Linda Cardellini

Linda Edna Cardellini is an American actress known for her performances across television and film. In television, she achieved prominence for her starring roles in the teen drama Freaks and Geeks, the medical drama ER, the thriller Bloodline, and the dark comedy series Dead to Me. She also earned recognition for guest starring as Sylvia Rosen on Mad Men and appearing in the HBO miniseries DTF St. Louis. Her film career features roles in Scooby-Doo, Legally Blonde, Brokeback Mountain, Daddy's Home, Green Book, and The Curse of La Llorona, alongside portraying Laura Barton and voicing Lylla in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cardellini was born on June 25, 1975, in Redwood City, California, to Wayne David Cardellini, a businessman, and Lorraine Cardellini, a homemaker. She is the youngest of four children and is of Italian, Irish, German, and Scottish descent. Cardellini made her first public performance at age ten singing in a school play, later acting in school productions and taking drama lessons. She graduated from St. Francis High School in 1993, moved to Los Angeles, and appeared on The Price Is Right in 1994. She earned a degree in theater arts from Loyola Marymount University in 1997, where she was named a Distinguished Alumna in 2007.

Her early screen career included guest appearances on television shows such as Step by Step, Clueless, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Boy Meets World, as well as a starring role on ABC's Bone Chillers in 1996. Her major breakthrough came in 1999 when she landed the starring role of Lindsay Weir on NBC's Freaks and Geeks. She gained further widespread attention playing Velma Dinkley in the live-action movie Scooby-Doo in 2002 and its 2004 sequel. In 2003, she joined the cast of ER as nurse Samantha Taggart, remaining on the show for six seasons.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Cardellini expanded her film and television credits. Her movie roles included Legally Blonde, Brokeback Mountain, Grandma's Boy, The Founder, Daddy's Home, and Daddy's Home 2. On television, she voiced Wendy Corduroy on Disney Channel's Gravity Falls and starred in Netflix's Bloodline from 2015 to 2017. She earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role on Mad Men, as well as an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Dead to Me.

Cardellini co-starred in the Academy Award-winning film Green Book and starred in the horror film The Curse of La Llorona. She played Mae Capone in the 2020 biographical drama Capone and reprised her Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Laura Barton in the Disney+ series Hawkeye in 2021. Her subsequent projects include the Netflix series No Good Deed, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in the HBO miniseries DTF St. Louis, and joining the productions Way of the Warrior Kid, Crystal Lake, and They Know.

In her personal life, Cardellini dated actor Jason Segel from 2000 to 2007. She became engaged to Steven Rodriguez in 2013, with whom she has a daughter born in February 2012. Cardellini divides her time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, owning a country home in Woodside, California, where she practices horseback riding.