Bridgit Mendler

• 1. Introduction

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  Bridgit Mendler is an American entrepreneur, a former actress and a singer-songwriter, and she once explained how she spent the COVID-19 lockdowns. She told CNBC: "While everybody else was making their sourdough starters, we were building antennas out of random crap we could find at Home Depot."

  She was staying in New Hampshire at the time, and those improvised antennas turned out to be the seed of a company. That is a strange destination for someone the public first knew as a young performer on television and on the pop charts.

  How does a child who learned her craft in local theatre end up building ground stations for satellites? What did she make along the way, and what did she walk away from? And why did she say that music was still her first love, even as she moved on?

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• 2. A Child on Stage

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  Bridgit Claire Mendler was born on the 18th of December 1992 in Washington, D.C., to Charles and Sandy Mendler. Her mother's maiden name was Ford, and her younger brother Nick was born in 1997. She is the niece of psychologist Christine Blasey Ford.

  At the age of eight, she moved with her family to Mill Valley, California, and that is where acting began. She took local roles in both dramatic and musical theatre. She also became the youngest performer in the San Francisco Fringe Festival.

  By the age of 11, she had hired an agent to find her work. Her first paid roles were voices. In 2004 she played the young Buddha in the animated Indian film The Legend of Buddha. In 2005 she voiced the character Thorn in the video game Bone: Out from Boneville, which was based on the Bone comic series. She voiced Thorn again in a second game, Bone: The Great Cow Race.

  At 13, she landed her first on-screen part, a guest spot on the soap opera General Hospital. She played the dream child of the character Lulu Spencer.

  In 2007 she made her film debut in Alice Upside Down, an adaptation of the Alice book series. She also sang backing vocals on the film's song "Free Spirit," which was performed by Alyson Stoner. That same year she auditioned for the role of Sonny Munroe on Sonny with a Chance, but Demi Lovato was chosen.

  In 2008 it was announced that she would play Kristen Gregory in The Clique, an adaptation of the teen novel series by Lisi Harrison. She had also begun work on Labor Pains, a film with Lindsay Lohan that was repeatedly delayed by conflicts and problems. It was meant for theatres and never got a US theatrical release. ABC Family aired it as a TV film in 2009, and it became the week's top cable film among the female audiences networks prize most.

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• 3. The Disney Years

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  Juliet van Heusen, a vampire who falls in love with David Henrie's character Justin Russo, was Mendler's way into the Disney Channel. She played the role in eleven episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, between 2009 and the series finale in 2012.

  On the 4th of April 2010, Good Luck Charlie premiered, and it made her a lead. She played Teddy Duncan, a teenage girl who records videos for her baby sister to watch later in life. Critics and viewers responded well, and the series ran until 2014.

  Teddy Duncan kept turning up elsewhere. Mendler played her again in Shake It Up, in Jessie and in Good Luck Jessie. In the TV film Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas!, which premiered on the 2nd of December 2011, she starred as Teddy once more.

  In 2011, 5.7 million viewers tuned in for the premiere night of Lemonade Mouth. Mendler led the Disney Channel Original Movie as Olivia White. She later told Kidzworld Media there would be no sequel, because everyone at Disney felt the film "had completed its story in the first movie." She added that she still sees the cast often.

  Away from the network, she took smaller parts. In 2011 she played Appoline in the direct-to-video Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. In 2012 she guest-starred on House as Callie Rogers, a homeless runaway teenager with a mysterious illness. She also voiced the lead character Arrietty in the American English dub of The Secret World of Arrietty.

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• 4. The Pop Debut

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  The Lemonade Mouth soundtrack arrived from Walt Disney Records on the 12th of April 2011, and Mendler sang many of its songs. The single "Somebody" came out on the 4th of March and peaked at number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single "Determinate" reached number 51 and charted in several other countries.

  Mendler had already recorded "This Is My Paradise" for Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, released as a promotional single on the 11th of January 2011. On the 31st of March 2011 it was confirmed that she had signed with Hollywood Records and started on a debut album. Along the way she co-wrote and performed "I'm Gonna Run to You," which also appeared in Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas! For The Secret World of Arrietty she recorded "Summertime," a promotional single released on the 2nd of February 2012.

  In summer 2012, she confirmed the title of her official debut single, "Ready or Not." She wrote it with Emanuel "Eman" Kiriakou and Evan "Kidd" Bogart. It went out for digital download on the 7th of August and to radio on the 21st. The song peaked at number 49 in the United States and 53 in Australia. In the United Kingdom it reached number seven. It earned platinum certification in the United States and Canada, and gold in Denmark, New Zealand and Norway.

