In the Netflix hit Emily in Paris, one of the most confounding things for viewers—other than the way Emily puts outfits together and the fact that her Instagram following grew exponentially with only mediocre posts—is how old Emily is supposed to be. For a little while, fans were left to guess how old she is based on the context clues given in the series.
It’s said on the series that she has a master’s degree, which would put her at at least 24. On top of that, she’s clearly been working at her marketing company for a while, because she tells her boyfriend in the very first episode that if she temporarily relocates to Paris for work, she’ll be guaranteed a “senior brand manager” job upon her return. Aside from being pretty established in her career, she is also pretty serious with her boyfriend before he breaks up with her due to not wanting a long-distance relationship. It’s clearly meant to be a relationship she’s been in for a while.
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Lily Collins herself is currently 36 years old, and it is possible that Emily is meant to be around the same age. After all, all of Emily’s friends and her ex-boyfriend are played by actors in their late 20s and early 30s, and all of these characters actually do seem like their real ages on the show. None of them treat Emily as though she is much younger. And, even if Emily sometimes has the overeagerness associated with being in your early 20s—and the colorful, patterned outfits associated with being in your early tweens—she's actually in her late 20s or early 30s by season 4.
In the third episode of season 2, Emily in Paris confirmed her age with a birthday episode—but it was revealed through an Easter egg, which could have been easy to miss. Emily celebrated her birthday with friends at dinner, and as she scrolled through her Instagram comments, one of them read, “29 years Jeune [young]!” So, there ya have it!
For literal years, Lily didn’t even know how old her character was supposed to be and mistakenly assumed she was quite a bit younger than would actually make sense.
“I don’t believe we’ve ever given her a specific ‘number’ for her age, but I believe that she’s pretty fresh out of college,” she told British Vogue in 2020. “Maybe this is her first year after graduation. I want to say she’s like, 22ish.”
However, not long after the interview was published, Lily walked back her words. The actor posted a GIF of Emily making a confused face on Twitter and wrote, “Emily looking at me when I get her age wrong.” She added, “Sorry, girl. You might not be 22, but I gotta say—you do act like it sometimes!!”
As for Lily’s costar, Lucas Bravo, who plays Gabriel, he has said Emily is a little bit older. “I would say she’s probably 24,” he told E! News back in 2020. “Something happens after 26 where women start exploring...in terms of personality. I feel like she’s still very strong-willed and she has certainties, but yeah, I would say [that she is] around 24.”
