Bridgit Mendler's Satellite Data Startup: A New Frontier After Disney Channel

Bridgit Mendler is widely recognized for her roles in beloved Disney Channel shows and movies like Good Luck Charlie and Lemonade Mouth. However, beyond her successful acting and singing career, the 31-year-old has also made significant strides in academia and professional pursuits, particularly in the fields of technology, law, and space.

Who is Bridgit Mendler?

Bridgit Mendler is an American actress, singer, and songwriter born on December 18, 1992, in Washington, D.C., United States. She started her acting journey in 2004 with a role in the animated film The Legend of Buddha and went on to appear in TV shows like General Hospital, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Good Luck Charlie.

In 2011, she starred in the Disney Channel movie Lemonade Mouth. Mendler is also known for her music, releasing albums such as Hello My Name Is... in 2012 and Nemesis in 2020. She has contributed songs to various Disney Channel projects. 

Alongside her entertainment career, Mendler is active in philanthropy, supporting organizations like Save the Children and First Book, which provides books to children in need.

From Disney to MIT & Harvard

Mendler began playing when she was 11 years old. Her role as Teddy Duncan in the sitcom Good Luck Charlie, which ran from 2010 to 2014, made her famous. She was also in the musical film Lemonade Mouth, and her first record, Hello, My Name Is..., came out in 2012.

But Mendler didn't let her fame stop her from going to school. Her degree in anthropology from the University of Southern California was given to her in 2016. After that, she went to MIT to get her master's degree and studied video arts and sciences. She also went to Harvard Law School and studied space law and policy there.

From Space Law to Space Startup

Because Mendler was interested in space, she got a job at the Federal Communications Commission's Space Bureau in 2022. There, she learned about the pros and cons of satellite communications. She saw that there had to be a better way to send and receive data from space, so in 2024 she started her own company called Northwood Space.

Northwood Space wants to build a "data highway between Earth and space" by developing and mass-producing teleports that connect ground stations to satellites in space. Mendler is the CEO of the business, and her husband Griffin Cleverly, who used to work as an engineer at Lockheed Martin, is the CTO.

Bridgit Mendler on Her Space Startup’s Impact 

Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most well-known venture capital companies in Silicon Valley, is one of the investors who gave Mendler and her team their first $6.3 million. They want to connect to a spacecraft in orbit by the end of the year and finally make their network of teleports all over the world.

Mendler thinks that Northwood Space can help make space more accessible to everyone and let more people use the data and services that satellites offer. She also wants to encourage other young people to follow their STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) dreams.

In an interview with CNBC, Mendler expressed, "I think it’s important for girls to see that they can do anything they want, and that there are so many different paths they can take." She added, "I hope that my story can show them that they can expect the unexpected, and that they can have fun along the way."

A Timeline of Bridgit's Relationship

Bridgit Mendler is currently married to Griffin Cleverly. They began dating in 2017 and became engaged in April 2019. The couple confirmed their marriage via Instagram in October 2019.

Before her relationship with Cleverly, Mendler dated Shane Harper, whom she met on the set of "Good Luck Charlie." They were together from 2011 to 2015. Although Mendler and Harper did not publicly announce their split, changes in their social media interactions indicated the end of their relationship.

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