  Her album Hello My Name Is... followed on the 22nd of October 2012 from Hollywood Records. Mendler wrote every song with collaborators and helped produce it. The standard edition held 12 tracks and the deluxe edition 15. It peaked at number 30 on the Billboard 200 but sold fewer than 200,000 copies in the United States.

  To support it she began her first headlining tour, Live in Concert. It mostly stayed in North America and stopped at state fairs, music festivals and Jingle Ball concerts.

  On the 12th of February 2013, "Hurricane" went to radio and topped the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100. That June she started the Summer Tour, which reached only the United States. Later in 2013 she filmed an acoustic video for "Top of the World" in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, on her own and independent of Hollywood Records. Matt Wyatt directed it. On the 28th of June 2014, the second leg of the tour opened in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where she debuted a new song, "Fly to You."

  Reviewers were split. Tim Sendra of AllMusic called the debut "an impressive debut from a singer who shows real talent." Sherman Yang of MSN found the tracks catchy but felt they "sound the same after a while."

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• 5. After the Label

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  A failed computer changed the shape of Mendler's second album. She began it in 2013 with a long list of collaborators, including Mitch Allan, Dan Book, Alexei Misoul, Augie Ray, Beloryze, TMS, Ina Wroldsen and Steve Mac. When her computer broke and she lost all her entries, she rewrote the entire album. It was confirmed on the 2nd of July 2015 that she had left Hollywood Records earlier that year.

  She announced the title of a new single, "Atlantis," on the 4th of August 2016. It featured Kaiydo and was released on the 26th of August. A follow-up, "Do You Miss Me at All," arrived on the 4th of November, and the EP Nemesis was released on the 18th of November. She told MTV News, "I feel like I've poured the most of myself of anything I've done into this project." She hoped it would give fans a more well-rounded view of her after Disney.

  Critics noticed. Ailbhe Malone of The Irish Times welcomed her to "grown-up pop." Andrea Domanick of Vice wrote that Mendler "heeds honesty over any kind of carefully crafted post-Disney identity." The Nemesis Tour ran from 2016 to 2017. On the 3rd of February 2017 she announced "Temperamental Love," featuring Devontée. On the 25th of August 2017 she released "Diving" with the group RKCB.

  On the 25th of November 2014, Mendler was announced as Candace, an unlucky but optimistic waitress, in the second season of the NBC comedy Undateable. NBC renewed it for a third season made up entirely of live episodes, which premiered on the 15th of October 2015. The network then cancelled the series.

  In October 2016 she was cast as Ashley Willerman in the fifth season of the CMT series Nashville. On the 10th of February 2017 she was cast as the lead of Thin Ice, a Fox comedy pilot created by Elizabeth Meriwether, but the network passed in May. She then appeared in the Netflix comedy film Father of the Year, released on the 20th of July 2018, alongside David Spade.

  In November 2019 she appeared in Merry Happy Whatever, an eight-part Netflix comedy with Dennis Quaid, Ashley Tisdale and her Undateable co-star Brent Morin. Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter thought the series put her chemistry with Morin to good use. It was Mendler's last screen performance.

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• 6. Influences and Sound

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  "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," from the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, is the favorite song Mendler named in an interview with Disney Channel Netherlands. She called Bob Dylan her biggest musical influence. She told Huffington Post he was "the first musician I got into where I paid attention to songwriting."

  Her taste ran widely. She named Etta James, Elvis Presley, B. B. King, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, saying they have "soul in their voices." In a 2012 Yahoo! interview she said the hip hop group Salt-N-Pepa were her first female influence, and she sang an impromptu a cappella version of "Shoop."

  The Fugees shaped her debut single directly. One of her co-writers suggested their song "Ready or Not," and the group decided to build an interpolation off it. For the album itself she looked to indie pop singers Ingrid Michaelson and Feist. She also admired Tegan and Sara, saying "They just do what they want to do. They don't follow trends." She covered their song "I Was a Fool."

  In acting, she pointed to Jamie Foxx, Natalie Portman and Rachel McAdams. She admired Christian Bale for the extremes of his body transformations.

  Mendler is a mezzo-soprano who plays guitar, keyboard and keytar. Sávio Alves of Febre Teen Magazine described her voice as "strong and sweet," with a "metallic tone." Her music is mostly pop and reggae fusion, with touches of R&B, funk and hip hop soul. She said she loves doo-wop and a jazzy swing beat.

