Linda Cardellini

Linda Cardellini Headshot

Actress

Birth Date: June 25, 1975

Age: 48 years old

Birth Place: Redwood City, California

Partners: Jason Segel

After gaining fame as "mathlete" turned rebel on the critical and cult favorite television series "Freaks and Geeks" (NBC, 1999-2000), actress Linda Cardellini moved successfully into more mature and dramatic roles, playing soulful and independent women on "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015) and "Mad Men" (AMC, 2007-2015) and in features like "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) and "Green Book" (2018). Born Linda Edna Cardellini on June 25, 1975 in Redwood City, California, she was the youngest of four children by businessman Wayne Cardellini and his wife, Lorraine. She gained her first exposure to performing at the age of 10 when she was given a singing role in a school play, and was soon a regular in school and community theater productions. After graduating from St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California in 1993, Cardellini moved to Los Angeles, where she landed her first television role as a series regular on ABC's "Bone Chillers" (1996), a children's series about supernatural goings-on at a high school. Guest roles on primetime series like "Third Rock from the Sun" (NBC, 1996-2001) and occasional appearances in features like "Good Burger" (1997) led to recurring turns on "Guys Like Us" (UPN, 1998-1999) and "Boy Meets World" (ABC, 1993-2000) as a ski instructor who came between Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel's Topanga. But her true breakout came as Lindsay Weir, a suburban teenager whose soul-searching brings her in contact with a group of school outcasts in Judd Apatow's Emmy-winning "Freaks and Geeks." Though a consistent underdog in the ratings, the critical acclaim afforded to "Freaks" propelled its talented young cast, which included Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segel, to greater fame; for Cardellini, that translated into a successful run as a character player in features, including back-to-back appearances as brainy Velma Dinkley in a live-action take on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Scooby-Doo" (2002) and "Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed" (2004). She also joined fellow former teen favorites Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway in Ang Lee's Oscar-winning "Brokeback Mountain," for which she played a waitress who indulges in a brief fling with Ledger. Between these efforts, Cardellini also began a six-year run on "ER" as no-nonsense nurse and single mother Samantha Taggart, whose story arcs included a romance with doctors Goran Visnjic and John Stamos, a kidnapping (and her murder of the kidnapper) and the death of her estranged mother. When "ER" ran its course in 2009, Cardellini worked steadily in independent features, including a critically praised turn as a veteran in "Return" (2011), but could be heard more frequently than seen thanks to a string of voice-over roles for animated projects like Mike Judge's "The Goode Family" (ABC, 2009), "Gravity Falls" (Disney Television, 2012-2016), Cartoon Network's "Regular Show" (2010-17) and "Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated" (Cartoon Network, 2010-13). But after several years of peripheral work, viewers earned a potent reminder of Cardellini's acting talent on "Mad Men," for which she played a lovelorn Catholic housewife who enters into a torrid relationship with Don Draper (Jon Hamm). For her performance, Cardellini received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series; the critical acclaim also led to more high-profile acting projects, including series regular work as an attorney caught up in family skullduggery on "Bloodlines" (Netflix, 2015-17) and a supporting turn as Laura Barton the wife of arrow-toting superhero Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) in "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Cardellini also showed her comic chops as Will Ferrell's wife in "Daddy's Home" (2015) and its 2017 sequel, and held her own opposite Michael Keaton in "The Founder" (2016) and Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in the Oscar-winning "Green Book." The following year proved to be one of Cardellini's busiest to date, with a starring role in the James Wan-produced supernatural thriller "The Curse of La Llorona" (2019), a reprise of Laura Barton in "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) and a starring role opposite Christina Applegate in the Netflix dark comedy "Dead to Me" (2019).

