. Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana, Gladstone is of Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce, and European heritage, and she brings these layered identities into every role she plays. Her portrayal of Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) brought her international recognition, a Golden Globe win, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Gladstone’s career spans intimate independent dramas, television series, and large-scale historical epics, reflecting her commitment to complex Indigenous storytelling. She is widely noted as a leading voice for Native American representation in contemporary cinema.
Early Life and Background
Lily Catherine Gladstone was born in Kalispell, Montana, and grew up primarily on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning. Her father is of Piegan Blackfeet (Siksikaitsitapi) and Nez Perce (Nimíipuu) ancestry, while her mother is of European heritage. Among her paternal ancestors is Kainai Nation chief Red Crow, and she is a descendant of a first cousin of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. These family connections shaped her sense of identity and cultural responsibility from an early age.
Her interest in acting began at age five after watching Return of the Jedi, when she became determined to portray an Ewok on screen. Her first stage experience came when the Missoula Children’s Theatre visited her East Glacier, Montana, hometown and cast her as an evil stepsister in Cinderella. Her family later relocated to the Seattle area so she could be closer to her grandmother, and she enrolled at Stone Soup Theatre, a nonprofit educational company for Seattle youth.
She graduated from Mountlake Terrace High School in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, in 2004. Gladstone went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Directing, along with a minor in Native American Studies, from the University of Montana in 2008. At the University of Montana, she became involved with Theatre of the Oppressed and performed in Riders to the Sea, Richard III, Miss Julie, and Coyote on a Fence.
Path to Acting
Following her graduation from the University of Montana, Lily Catherine Gladstone returned to her Native community to teach acting workshops and violence-prevention classes. She developed an image-theatre method she called a sculpture garden, sponsored by the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. In 2010, she performed in The Frybread Queen, a co-production by Native Voices at the Autry, the University of Montana School of Theatre and Dance, and the Montana Repertory Theatre.
Gladstone also built her craft through regional theater work, including a national touring production of The Miracle Worker with the Montana Repertory Theatre in 2014. In 2017, she joined the acting company of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and, in 2020, starred in the Yale Repertory Theatre production of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Manahatta.
Her early professional momentum was strengthened by hosting a film-production series on the educational YouTube channel Crash Course. These formative experiences gave her a steady footing before her transition into feature film work in 2012.
Lily Gladstone Career
Early Career (2012–2022)
Lily Catherine Gladstone made her feature film debut in Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian in 2012. She continued with supporting roles in Winter in the Blood (2012) and Buster’s Mal Heart (2016), steadily building a reputation for quiet intensity and naturalistic presence. Her career breakthrough came with the role of Jamie, a lonely rancher in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women (2016).
The performance earned her the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also received nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female and the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor. Her subsequent collaborations with Reichardt included First Cow (2019), and her starring role in The Unknown Country (2022) won her the Gotham Independent Film Award for Outstanding Lead Performance.
Breakthrough (2023–2024)
In 2023, Lily Catherine Gladstone was cast in the lead role of Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, released theatrically in October 2023. Critics widely praised her portrayal of an Osage woman surviving the Osage Indian murders, with /Film’s Josh Spiegel highlighting how she brought Mollie to life with incredible passion. In January 2024, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, becoming the first Indigenous person to win an acting Golden Globe.
That same awards season, Gladstone became the first Native American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In February 2024, she also became the first Indigenous actor to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Female Actor. Earlier in 2023, she starred in Fancy Dance, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed worldwide by Apple TV+.
In 2024, Gladstone starred in the crime drama miniseries Under the Bridge, about the murder of Reena Virk, earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. That year she also appeared in Jazzy, written and directed by Morrisa Maltz, and began filming The Wedding Banquet. In May 2024, she served on the main competition jury at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and in June 2024 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In October 2024, it was announced she would join Sharon Stone in the comedy film In Memoriam.
Notable Works and Milestones
Gladstone’s signature work remains Mollie Kyle in Killers of the Flower Moon, a role that earned her a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination. She is also widely recognized for Certain Women, First Cow, The Unknown Country, and the miniseries Under the Bridge. Her awards trajectory includes Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, Gotham, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Boston Society of Film Critics honors.
Lily Gladstone Award Nominations
Lily Catherine Gladstone has earned recognition from major industry organizations throughout her career, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and the Television Academy. Among her verified nominations are the Academy Award for Best Actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Under the Bridge, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for Certain Women, and the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor for the same role.
Lily Gladstone Awards Won
Gladstone has collected major awards for her film work, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Female Actor, the Gotham Independent Film Award for Outstanding Lead Performance, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Personal Life
Lily Catherine Gladstone goes by both she and they pronouns, a practice she has linked to decolonizing gender, since most Indigenous languages, including Blackfeet, lack gendered pronouns. She has described herself as middle-gendered and a member of the LGBTQ community. In 2025, she shared that she cannot put a label on her sexual orientation, identifying as queer, pansexual, straight, and demisexual. Gladstone is a signatory of the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge published in September 2025.
