Emilie de Ravin

"Emilie took the character of Belle to a deep and soulful place, bringing great intelligence and warmth to the character, making her fiercely independent, strong willed but also an eternal optimist who saw only the best in all those she encountered."

- Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz on Emilie de Ravin src

Emilie de Ravin is the Australian actress who portrays Belle and Belle French on ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Biography
Emilie de Ravin was born on December 27, 1981 in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Eliza, Victoria. Her father is of French ancestry. She has two older half-sisters. Studying ballet since nine years old, she was accepted to the renowned Australian Ballet School at fifteen. As a student, Emilie performed in several school productions and at the dance training institute Danceworld 301.

In 1999, Emilie decided to get into more of the theatrical side of performance art and gave herself two months to try out acting. From this, she procured her first professional acting part was the recurring role of a scantily-clad villainess on the campy Australian television series BeastMaster series. In December of the same year, she, with the support of her parents and sisters, went to Hollywood to seek out an agent. After having done so, she returned home and received a call from a 20-Century casting director, who had seen her on Beastmaster and requested she show up for an audition. Moving to Los Angeles in February, Emilie actively looked for work while studying with Prime Time Actors Studio. In her first week of auditions, she landed the part of Tess Harding on the science fiction television series ''Roswell. ''

After the series ended, Emilie tackled television guest spots before signing on to Lost as a pregnant, plane-wrecked beauty. While it was tough to get screen time on the sprawling ensemble show, she was a frequent focal point. But she also made the most of her hiatuses, appearing in several movies, including the critically acclaimed indie Brick, the remake of The Hills Have Eyes and the romantic drama Remember Me.

She met American actor Josh Janowicz in Los Angeles during 2002, and after dating for three years, he proposed her on New Year's Day in Melbourne in 2005. They married in 2005 and later divorced in 2014. Emilie and her boyfriend, Eric Bilitch, have one daughter, Vera Audrey de Ravin-Bilitch. She was born on March 12, 2016.

On May 12, 2017, it was announced that Emilie would be exiting the series for its seventh season.

Trivia

 * Her favorite Once Upon a Time episode is "Skin Deep".
 * Is allergic to peanuts.
 * Owns a pet poodle named Bella.
 * Belle's blue dress in "The Crocodile" was worn by Emilie again at the Emporio Armani New York Flagship Opening on in September 2012.
 * During her appearance in the Once Upon a Time episodes "Lost Girl", "Nasty Habits" and "Ariel", Emilie portrayed Belle as the disguised form of the Shadow.
 * If she were to portray any other character, Emilie would choose Rumplestiltskin.
 * Belle was put under a Sleeping Curse in "Ruby Slippers", so that Emilie could go on maternity leave.
 * For the first two years on Once Upon a Time, Emilie dyed her hair. She stopped after finding it annoying.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.