Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. Before the pilot was shot during the writing phase, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) died when the group finds the cockpit and Kate was to emerge as the leader for the survivors, motivating them to build shelter and begin considering life as permanent residents of the island, however when it was decided he should survive, she was a second-in-command.