
Birthdate: Mar 25, 1992
Birthplace: Williamson County, Texas, USA
A busy actor in network and streaming television since 2014 when she debuted in the ABC series, Once Upon a Time (2014-2015), Elizabeth Lail (birthname: Elizabeth Dean Lail) landed her biggest role to date in Mack & Rita (2022), in which she co-starred as Mack to Diane Keaton’s Rita. Lail’s feature debut was as the lead in writer-director Anja Murmann’s low-budget drama about recovered memory, Unintended (2018), with Hannah Westerfield and Nathan Keyes.
Lail starred in her second feature, writer-director Justin Dec’s high-tech horror film, Countdown (2019), with Jordan Calloway, Talitha Bateman, and Peter Facinelli. The low-budget movie proved very profitable, earning $48 million, eight times its costs. Lail had a major supporting role in actor Patricia Arquette’s debut as director/producer, Gonzo Girl (2023), adapted from Cheryl Della Pietra’s 2015 novel by screenwriters Rebecca Thomas and Jessica Caldwell, co-starring Camila Morrone, Willem Dafoe and Arquette, and which launched at the Toronto Film Festival and then re-launched in a new so-called “American cut” by Arquette at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.
Lail had her biggest exposure to date by landing the co-starring role in the hit horror movie backed by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions, Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023), co-starring Josh Hutcherson, with Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, Matthew Lillard and Mary Stuart Masterson under Emma Tammi’s direction, and whose terrific global gross of nearly $292 million gave the green light for Blumhouse and distributor Universal Pictures to make the sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2025), with Lail again co-starring with Hutcherson under Tammi’s direction, and with new cast members Wayne Knight, Teo Briones, Mckenna Grace, Skeet Ulrich and Megan Fox.
Born in the Texas county of Williamson, Elizabeth Lail was raised in Asheboro, North Carolina by parents Dean and Kay Lail. Her sister is Kathryn Lail. Elizabeth Lail graduated from Asheboro High School in 2009 and attended and graduated (in 2014) from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she acted in student-produced short films. Lail moved to New York City after graduation to pursue acting roles in the theater. Her career began in television, with the ABC series, Once Upon a Time. Lail has been married to Nieku Manshadi since 2021.
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Lost Role: A year after finishing college, Elizabeth Lail won a plum role in David Fincher’s proposed series for HBO, Video Synchronicity. The show, however, was canceled by the network before it went into production.
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