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Linda Cardellini Biography

Linda Edna Cardellini (born June 25, 1975 in Redwood City, California to Wayne and Lorraine Cardellini), is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles as high school student Lindsay Weir on Freaks and Geeks and nurse Samantha Taggart on ER. she also played Velma in two live-action Scooby-Doo movies.

Biography

Cardinelli, born to Wayne David Cardellini (who is of half Italian American descent) and Lorraine Hernan, graduated from nearby Mountain View's St. Francis High School in 1993, and attended Loyola Marymount University's College of Communication & Fine Arts.

Linda Cardellini's big break (ignoring a prize-winning appearance as a contestant on The Price is Right) was the lead in Bone Chillers (1996), an ABC children's show. She was also the voice of the heroine in the role-playing video game Gladius.

Extra

Dark-haired Linda Cardellini racked up acting credits with parts in film and television before landing a breakthrough role as an honor student in the midst of an identity crisis on NBC's acclaimed high school drama "Freaks and Geeks" (1999-2000). The attractive and talented actress came across as strong-willed, smart and sassy on screen, separating her from the sea of homogenized young adult performers inundating film and television in the late 1990s.

Linda Cardellini made her series regular debut on the ABC Saturday morning live-action children's series "Bone Chillers" during the 1996-1997 season, and was additionally featured in 1997 episodes of "Clueless" (UPN), "Step by Step" (CBS), "Pacific Palisades" and "3rd Rock From the Sun" (both NBC). She hit the big screen for the first time with a supporting role in the 1997 comedy "Good Burger" and could next be seen in the college campus dark comedy "Dead Man On Campus", playing the silent girlfriend of a high-strung and violent student (future "Freaks and Geeks" co-star Jason Segel), whose roommates use his often vacant room to house a series of troubled undergraduates in the hopes of landing the 4.0 GPA offered to the suitemates of a suicidal student.

As one of the victims of masochistic internet predator Captain Howdy, Linda Cardellini was featured in the thriller "Dee Snider's Strangeland" (1998) and was a prominent and striking figure on the theatrical poster and video cover, making her face (albeit with sewn together lips) more familiar to the moviegoing public. More TV work followed, including recurring parts on two series during the 1998-99 season: ABC's "Boy Meets World", as the girl who could inadvertently break up uber-couple Cory (Ben Savage) and Topanga (Danielle Fishel); and as a co-worker of one of the "Guys Like Us" (UPN). She took a supporting turn in the latter network's TV-movie drama "Dying to Live", portraying the spunky sidekick of a deceased girl who is exacting justice on her attacker through the help of an angel, before turning in a strong performance in AMC's miniseries "The Lot" (1999), as June, a young starlet in this fictionalized look at small time Hollywood in 1937.

Next up was a regular role on "Freaks and Geeks", where Linda Cardellini served as the bridge between the two titular high school outcast factions as new social dropout (and aspiring 'freak') Lindsay Weir, the academically gifted sister of awkward freshman (and 'geek') Sam Weir (John Daley). Looking to belong somewhere and unsatisfied with her honor student lifestyle, Lindsay takes a walk on the freak side, making friends with intense drummer Bill (Jason Segel) and nihilistic rebel Daniel (James Franco). The series, noted for its realistic portrayal of high school circa 1980, received a great deal of advance buzz, and Cardellini's sympathetic spot on portrayal of a teenager searching for a place to fit in garnered critical praise and raised her profile considerably. She also gained considerable exposure and popularity with her role as Velma in 2002's live-action adaptation of "Scooby-Doo" where Cardellini played alongside teen heavyweights Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard (the cast returned for the 2004 sequel). As a result of her rising star, she was cast on the venerable NBC medical drama "ER" in 2003 season, playing nurse and free-spirited single mom Simon Taggart, part of the series' fresh, revitalizing wave of female characters.

Milestones

1985 Started acting at age ten (date approximate)
1996 Debut as series regular on the ABC Saturday morning program "Bone Chillers"
1997 Appeared in the children's comedy feature "Good Burger"
1997 Guest starred on episodes of "Clueless" (UPN), "Step By Step" (CBS), "Pacific Palisades" and "3rd Rock from the Sun" (both NBC)
1998 Featured in the college-set comedy "Dead Man on Campus", playing the girlfriend of "Freaks and Geeks" co-star Jason Segel
1998 Guest starred on an episode of the CBS drama "Promised Land" as a young woman suffering at the hands of an abusive boyfriend
1998 Played a victim of internet predator Captain Howdy in the thriller "Dee Snider's StrangeLand"
1999 Had a featured role as a young starlet in the AMC special "The Lot", a fictionalized look at 1930s Hollywood
1999 Starred as Lindsay Weir, an honor student who takes up with the burnout crowd in the 1980s high school set series "Freaks and Geeks" (NBC)
1999 Was featured as the deceased main character's spunky sidekick in the UPN TV-movie "Dying to Live"
2002 Cast as Velma in the live-action version of "Scooby-Doo"
2003 Joined the NBC drama "ER" as Nurse Samantha 'Sam' Taggart
2004 Reprised role of Velma in "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed"
2005 Starred opposite Martin Short in the comedy "Jiminy Glick in La La Wood"
After high school, relocated to Los Angeles in order to pursue film and television work
Appeared in a recurring role on the ABC sitcom "Boy Meets World" as Lauren, a girl so attractive to main character Cory (Ben Savage), that he questions his longtime relationship with girlfriend
Topanga (Danielle Fishel)
Cast opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" (lensed 2004)
Had a recurring role as Jude on the UPN comedy "Guys Like Us"
Played an old woman in a community theater production of "The Music Man"
Was a contestant on "The Price Is Right" (CBS) and won a fireplace