Bridgit Mendler - Wikipedia

Bridgit Claire Mendler[4] was born on December 18, 1992,[5] in Washington, D.C. to Charles and Sandy (née Ford) Mendler.[6][7] She has one younger brother named Nick (b. 1997).[8][9] Mendler moved to Mill Valley, California with her family at the age of eight.[10][11] It was there where she first expressed interest in acting and began working in plays.[12] When she was eight years old, Mendler began taking part in local roles in both dramatic and musical theatre, and became the youngest performer in the San Francisco Fringe Festival.[13] When she was 11 years old, she hired an agent to help her get acting jobs.[14] Mendler is the niece of psychologist Christine Blasey Ford.[1]

In the 2010s, Mendler studied towards a degree in anthropology at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California.[15] Two members of her band also studied at USC.[16] In an interview with Brian Mansfield of USA Today, Mendler said: "My plan right now is just to do one class at a time and see how that goes. I'm just going to study something that will be interesting and doable from the road and just take care of my general education courses for now. I want to know something outside of what I do."[17] In 2013, she chose anthropology[18] and studied Medieval Visual Culture, and medical anthropology.[19][20] To the University Star, Mendler said USC was important: "I think seeing that college life and what that would've been like, it does make you wonder what sort of lifestyle that would be, but I'm really grateful for what I have, and I think it's cool that, because my career path is not as formulaic, I can kind of decide when I want to take time off to do certain things."[18] Her mother[21] was pursuing a doctorate in public policy at USC at the time.[22] Mendler dropped out of USC in 2016.[23] In May 2017, Mendler was announced as one of the 2017 MIT Media Lab's Director's Fellows.[24]

In May 2018, she announced on Twitter that she started a graduate program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a focus on improving social media: "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."[25][26] In 2020, she completed an M.S. in media arts and sciences at MIT.[27] Her master's thesis was titled OurStory: Dispute System Design Technology for Stakeholder Inclusion.[27] Deb Roy was her thesis advisor.[27] She later began working on her Ph.D with MIT's Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group.[28] During 2022, she was enrolled at Harvard Law School and at MIT.[29] In May 2024, she was awarded a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law.[30][31]