  Comparisons to Miley Cyrus, another Disney Channel graduate, did not sit well. In a 2009 Christian Post interview she said, "I'm not Miley Cyrus."

  Her debut album covered relationships, break-ups, self-esteem and friendship, with songs such as "5:15," "City Lights" and "We're Dancing." It even included a track called "Blonde." She told the Hartford Courant that writing is a compulsion, and she did not want to make commercial songs, only timeless ones. In her words: "This isn't about product. I want to grow as an artist."

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• 7. Causes and Sponsors

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  In 2010, Mendler became an ambassador for First Book, a service that encourages reading and provides books to children in need. In 2011 the work became part of Disney's Friends for Change, a charity initiative that urged fans to act on environmental issues.

  On the 11th of June 2011 she released the promotional single "We Can Change the World," which raised $250,000 for the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. She also captained the Yellow Team in the Friends for Change Games, a televised contest on the Disney Channel. Her team won a $125,000 donation to UNICEF and competed for $100,000 more, but lost to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

  In 2012 Common Sense Media named her Role Model of the Year for her work against bullying. She was the second youngest winner, after Miranda Cosgrove. Billboard put her on its "21 Under 21" list that year, and she appeared again in 2013.

  In July 2012 she became an ambassador for Give With Target, a campaign to raise funds to reform US schools. It set a goal of $1 billion by 2015. Target invested $5 million to start and distributed $25,000 grants to 100 schools in need. In August, Disney donated $5 million and people at Facebook gave more than $2 million.

  In March 2013 she joined Seventeen magazine's Delete Digital Drama campaign against cyberbullying. She said, "Being bullied is something I experienced in school and it is not fun." That October she hosted We Day for the Free The Children Foundation.

  In November 2013 she took part in a charity marathon for Save the Children. In March 2014 she traveled to El Quiché, Guatemala, for the same group. On the 8th of April 2014 she launched the Baby Sit In, which asked teens to give parents a break and give babies a healthy start. Save the Children's president, Carolyn Miles, thanked her publicly.

  Commerce ran alongside the charity work. In 2012 she signed with Target for D-Signed by Teddy Duncan, a clothing and accessories line for girls aged 4 to 18, with a Spring edition in March 2013. In 2014 she signed with the dermatology brand Clean & Clear.

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• 8. From Stage to Orbit

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  At the University of Southern California, Mendler studied anthropology in the 2010s. She told USA Today she would take one class at a time because "I want to know something outside of what I do." In 2013 she focused on Medieval Visual Culture and medical anthropology. Her mother was pursuing a doctorate in public policy at USC at the same time. Mendler dropped out in 2016.

  In May 2017, she was announced as one of the MIT Media Lab's Director's Fellows. In May 2018 she announced on Twitter that she had started a graduate program at MIT aimed at improving social media. She wrote, "As an entertainer, for years I struggled with social media because I felt like there was a more loving and human way to connect with fans."

  She completed an M.S. in media arts and sciences in 2020. Her master's thesis was titled OurStory: Dispute System Design Technology for Stakeholder Inclusion, and Deb Roy was her advisor. She went on to register as a Ph.D. candidate with MIT's Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group. In 2022 she was enrolled at both MIT and Harvard Law School, and she was awarded a Juris Doctor in May 2024.

  In a Hero magazine article with her Lemonade Mouth co-star Naomi Scott, Mendler described the turn. She remembered being at South by Southwest and feeling "Lonely." She said finding your artistic community can be hard. In October 2019 she announced on Instagram that she had married Griffin Cleverly. In February 2024 she said they had adopted a 4-year-old boy around Christmas 2022, after fostering him from 2021.

  In 2023 she and her husband founded Northwood Space, a satellite data startup based in El Segundo, California. Mendler is its CEO, and the company intends to mass produce satellite ground stations. She explained to CNBC that the ground side matters because it is about "bringing the impacts of space home to people."

  Her move has been widely cited as a rare successful reinvention. Sarah Bregel of BBC wrote that she may inspire other women to make timely career pivots. In 2025 People magazine called her a "Triple Threat" for acting, music and entrepreneurship.

  Investors backed the idea early. Northwood launched with $6.3 million from investors including the Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz. In 2025 Mendler told Bloomberg the company had raised $30 million. In 2026 it raised $100 million.

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