The relevation that Julia wanted to act wasn't all that surprising; she was an imaginative child who, in addition to usual games of make believe, enjoyed roping her friends and her peers into self-created plays for the doting neighborhood parents. Her interest in other activities never quite matched her instinct toward showmanship. On the other hand, for a girl from suburban St. Petersburg, a break into Hollywood could have been a far off impossibility. However, Julia was lucky enough to have an uncle working in Los Angeles as a casting director, and once her desire to act professionally was known, she was able to bypass most of the harder steps and casting calls in Orlando, getting cast almost immediately as the younger sister in an upcoming sitcom, Raising Dad. For Julia's parents, their fears of what a toxic environment the entertainment industry could be was assuaged by the fact that Julia was living with family still who would look out for her, and Julia herself wanted this very strongly. For Julia, the opportunity to act professionally was not yet clouded by concerns about nepotism, a word she didn't even know of at the age of ten.
Raising Dad was a very short-lived venture for Julia, and by the spring of 2002 she was once again out of work. She filled the experience with commercial work, mostly, and a focus on school until she was cast a year later as Kaitlin Cooper, the younger sister of one of the main characters on The O.C.. Julia's stint as the youngest Cooper only lasted one season, and when she was sent off and subsequently replaced, she decided to return to Florida to finish up her high school career. While she definitely had the eye on the prize about returning to the screen one day, Julia also enjoyed the chance to experience things as a normal teenager, even running up in her Homecoming court both sophomore and junior years. Toward the end of her high school career, Julia was offered the chance by her uncle to audition for a vampire movie based on a book that was semi-popular among her friends. Despite a small amount of familiarity with the book, Julia was certain that she'd be auditioning for a small, even independent film adaption -- and at seventeen years old was wholly unprepared the immediate backlash fans had to her casting as Alice Cullen, citing her lack of resemblance to their vision of the character and, not entirely unfairly, crying nepotism (a word she then knew).
Still, Julia decided to follow through with the opportunity presented to her, signing out of school in March of 2008 to relocate temporarily to Portland with the other young cast. After Twilight had wrapped, Julia had already secured a second job as a supporting role in Tanner Hall. Over the next few years, Twilight's success and fandom reached an all time high; being so young and receiving that level of success so rapidly meant Julia may have enjoyed it a little too much at times, but god knew she didn't want to peak in her career as Alice Cullen in a movie franchise so ridiculous. Between productions, Julia sought out challenging roles that would help establish her as an actress to be taken seriously. While some casting directors were willing to take a chance on her, many, many more were not. Towards the end of the production on the last two Twilight films, Julia decided to return to TV after being offered the role of laconic mean girl Dalia Royce on ABC's Suburgatory, offering her a chance to both work consistently and with a number of comedians and actors who she respected.
Despite Suburgatory's lack of high ratings, it nevertheless did well with the critics and lasted three seasons before a somewhat abrupt cancelation. Julia decided to remain amenable to one day returning to TV again, as her experiences had been largely positive, but set her sights on tackling a new challenge: Broadway. After taking some time off from hectic, back-to-back shooting schedules, Julia joined the cast of Cabaret as the second Sally Bowles in the revival's limited run. Although the critiques that her voice was too thin and brittle to carry a Broadway production were definitely valid, her performance was largely praised as electric, with Julia channeling her desire to prove herself as worthy of being on that stage, even at that table so to speak, night every night. Once her engagement with Cabaret was through, Julia landed the role of Darlene on a new USA drama, Mr. Robot. From start to finish, Julia's casting was fraught with tension -- from the network, which wanted to axe the character first, from the series creator who wanted to cast someone who wasn't known for cheesy teen franchises or absurd network comedy, from her own team who didn't think USA's usual fare was the right course for someone on her sort of trajectory. But Julia -- having devoured the script from the moment she read it -- was determined to take part in the show in some capacity. And once it premiered, it was apparent that she had made the right call.
Currently, Julia is about to begin production on Mr. Robot's anticipated second season and has become something of a workaholic. Despite the fact that many would say that she's earned the film industry's respect by shedding the stigma of Twilight; but for the majority of the public, she's still Alice Cullen, and she's still only there because she has a relative that helped get her there, and she's still trying to prove them all wrong.
» Semi-decent at accent work, but can slip into Dalia's exaggerated vocal fry any time.
» Although working in NYC a fair bit, Julia only owns property in Los Angeles, and tends to crash with friends when she has to work on the east coast.
» Surname is pronounced Lie-singer, not lay-singer.
» Has three tattoos: the lyrics to Wild Horses located on the back of her neck (the Stones are one of her favorite bands), a Dopamine molecule located on her inner wrist (her family has a history of clinical depression), and the Libra constellation above her ankle for obvious reasons.