Credits

Live with Kelly and MarkStream

Guest
Talk
2023

A Oscara dobiva...: Green book

Actor
Show
2021

A Oscara dobiva...: Zelena knjiga - Vodic za zivot

Actor
Show
2021

Muppets NowStream

Guest
Series
2020
69%

Muppets NowStream

Guest Star
Series
2020
69%

Capone

Actor
Mae Capone
Movie
2020

The Kelly Clarkson ShowStream

Guest
Talk
2019

Dead to MeStream

Actor
Judy
Series
2019
88%

Today With Hoda & Jenna

Guest
Show
2019

The Founder

Actor
Joan Smith
Show
2019

The Curse of La LloronaStream

Actor
Anna Tate-Garcia
Movie
2019
28%

Busy Tonight

Guest
Talk
2018

Cultureshock: Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary

Actor
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2018

A Simple FavorStream

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Diana Hyland
Movie
2018
84%

Hunter KillerStream

Actor
Jayne Norquist
Movie
2018
37%

Green BookStream

Actor
Dolores
Movie
2018
77%

Podmornica smrti

Actor
Movie
2018

Access Live

Guest
Show
2017

Live with Kelly and Ryan

Guest
Talk
2017

Daddy's Home 2Stream

Actor
Sara
Movie
2017
21%

Austin Found

Actor
Leanne
Movie
2017

Gravity Falls: Between the Pines

Actor
Wendy
Show
2016

The Founder

Actor
Joan Smith
Movie
2016

Gravity Falls Shorts

Voice
Wendy
Show
2015

The Late Late Show With James CordenStream

Guest
Talk
2015

BloodlineStream

Actor
Meg Rayburn
Series
2015
62%

Daddy's HomeStream

Actor
Sarah
Movie
2015
30%

q

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2014

Late Night With Seth MeyersStream

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Talk
2014

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonStream

Guest
Talk
2014

Gravity Falls: Mabel's Guide to Life

Voice
Wendy
Show
2014

Welcome to Me

Actor
Gina Selway
Movie
2014

Sanjay and CraigStream

Voice
Megan Sparkles
Series
2013

Out There

Voice
Sharla
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2013

Entertainment Studios.TV

Actor
Show
2012

Gravity FallsStream

Voice
Series
2012
100%

Person of InterestStream

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Dr. Megan Tillman
Series
2011
92%

New GirlStream

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Abby Day
Series
2011
95%

Kill the IrishmanStream

Actor
Joan Madigan
Movie
2011
62%

All-Star Superman

Voice
Nasthalthia Luthor
Movie
2011

Return

Actor
Kelli
Movie
2011

ConanStream

Guest
Talk
2010

Scooby-Doo: Mystery IncorporatedStream

Guest Voice
Marcy "Hot Dog Water" Fleach
Series
2010

Watch What Happens Live With Andy CohenStream

Guest
Talk
2009

The Goode Family

Actor
Show
2009

The Goode Family

Voice
Bliss
Show
2009

The Bonnie Hunt Show

Guest
Talk
2008

The Lazarus Project

Actor
Julie Ingram
Movie
2008

Comanche Moon

Actor
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2007

Mad MenStream

Guest Star
Sylvia Rosen
Series
2007
94%

Rachael Ray ShowStream

Guest
Talk
2006

Grandma's Boy

Actor
Samantha
Movie
2006

Entertainment Tonight Canada

Guest
Show
2005

Robot ChickenStream

Guest Voice
Series
2005

The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson

Guest
Talk
2005

American Gun

Actor
Mary-Anne
Movie
2005

Brokeback MountainStream

Actor
Cassie
Movie
2005
88%

Lollilove

Actor
Linda
Movie
2004

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Actor
Thelma
Movie
2004

Jiminy Glick in Lalawood

Actor
Natalie Coolidge
Movie
2004

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Guest
Talk
2003

Jimmy Kimmel Live!Stream

Guest
Talk
2003

Certainly Not a Fairytale

Actor
Adelle / Writer
Movie
2003

The Twilight ZoneStream

Actor
Series
2002

Scooby-DooStream

Actor
Velma Dinkley
Movie
2002

Legally BlondeStream

Actor
Chutney
Movie
2001
71%

The Unsaid

Actor
Shelly Hunter
Movie
2001

Freaks and GeeksStream

Actor
Lindsay Weir
Series
1999
100%

The Lot

Actor
Show
1999

The Daily Show With Jon StewartStream

Guest
Talk
1999

Dying to Live

Actor
Leslie Dugger
Movie
1999

The Prince and the Surfer

Actor
Melissa
Movie
1999

Guys Like Us

Guest Star
Show
1998

Dead Man on Campus

Actor
Kelly
Movie
1998

Strangeland

Actor
Genevieve Gage
Movie
1998

The View

Guest
Talk
1997

Good BurgerStream

Actor
Cardellini
Movie
1997
33%

Clueless

Guest Star
Series
1996

Bone Chillers

Actor
Show
1996

ERStream

Actor
Nurse Samantha Taggart
Series
1994

ERStream

Guest Star
Nurse Samantha Taggart
Series
1994

Boy Meets WorldStream

Guest Star
Lauren
Series
1993

Good Morning America

Guest
News
1975

News aboutLinda Cardellini

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Dead to Me Season 2

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DEAD TO ME
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Bloodline - Linda Cardellini
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Linda Cardellini on the Final Season of ‘Bloodline’: ‘It’s Fun to See Meg Strike Out on Her Own’

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