Linda Cardellini

Linda Edna Cardellini was born in Redwood City, California, to Lorraine (Hernan) and Wayne David Cardellini, a businessman. She is of Italian (from her paternal grandfather), Irish (from her mother), German, English, and Scottish descent. Linda grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, California, the youngest of four children. She became interested in acting at age ten, when she performed a singing role in a school Christmas play. She continued to do school productions and community theater.

Linda attended Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California. After graduating, she had to decide whether to go to New York to pursue theater or Los Angeles to pursue film and television. She chose LA. Linda was cast in her first role, on the series Bone Chillers (1996). Her breakthrough part came when she was cast in Freaks and Geeks (1999). She played academic decathlete Lindsay Weir on the celebrated series, which won an Emmy Award in the Category of Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series.

Cardellini captured the hearts of young girls, boys and teenagers, worldwide, for her portrayal of Velma in Warner Bros.'s Scooby-Doo (2002). She also co-starred in Brian Robbins' Good Burger (1997), Legally Blonde (2001), with Reese Witherspoon, and Tom McLoughlin's The Unsaid (2001) with Andy Garcia, as well as in the Adam Sandler-produced comedy, Grandma's Boy (2006).

In 2005, Cardellini starred in the ensemble film, American Gun (2005), for IFC Films, alongside Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker and Marcia Gay Harden. American Gun was the debut feature of director and co-writer Aric Avelino, which has earned a Best Picture nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2007. In 2008, Cardellini portrayed the lead role of Julie Ingram in the feature film The Lazarus Project starring alongside Paul Walker.

In 2011, Cardellini co-starred in Jonathan Hensleigh's independent feature film Kill the Irishman, alongside Christopher Walken, Ray Stevenson and Val Kilmer. The film was based on the true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970s. In February 2012, Cardellini starred as Kelli in the independent film Return, opposite Michael Shannon and John Slattery which earned Cardellini an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.

In 2013, Cardellini was almost unrecognizable, but turned heads, for her provocative portrayal of Sylvia Rosen, Don Draper's married mistress, in a guest arc in the sixth season of the critically acclaimed AMC series, Mad Men. She received her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in A Drama Series for her portrayal.