Linda Cardellini’s TV & Movie Roles, from Lindsay Weir and Velma to Pam Voorhees
The Emmy winner is embracing the horror genre with her starring role in Peacock’s Crystal Lake.
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Key Takeaways
- Linda Cardellini stars as Pamela Voorhees in Peacock’s Crystal Lake, bringing a new perspective to the iconic Friday the 13th character and her motives.
- Cardellini has built a versatile career across television and film, earning recognition for TV roles in Freaks and Geeks, ER, and Dead to Me, and films such as Scooby-Doo, Legally Blonde, and Marvel’s Avengers franchise.
- In 2026, the actress won her first Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role in DTF St. Louis.
Actress Linda Cardellini has been gracing our screens, big and small, for 30 years. The versatile, magnetic performer has delivered excellent performances in comedies, dramedies, massive blockbusters, and small indies. And though Cardellini starred in the 2019 supernatural horror film The Curse of La Llorona, Peacock Original Crystal Lake marks her first time embracing the slasher genre.
Cardellini is taking on the mantle of Pam Voorhees, grieving mother of Jason Voorhees, in the Friday the 13th movie franchise — right down to the iconic blue sweater.
“It’s a well‑loved franchise, so entering into that is exciting and also daunting,” Cardellini said during NBCUniversal's Backlot Pass event in August, acknowledging how she walked into this role aware of how much these characters mean to horror fans.
How did Cardellini get from the hallways of Freaks and Geeks' William McKinley High School to the shores of Camp Crystal Lake? Explore major highlights of her career below, which boasts major hits like ER, Brokeback Mountain, Dead to Me and most recently, DTF St. Louis.
RELATED: Meet the Cast of Crystal Lake: Linda Cardellini Leads the Friday the 13th Prequel Show
Linda Cardellini’s TV credits include Freaks and Geeks and ER
Born and raised in California, Cardellini got a taste for performing in grade school and high school productions. She earned at theater arts degree from Loyola Marymount University's College of Communication and Fine Arts in Los Angeles, and then got to work auditioning in Hollywood.
After landing her first television role in ABC’s Saturday morning series Bone Chillers, Cardellini played Lauren, Cory Matthews' Season 5 girlfriend on Boy Meets World.
Though she'd booked guest roles on shows like 3rd Rock from the Sun and Kenan and Kel, in 1999 Cardellini gained major attention and critical praise for authentically embodying high schooler Lindsay Weir in the NBC series Freaks and Geeks. Though the series only lasted one season, it launched the careers of Cardellini and other young actors including Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, and Martin Starr.
In 2003, Cardellini joined ER for a five season run as nurse Samantha Taggart who struggles with alcohol addiction. Her voice roles in animated television series include Regular Show, Gravity Falls (she played Wendy), and Sanjay and Craig.
From 2013 to 2015, Cardellini played Sylvia Rosen on nine episodes of Mad Men. Her acclaimed role opposite Christina Applegate in Dead to Me, playing compulsive chaos maker Judy Hale, brought the actress back into the spotlight. In the 2020s, she co-starred with the Muppets in Muppets Now and reprised her role as Clint Barton’s wife in the Marvel Studios series Hawkeye.
RELATED: Everything to Know About Crystal Lake, Peacock's Friday the 13th Prequel Series
Linda Cardellini’s movie credits include Legally Blonde, Scooby-Doo, and Avengers: Age of Ultron
Cardellini’s first film role was in Kenan Thompson's 1997 comedy Good Burger, followed by Dead Man on Campus and Legally Blonde. But she came into her own on the big screen as the perfect Velma Dinkley in the 2002 live action Scooby-Doo film directed by James Gunn.
She made a memorable appearance in 2005's Brokeback Mountain,
In 2015, Cardellini made her blockbuster debut in Marvel Studio’s Avengers: Age of Ultron as Clint Barton/Hawkeye’s wife, Laura, most recently playing her in Avengers: Endgame. She starred alongside Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in the comedy Daddy's Home, and its 2017 sequel.
Linda Cardellini won an Emmy for DTF St. Louis
Cardellini has earned three Emmy nominations for her acting, the first for her work on Mad Men and the second nod for Dead to Me. But it wasn’t until DTF St. Louis that she was able to take home the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for playing Carol Love-Smernitch in the dramedy DTF St. Louis.
Linda Cardellini puts a new spin on Pam Voorhees in Crystal Lake
Cardellini's professional career started in the horror-lite children’s series Bone Chillers, so Crystal Lake is a bit of a full circle moment. However, Crystal Lake is truly unlike anything the actress has done before when it comes to the intensity of the slasher subgenre.
"I've sort of dabbled in the area before, but not much," she told Jimmy Fallon during an October 7 Tonight Show interview. "And I was on the other side of it, where you're sort of the person who gets chased. This time, being the person who chases everybody, is a very different feeling!"
Playing Pam Voorhees presented an alluring challenge for Cardellini. "That's what's exciting to me about being an actor,” she shared during the Backlot Pass event. “If I have not done it, then I really am keen to do it. Pamela was somebody that I had never played."
Stream all eight episodes of Crystal Lake on October 15, only on Peacock.
