Cobie Smulders

Cobie Smulders
Smulders at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International
Born	Jacoba Francisca Maria Smulders April 3, 1982 (age 33) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Residence	New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Actress, Model
Years active	2002–present
Spouse(s)	Taran Killam (m. 2012)
Children	2

Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders^[1][2] (born April 3, 1982)^[3][4] is a Canadian actress and model. She is best known for her roles as Robin Scherbatsky on the television series How I Met Your Mother (2005–14) and Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Early life

Smulders was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a Dutch father and an English mother. She was named after her great-aunt, from whom she gained the nickname "Cobie".^[5] Smulders describes herself as "a fluent listener" of French.^[6]

Smulders worked in modeling, which she later said she "kind of hated", adding that the experience made her hesitant about pursuing acting as a career: "You know you go into these rooms, and I've had the experience of people judging you physically for so long and I was over that. But then it was like, 'Oh no, I have to actually perform. I have to do well, and I have to have a voice, and I have to have thoughts now.'"^[7]

As a youth, Smulders aspired to be a marine biologist.^[6] Describing her transition to her eventual professions, she said,

I studied acting throughout high school, then modeling took over because it brought more opportunity. When I quit modeling, coming back to Vancouver, I registered at the University of Victoria. At the same time, that summer, I was taking acting classes and decided to give that a year or two instead of going back to school. I always wanted to go back to school. I was looking into taking some classes part-time, but marine biology involves a lot of lab time.^[6]