Liv was born on July 1, 1977, in Portland, Maine. She is the daughter of Steven Tyler, the famous front man of the band Aerosmith. At the age of fourteen, Liv moved to New York to begin a modeling career and decided after a year to become an actress. At just over five-foot-ten, endowed with blazing blue eyes and flawless porcelain skin, Liv has a unique natural sultry sophistication about her. Within a few months of the photos, Liv began decorating such fashion magazines as Seventeen and Mirabella.

While shooting a commercial on location in the stifling Amazon the following year, Liv decided she wanted to pursue acting. Ironically, a cinema agent read about the intriguing Liv in an article by The New York Times concerning children of the rich and famous, and officially "discovered" her. Liv's first feature role was as the older sister of an autistic boy in the Bruce Beresford straight-to-video drama "Silent Fall". Liv was the hit of the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where "Stealing Beauty" was entered in competition, and French critics ooh-la-laed over the young actress. In 1997, Liv was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. With this extravagant exposure, Liv became an instant sex symbol video vixen.

Liv's next acting triumphs came in Tom Hanks's directorial debut, That Thing You Do!, in which she played the groupie-girlfriend of a small-town band circa 1964, and in Pat (Circle of Friends) O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts, in which she played another small-town sweetheart. She gamely entered the big-budget arena in 1998, co-starring with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck in Disney's Armageddon. 1999 brought roles in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, in which she engaged in small-town slapstick romance with Chris O'Donnell, and in Plunkett & MaCleane, which positioned her as the aristocratic inamorata of a highwayman. She finished out the year on a more serious note, playing opposite typically and terrifically brooding romantic Ralph Fiennes in the Alexander Pushkin adaptation Onegin. The year 2000 brought a role in the Robert Altman film Dr. T and the Women. Also starring as Arwen in the mega-box-office hit "Lord of the Rings- Trilogy".