Lily Virginia Filson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised some years with her family in Europe, between Venice and Paris. She attended high school and college in New Orleans, acting in musical and dramatic theater with Newman Players and Tulane Lyric respectively. She lived in Florence, Italy during summers in high school and for a year before starting Tulane University. In college, she studied Arabic language in programs in Morocco and Yemen, and after graduating, she was awarded the Florence fellowship by Syracuse University to pursue a Master's degree in Art History in Italy.

Lily got her start in film while she was in Italy with a supporting role in an independent film (Black Taipan) and as an American secretary in Giovanni Veronesi's Un Giorno di Piu'. She also attended the 67th Venice Film Festival with StyleStar Lounge as a promotional model. Lily returned to New Orleans in 2010 and began to work as a model and actress. Her first booking was for AfterDark Education's Photography Convention and later was published in Ballyhoo View and Scene Magazine and seen on the runway during Fashion Week New Orleans and Alegria!. In "Hollywood South," one of her first experiences was a scene with Forest Whitaker in the upcoming film Freelancers.

In 2011, Lily returned to Italy this time to model, including bridal fashion in Venice with renowned photographer Ron Soliman, another Venetian shoot with Super Catwalk Agency out of London, a fashion shoot in Florence for Effervescent Media, and a fashion calendar shoot for Mumbai-based Bollywood photographer Saurabh Arora. In the fall she returned to New Orleans, signed with Wilhelmina Brown Agency, and resumed film and photo work in her hometown's growing industry.