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Where Is Bridgit Mendler Now? Her Life And Career After Disney Explored As Actress Graduates From Harvard Law School
The Hollywood star has steered away from the glitz and glam of the film industry and is pursuing her academic goals by enrolling in reputed institutes, the likes of MIT and Harvard.
Bridgit Mendler can do it all. The Disney alum, who made waves with roles on hit shows like Wizards of Waverly Place, Good Luck Charlie, and her music career, recently graduated from Harvard Law School. The Hollywood star has steered away from the glitz and glam of the film industry and is pursuing her academic goals by enrolling in reputed institutes, the likes of MIT and Harvard.
On Thursday, May 23, a video rolled in on X displaying Bridgit Mendler’s graduation. As the faculty announced her name loud and clear, the former actress walked onto the stage with her 4-year-old son and shook hands with the faculty while collecting the diploma. Mendler was decked up in graduation attire and quickly posed for a photo with her son before walking off the stage.
Mendler’s new milestone caught the internet’s attention with many in awe of the Ready or Not singer’s potential. After introducing a lot many changes in her life, like quitting Hollywood, adopting a son, and starting her own tech startup with her husband Griffin Cleverly, Mendler pushes the boundaries of possibility.
Where is Bridgit Mendler now?
Currently, the 31-year-old actor is treading into business. She announced her latest venture into space technology earlier this year, establishing her own startup, Northwood Space where she serves as the CEO and with her husband Cleverly as CTO, per People. The company strives to build a “data highway between Earth and space” by laying down ground satellite stations to send data to and fro from space.
Not an impulse, Bridgit Mendler has rightly earned academic qualifications from MIT via her master's degree, in 2020. Now, she is pursuing PhD from the premier institute.
In the announcement on X, Mendler revealed that her company has received $6.3 million as funds and that they are designing “shared ground infrastructure from first principle” to expand data access to space. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but that’s the fun part," the Lemonade Mouth star quipped.
The idea stemmed from the limitations of data sharing from space despite innovation in the sphere in the past years. Mendler also issued a comparison with others making “sourdough starters” whereas she and her husband built antennas from random “cra*p” at Home Depot, per CNBC.
Bridgit Mendler’s acting and music career
Starting out as a child star at Disney, Bridgit Mendler found her breakthrough with 2007’s Alice Upside Down and 2008’s The Clique. Setting her acting career in motion, she also landed roles in hit Disney projects like Wizards of Waverly Place starring Selena Gomez, Lemonade Mouth, and Father of the Year starring David Spade.
However, Mendler’s most notable work came with Good Luck Charlie which aired from 2010 to 2014, and its 2011 spinoff, Good Luck Charlie: Its Christmas! But after the show ended in 2014, the actress bid farewell to the network and moved on to other projects. Mendler starred in NBC’s Undateable until 2016, and Nashville in 2017. Her final role was in Netflix’s Merry Happy Whatever in 2019 before it was discontinued the following year.
Mendler’s role in 2011’s Lemonade Mouth traversed her into music. She wrote and performed several songs for the film which gave way to her debut single, Ready or Not in 2012. Later, she also released her first studio album, Hello My Name Is…via courtesy of Hollywood Records.
The Disney alum followed it up with two more EPs – Live in London in 2013 and Nemesis in 2016. The latter was a hit and she embarked on the Nemesis tour around North America which wrapped in 2017. Despite releasing singles like Temperamental Love and Diving that year, it appeared to mark the unofficial end of her music career.
Personal life and family
Besides her far-reaching ambitions, Mendler made sure to thrive in her personal life as well. In October 2019, Bridgit Mendler and Griffin Cleverly tied the knot in a private ceremony at the beach following their engagement in April of that year. They reportedly began dating in 2017. She marked the moment as “magical” with "a great sunset," per Extra.
Taking her marriage to the next phase, Mendler disclosed in February that she was a mother to a 4-year-old boy. She adopted the child around Christmas 2022 as per her post on X. “Started fostering in 2021 adopted near Christmas of 2022. I’m so lucky — being a parent is the biggest gift and most defining experience there is,” she wrote in a sweet message on February 20, 2024.
In her early life, Mendler relocated to California with her family where she was introduced to acting at a young age. At 8, she began participating in local plays and earned the title of the youngest performer at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, per a report by Disney Channel.
Education and degrees
Bridgit Mendler started out with a degree in Anthropology at the University of Southern California but left it mid-way in 2016, per CNBC. Later, she enrolled in MIT for a graduate program and was subject to much acclaim for her academic flair, within the institute. This was after Mendler quit music for good.
After earning a master’s degree from the top-tier institute in 2020, Mendler went on to pursue a PhD there, alongside studying for her law degree at Harvard. According to People, she was also the co-president of Harvard Space Law Society for a year.
Now, the actress has achieved a fragment of her mountain of ambitions as the Harvard convocation ceremony video makes its way to the internet. Fret not, there’s more to come.
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