Linda Cardellini is a beautiful young American actress who got known worldwide through her work on TV series such as „ER“ and „Mad Men“. At that time, she was very popular amongst men and was one of TV’s biggest heartthrobs.
She has also been hired for roles in popular movies such as „Avengers: Endgame“ and „Brokeback Mountain“. The Avengers movie was especially important to her because she became more recognizable amongst younger people and this helped her gain a lot of followers on her social media.
Early years
She was born as Linda Edna Cardellini on June 25, 1975, in the town named Redwood City situated around 40 km south of San Francisco, in the State of California, in the United States.
Her mother Lorraine was a housewife and she took care of her children and their home. Her father is Wayne Cardellini and he is a businessman. They had a pretty nice time when Linda was growing up because there were never any financial troubles and she grew up in the nice part of The Unites States.
She has three more siblings and is the youngest of them all. She was very happy to grow up in such a big family and she is very close to all of the members. They still try to connect as much as possible, although they don’t really live together or even close anymore.
Linda is of mixed descent since her parents have roots in Italy, Germany, Scotland, and Ireland. Her parents are Catholics so Linda and her siblings were all raised in Catholic surroundings. She stated that it gave her the moral strength to overcome all her troubles during the rise of her movie career.
She was very young when her parents discovered that she has a talent for a public appearance and is very good at acting. It was not hard to notice that public appearances were very easy for her and that she felt like home while being on the stage.
She was only a 10-year old girl when she received her 1st role in a school play in which she also sang and showed that she is multi-talented. She said that she recalls the moment being very dramatic in her head, but she was very happy to gain that chance to convince her parents that she could also do acting as well.
Since she was good at it and liked it she continued playing in a lot of school plays and her performances started becoming more serious. That is the reason why she eventually started taking lessons in acting and drama.
Her mother was convinced that only acting career or something similar to it would make her daughter happy through life. Because of that, she never had any trouble with her work and no one really forced her to go through college.
She was a student at St.Francis High School where she has graduated in 1993. She had a dream of becoming an actress so she has soon relocated to a bigger city when her opportunities were much better.
After graduating from high school she has enrolled in a college. She became a student at Loyola Marymount University and earned herself a degree in theatre arts. She said that she loved being in college and that she wanted to learn all of the professional things about the work she will do; she didn’t just want to appear on the set and become an actress like that.
She decided to move to Los Angeles and try herself in the world of TV & movies. Los Angeles was a pretty nice spot to look for a job at that time because there were many scouts there and they were looking for the newest stars.
In 1994 she was one of the contestants of a popular American game show called „The Price is Right“. She has won a prize in the form of a fireplace and took some great memories home with her.
Career development
In 1996, she got more noticed after she was hired for a lead role in „Bone Chillers“ which was a very popular and highly viewed horror fiction series created by Adam Rifkin.
She has gained a starring role in the series which aired on ABC every Saturday morning. This opened a door for her to the world of TV series so she started appearing as a guest in a lot of other series. She appeared in „3rd Rock from the Sun“, „Step by Step“ and „Boy Meets World“.
In 1999, she appeared in a mini-series titled „The Lot“, which eventually gave her an opportunity to travel to Europe after becoming a member of the crew in a tour production of „Lancelot“.
Her biggest success in that period was the role of Lindsay Weir, a student in a popular TV series named „Freaks and Geeks“, aired on NBC. It was a teen comedy series which was aired for 18 episodes and received great critics.
She received very positive reviews for this role and it made her name very known in important circles. In 2002, she gained the role of Velma, a popular cartoon character from an animated series called „Scooby-Doo“.
She played in the movie adaptation titled „Scooby-Doo“ in 2002, and later to „Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed“ two years later.
In 2003, she gained a role in a more serious TV series called „ER“ where she stayed until the finale. She was praised for her acting and later stated that she enjoyed doing this series very much. This series brought her an „Icon Award“ in 2009 after the series ended.
Her other great appearances were in „Dead Man on Campus“, a black comedy from 1996; „Brokeback Mountain“, a romantic drama movie with Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in starring roles. She received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in this movie. Linda gave her voice to a character in a video game called „Gladius“ and in „The Good Family“ comedy series aired on ABC.
In 2007 he played a role of Clara in „Comanche Moon“, a TV series aired on CBS in 2008. This series was a so-called prequel to „Lonesome Dove“ series.
In 2010 Linda became a part of the Dr. God comedy group which brought her back to the theatre. She also had appearances in Jonathan Hensleigh’s biographical movie called „Kill the Irishman“ and in a superhero comedy movie „Super“ where she starred next to Kevin Bacon.
In 2011, she had the leading role in an independent movie called „Return“where she was praised for her role of a woman coming home from her tour in the ME.
In 2012 she started giving her voice to a character in „Gravity Falls“, an animated TV series produced by Disney. From time to time Linda gives her voice to characters from „The Thrilling Adventure Hour“.
In 2013 she was honored by giving a role in „Mad Men“, an American TV series which premiered on AMC in 2007 and soon became one of their top hit series. This role gained her a nomination for Emmy, in the category of „Outstanding Guest Actress in Drama Series“.
In 2015 she appeared in a Netflix series called „Bloodline“ where she starred alongside Kyle Chandler but the series aired for only one year.
In the summer of 2018, she was hired for a role in a series called „Dead to Me“. It is a black comedy TV series which aires on Netflix. She starred alongside Christina Applegate, a very popular actress, and a dancer.
She has also starred in a horror movie named „The Curse of La Llorona“, which was directed by Michael Chaves and where she had the leading role alongside Raymond Cruz and Patricia Velásquez. Although the film gained mixed reviews it was no doubt that everybody think that Linda has done a marvellous job.
The movie itself was the first movie that Michael Chaves ever directed and he can be very satisfied by the fact that it was made on a budget of $9 million and eventually earned over $120 million in the movie theatres.
She has over 350 k followers on her Instagram account where she regularly posts.
Personal life
As for her love life, she had a long relationship with Jason Segel with whom she co-starred in a TV series „Freaks and Geeks“. The relationship suffered because of the fact that they were both celebrities and it was very public.
Sometime later she started dating Steven Rodriguez and gave birth to their daughter in 2012. One year later the couple got engaged. Their daughter is named Lilah Rose.
Her relationship with Jason Segel lasted from 2001 until 2007 which is a very long time but in the end it did not work between them. They parted ways on good terms.
Before getting romantically involved in a relationship with her fiancee Steven she has also dated Justin Rogina for a few months back in 2008.
As for some of her personal interests, she is a huge fan of a painter Margaret Keane. She also likes martial arts very much and says that she would like to do more of it if she ever has the time.
In one interview for the „People“ magazine, she has discovered that her fiancee Steven Rodriguez is actually her school sweetheart whom she liked very much when she was 10. They went to school together.
She liked his bike tricks very much and was impressed by them. They were friends from then but connected romantically just a few years ago.
Quick summary
Full name: Linda Edna Cardellini
Date of birth: June 25, 1975
Birthplace: San Francisco, California, United States
Age: 34
Profession: actress, model, singer
Height: 160 cm
Weight: 57 kg
Net Worth: $6 million