Lindsay Dee Lohan ( LOH-ən; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, and producer. She was signed to Ford Models at the age of three, and gained early recognition as a child actress on the soap operas Guiding Light (1993) and Another World (1996–1997). Her breakthrough role came with the dual role of reunited identical twins in the Walt Disney comedy The Parent Trap (1998); its success led to subsequent roles in Life-Size (2000), Get a Clue (2002), Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004). Her portrayal of Cady Heron in the teen comedy Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol and established her as a prominent leading lady; The New Yorker later ranked it as the eleventh-best film performance of the 21st century.
Lohan signed with Casablanca Records and released two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). She also starred in the comedies Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) and Just My Luck (2006). To show her range, Lohan began choosing roles in independent films such as A Prairie Home Companion and Bobby (both 2006) and Chapter 27 (2007). Her behavior during the filming of the 2006 dramedy Georgia Rule marked the beginning of personal struggles that plagued her life and career for nearly a decade, making her a fixture in the tabloid press due to legal issues and rehabilitation stints. In an attempt to return to acting, she appeared in Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012) and The Canyons (2013).
Guided by Oprah Winfrey, Lohan was the subject of the docu-series Lindsay (2014). She made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014), and appeared in the comedy series Sick Note (2018). Lohan starred in the Netflix romantic comedies Falling for Christmas (2022), Irish Wish (2024) and Our Little Secret (2024), which she followed with Freakier Friday (2025).
Lohan's accolades include three MTV Movie & TV Awards, in addition to nominations for three Critics' Choice Movie Awards, a Saturn Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Outside entertainment, Lohan launched a clothing line in 2008, and several clubs in Greece between 2016 and 2018. She appeared on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list from 2004 to 2005. People has named her among the most beautiful women in the world four times, most recently in 2024. In 2007, Maxim ranked her number one on their annual ranking of the world's most desirable women. Lohan is married and has one son.
Lindsay Dee Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina (née Sullivan) and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions. Her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with her in The Parent Trap in 1998, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. The siblings are of Irish and Italian heritage, and were raised Catholic. Their maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts", and their great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when she was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Early career and breakthrough (1989–2002)
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. One her first roles was playing Chrissie in a 1993 episode of the television soap opera Guiding Light. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played the dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney.
At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles. Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002.
Rise to prominence (2003–2005)
In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, as of 2015, it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Her role required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. She recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her, and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media, later becoming the basis of her debut single "Rumors". Following the film, which was scripted by former Saturday Night Live writer-actress Tina Fey and featured several Saturday Night Live performers, Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards.