Bridgit Mendler Biography

Bridgit Claire Mendler (born December 18, 1992) is an American actress, singer, musician and songwriter. She is signed to American label Hollywood Records and will be premiering her first single "Ready or Not" on August 3, 2012, with her debut album, Hello My Name Is, to come later in Fall 2012. She currently stars as Teddy Duncan on the Disney Channel Original Series, Good Luck Charlie and starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Lemonade Mouth. She had a recurring role as Juliet van Heusen on Wizards of Waverly Place and has also appeared in the films Labor Pains, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, The Clique and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2.

Mendler was born in Washington, D.C. and attended Lafayette Elementary School. She then moved with her family to the San Francisco area town of Mill Valley at age eight. It was there where she first expressed interest in acting and began working in plays. She became the youngest performer in the San Francisco Fringe Festival.

Acting career

Mendler had a San Francisco agent when she was 11 years old. When she was thirteen, she began working in the Los Angeles market, landing her first L.A. role in the soap opera General Hospital in 2006. In that same year, she provided the voice of Thorn in the video game, Bone: The Great Cow Race. In 2007, Mendler played the role of Pamela Jones in the film Alice Upside Down and in 2008, Mendler played the role of Kristen Gregory in the film The Clique.

In 2009, she guest starred as Nick Jonas's love interest on the series premiere of Jonas. That same year, she co-starred with Lindsay Lohan in the film Labor Pains. She has also guest-starred in nine episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place as Juliet Van Heusen, a vampire that Justin Russo (David Henrie) falls in love with. In the same year, She was in the film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. She starred in the Disney Channel Original Series, Good Luck Charlie, which premiered on April 4, 2010.

In 2011, she starred as Olivia White, the lead role in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Lemonade Mouth. She also starred as Teddy Duncan in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas!. In the same year, she appeared in Disney's Friends for Change Games (where she was the Yellow Team captain), So Random! (where she performed with Lemonade Mouth and participated in sketches), PrankStars and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (where she made a cameo appearance with her Good Luck Charlie co-star Bradley Steven Perry).

In 2012, she guest starred in the television series, House. She provided the voice of Arrietty in The Secret World of Arrietty. Mendler played the role of Shane Harper's girlfriend in the music video, "Rocketship".

In an interview with Kidzworld Media, Mendler confirmed that there will not be a sequel to Lemonade Mouth, commenting: "There’s not [going to be a sequel to Lemonade Mouth] unfortunately. We had such a great experience working on the movie, and they tried to figure something out for a sequel, but everyone at Disney felt like the movie had completed its story in the first movie. It was a great experience, and I loved working with the cast members and still see them frequently."

Music career

In 2010, Mendler's credits as a singer include the theme song for Good Luck Charlie, entitled "Hang in There Baby". She also sang a cover of "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2 for the DisneyMania 7 album. She recorded a song for the Disney film Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, called "How to Believe". In late 2010, Mendler wrote and performed the song "This Is My Paradise" for the motion picture Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. It premiered on the Disney Channel on December 19, 2010.

Mendler performed songs in the film Lemonade Mouth, in which she played the lead singer in a high school band. Her first single, "Somebody" debuted and peaked at number 89 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and sold 6,000 copies in the first week in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. Her second single, "Determinate" peaked at number 51 in US Billboard Hot 100 and charting in 2 more countries. Songs from the film, include "Somebody", "Determinate", and "Livin on a High Wire", were played on Radio Disney. The soundtrack to the film, which heavily features the fictional band with Mendler on lead vocals peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard 200 album chart.

In 2011, she co-wrote and sang the Disney's Friends for Change Games anthem called "We Can Change the World". On August 21, 2011, Mendler was presented at The Fair at the PNE in Vancouver, Canada, and sang an original song titled, "Talk to Me". She also sang a duet with Shane Harper two songs "One Step Closer" and "Wait for Me", and performed a cover of the song "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King. Mendler co-wrote and performed the song "I'm Gonna Run to You", which is featured in the film Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas!. The song was released on iTunes on November 12, 2011. She sang a song called "Summertime" for the movie, The Secret World of Arrietty. The song was released on February 2, 2012.

As of March 31, 2011, Mendler was signed with Hollywood Records.

Mendler's debut album, Hello My Name Is, will be released in September 2012.. In advance of the releasing of her first album, Mendler has revealed, in her official profile in Twitter, that the first single of the album would be called "Ready or Not". In an interview with Kidzworld Media about what the song is about, she said: "It’s a fun song about a girl who is feeling like she has been the wallflower her whole life and she wants to go out there and take charge. It has the romantic element of her going for the guy rather than waiting for the world to come to her. I wrote it with some great writers and producers. We wrote most of the album together".

Finally, a press release from ClevverTV confirmed that "Ready or Not" would be released in August 3, 2012, and will be available to purchase in August 7, 2012. The videoclip, recorded in several locations of Los Angeles and directed by Philip Andelman, will be released in August 10. She has spoken again, then, over the song: "I have been writing songs since I was six years old and I’m thrilled to finally share my songs with the world. I wanted to write something that was empowering for girls. I consider myself to have been that girl sitting on the curb waiting for the world to notice". It was also revealed that Bridgit had written the song, with Emanuel "Eman" Kiriakou and Evan "Kidd" Bogart as co-writers. The song presents, in its chorus, an interpolation from the song "Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide from Love)", by The Delfonics.

On Disney terms about music, Mendler performed the song "You're Something Beautiful" which was featured in the 1-hour special episode of Good Luck Charlie, "Special Delivery".