Melinda Wrenn Schmidt (born c. 1983) is an American actress. She is best known for her television roles as Julia Sagorsky in the period drama series Boardwalk Empire (2012–2013), as KGB handler Kate in the spy drama series The Americans (2014), as Dr Iris Campbell on the thriller series Person of Interest (2014–2016) and as Megan Holter in the horror series Outcast (2016–present). Her film roles include the horror film Preservation (2014), the biographical drama I Saw the Light (2015), the war film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) and the romantic comedy, The Good Catholic (2017).\n', '

Schmidt was born in Lexington, South Carolina. Her father is a biology professor, and her mother is a former dietician. She comes from mixed European heritage; German from her father, but also English, Scotch-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 then 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.\n', '

Schmidt was first cast in Crazy for the Dog in 2006 by the Jean Cocteau Repertory. 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. The role led to her finding a talent agent, and to her first television appearances on NBC\'s Law & Order and CBS\' 3 lbs in 2006. 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.\n', '

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