Wrenn Schmidt

Melinda Wrenn Schmidt (born February 18, 1983) Her film roles include the horror film Preservation, the biographical drama I Saw the Light (2015), the war film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), the romantic comedy The Good Catholic (2017), and the science-fiction horror film Nope (2022).

Early life and education Schmidt was born in Lexington, South Carolina. Her father is a biology professor, and her mother is a former dietitian. She comes from mixed European heritage; German from her father, including English, Scots-Irish, Polish, and Austrian, among others. She attended the residential high school South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities in Greenville, graduating from their inaugural drama class in 2001. She attended Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts in University Park, Texas, graduating summa cum laude in 2005 with a B.F.A. in theatre studies and history. She had a part in the George F. Walker play Heaven, at Dallas' Kitchen Dog Theater in 2003. Schmidt moved to New York City to intern with an off-Broadway theatre company, and worked three jobs as she began auditioning for acting roles. She served as an understudy in a national tour of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner, directed by Anthony Page. She appeared in the title role of Sive at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2007, and was then an understudy in a revival of Come Back, Little Sheba on Broadway. In 2009, Schmidt appeared off-Broadway at the Harold Clurman Theatre as Cleopatra in Caesar and Cleopatra, at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Jailbait, and regionally in Proof at Cape May Stage.

Schmidt made her film debut in the 2010 documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, portraying a prostitute who refused to appear on camera. She had parts that year on NBC's Mercy, and in the play Phantom Killer, about the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders. Schmidt made her feature film debut in Our Idiot Brother, a comedy-drama starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, and Zooey Deschanel, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. She was cast in the play Be a Good Little Widow at Ars Nova, and in Teresa Deevy's Temporal Powers at Manhattan's Mint Theater in 2011. In 2012, Schmidt became a regular on the HBO Prohibition-era crime drama Boardwalk Empire, playing Julia Sagorsky. She played Ruth Atkins in the Eugene O’Neill play Beyond the Horizon, at the Irish Repertory Theatre.

Schmidt returned to the Mint Theater in 2013 to play the title character in Teresa Deevy's Katie Roche, and starred opposite John Turturro as Hilde Wangel in Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder at the Harvey Theater. Schmidt starred alongside Aaron Staton and Pablo Schreiber in the 2014 horror-thriller film Preservation, which was directed by Christopher Denham and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. She appeared in the 2015 Hank Williams biopic film I Saw the Light, starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen. She played Bobbie Jett.

In 2016, Schmidt had a role opposite John Krasinski in the Michael Bay film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which portrays the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya. She joined the cast of the Cinemax drama series, Outcast, based on a Robert Kirkman graphic novel about demonic possession. Schmidt appeared with Danny Glover and John C. McGinley in the independent romantic comedy The Good Catholic. Schmidt stars in Apple TV+ original series For All Mankind (2019–present), playing the central role of NASA engineer Margo Madison.

Filmography Film

Television