Bridgit Claire Mendler (born December 18, 1992) is an American entrepreneur, former actress and singer. She first became known as a child actress and continued acting into adulthood, which overlapped with a musical career in the 2010s. After enrolling at MIT and Harvard, she retired from acting and singing to focus on business and entrepreneurship in the 2020s, which is cited as an example of a successful career reinvention.
Mendler's early acting credits include the films Alice Upside Down (2007), The Clique (2008) and Labor Pains (2009). After signing with Disney Channel in 2009, she played Juliet van Heusen on Wizards of Waverly Place (2009–2012) and Teddy Duncan on Good Luck Charlie (2010–2014), and starred in the Disney Channel film Lemonade Mouth (2011). She then appeared on the NBC sitcom Undateable (2015–2016), the ABC/CMT musical television series Nashville (2017), and the Netflix comedy series Merry Happy Whatever (2019).
Mendler began her music career contributing to the soundtrack of Lemonade Mouth in 2011, and signed with Hollywood Records that same year. Her debut studio album, Hello My Name Is... (2012), peaked at number 30 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the hit singles "Ready or Not" and "Hurricane". She then embarked on two concert tours: Live in Concert (2012) and Summer Tour (2013–2014). With the Black Box record label, she independently released an extended play, Nemesis (2016), which peaked at number 46 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. She then embarked on the Nemesis Tour (2016–2017).
From 2010 to 2012, Mendler served as ambassador to nonprofit First Book, which encourages reading, and Give with Target, to raise funds to reform schools in the United States. She was a student and researcher with the MIT Media Lab from 2017 to 2023. She is also registered as a PhD candidate with MIT's Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group. In 2024, she became the CEO and co-founder of the satellite data startup Northwood Space, and earned a JD from Harvard Law School.