Actress Alyson Hannigan spent nearly a decade portraying Lily Aldrin on How I Met Your Mother, but the CBS sitcom wouldn't be the end of her career on the small screen. Hannigan booked the role of Lily in 2005,but she was already an established actress before that point. She started her career in the late '80s and appeared in a number of small roles before acquiring the series regular role of Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997 to 2003. In that time, Hannigan worked on a number of movies including 1999's American Pie and its two sequels. Playing Lily on How I Met Your Mother would be her biggest role to date.
While serving as one of the main characters on How I Met Your Mother, Hannigan continued to work on other projects. She primarily voiced characters on shows such as The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, and American Dad! while also portraying Trina Echolls on Veronica Mars. Hannigan also appeared in a handful of films including Date Movie, Farce of the Penguins, and Love, Wedding, Marriage. She also reprised her role as Michelle for the fourth movie in the American Pie franchise, American Reunion, in 2012.
Following How I Met Your Mother's ending in 2014, Hannigan quickly returned to CBS for a guest role in The McCarthys. The actress then spent time on the TV shows, The First Wives Club, Man of the House, and Fancy Nancy. As for movie roles, Hannigan appeared in Do You Take This Man and the meta slasher film, You Might Be the Killer. The latter debuted at various festivals but can be found of Shudder's streaming service.
More recently, Hannigan appeared in the live-action film adaptation of Disney Channel's Kim Possible. The actress portrayed Dr. Ann Possible, Kim's brain surgeon mother in the film that debuted in February 2019. Hannigan also starred in the second season of the Canadian drama, Pure, in the role of Esther Dunkel. The series aired on CBC and Super Channel in Canada and WGN in the United States.
The How I Met Your Mother star has two projects on tap for 2020. First up is playing Mary Stauffer in the film, 53 Days: The Abduction of Mary Stauffer. The actress will then appear in Disney+'s upcoming movie, Flora & Ulysses, directed by Lena Khan. The family movie follows a young girl named Flora who adopts a squirrel who happens to possess superpowers. The project is based on the book by author Kate DiCamillo and will also star Ben Schwartz, Matilda Lawler, Benjamin Evans, and Danny Pudi.