Hilarie Burton

Hilarie Burton was an American actress and TV personality who was best known for playing Peyton Sawyer on the drama "One Tree Hill" (The WB/The CW, 2003-2012). Born and raised in Sterling, Virginia, Burton served in multiple capacities in her student government throughout high school (eventually being elected student body president), and was also crowned Homecoming Queen during her senior year. Burton's bubbly personality would later help her earn her first TV hosting job with MTV's "Total Request Live" (MTV, 1998-2008, 2017). But before that was to happen, Burton relocated to New York City to attend college, as well embark on an acting career. She attended both Fordham University and NYU while living in NYC, and also attended as many open casting calls for TV roles as she could. One of those roles was for the widely-popular MTV music show "Total Request Live," also known as "TRL." Burton won a job to be a guest VJ on the show-a role that was only supposed to last one day. However, she so impressed the show's producers with her charming, upbeat personality, that they offered her a full-time VJ position, and later a job as the show's host. Burton served as VJ and host on "TRL" from 2002 to 2004. As much as she enjoyed her time on the show, however, Burton longed to be doing what she truly loved: acting. Lucky for her, she got her first big break in 2003 when she was cast as Peyton Sawyer on the popular drama "One Tree Hill." The role earned Burton overwhelmingly positive critical praise, and quickly established her as a rising young television actress. In 2009 she left the show to explore other creative opportunities in the industry. By this time, Burton had started gravitating towards film roles. She appeared in "The Secret Life of Bees" (2008), "Bloodworth" (2010), and "Naughty or Nice" (2012). Burton returned to TV in 2010 with a recurring role on the crime drama series "White Collar" (USA, 2009-2014), appearing on 25 episodes of the show from 2010 to 2013. She also nabbed recurring roles on "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC, 2005-), "Extant" (CBS, 2015-), and the Fox buddy cop comedy-drama series "Lethal Weapon" (Fox, 2016-19). After her run on "Lethal Weapon" ended in 2017, Burton appeared in a couple of made-for-TV Christmas movies. She was cast in "The Christmas Contract" in 2018, and the following year appeared alongside Golden Globe-nominee Pam Grier in "A Christmas Wish" (2019).