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Lilia Skala (née Sofer; 28 November 1896 – 18 December 1994) was an Austrian-American architect and actress known for her role in the film Lilies of the Field (1963), for which she received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination. During her career, Skala was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Before Skala decided to be an actress, she practiced architecture as a profession. She was one of the first women architects in Austria and was the first female member of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. She graduated from the University of Dresden Summa cum Laude; the institution is now known as the Technical University of Dresden, located in Germany.

Her legendary life was the subject of the eponymous one-woman play Lilia!, written and performed by her granddaughter Libby Skala.

Early life and education
Skala was born Lilia Sofer in Vienna. Her mother, Katharina Skala, was Roman Catholic, and her father, Julius Sofer, was Jewish and worked as a manufacturer's representative for the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company. She was one of the first women to graduate in architecture and engineering from the University of Dresden, then practiced architecture professionally in Vienna.

In the late 1930s, she was forced to flee her Nazi-occupied homeland with her husband, Louis Erich Skala, and their two young sons. (Lilia and Erich adopted the non-Jewish sounding surname of Lilia's mother.) Skala and her husband managed to escape (at different times) from Austria and eventually settled in the United States.