Melinda Wrenn Schmidt is an American actress. She is best known for her television roles as Julia Sagorsky in the period drama seriesBoardwalk Empire, as KGB handler Kate in the spy drama series The Americans, as Dr Iris Campbell on the thriller series Person of Interest and as Megan Holter in the horror series Outcast. Her film roles include the horror film Preservation, the biographical dramaI Saw the Light, the war film and the romantic comedy, The Good Catholic.
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. Schmidt made her film debut in the 2010 documentary ', portraying a prostitute who refused to appear on camera. She had parts that year on NBC's Mercy, and in the playPhantom 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 also 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 also 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. She had a number of recurring roles on television in 2014. She played Kate, a KGB handler, on the FX series, The Americans, for six episodes. She also played Jenna Olson on FX's Tyrant, and Dr. Iris Campbell on Person of Interest. 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 then appeared in the 2015 Hank Williams biopic film I Saw the Light, starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen. She played Bobbie Jett, who had a short-lived relationship with Williams, and gave birth to their daughter, Jett Williams. In 2016, Schmidt had a role opposite John Krasinski in the Michael Bay film, ', which portrays the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya. She also 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.
