Riki Lindhome
Lindhome at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Erika Lindhome (1979-03-05) March 5, 1979 (age 44) Portville, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Syracuse University
Occupations	Actress comedian musician
Years active	2001–present
Partner	Fred Armisen (2022–present)[1]
Children	1
Musical career
Genres	Folk comedy
Instrument(s)	Vocals acoustic guitar flute
Member of	Garfunkel and Oates
Musical artist

Erika "Riki" Lindhome (born March 5, 1979) is an American actress, comedian and musician. She is best known as a singer and songwriter for the comedy folk duo Garfunkel and Oates.

After making her television debut in 2002 with minor roles in the series Titus and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she guest-starred on the WB series Gilmore Girls (2005–2006), the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2008; 2017) and the HBO series Enlightened (2011). She co-created and starred in the Comedy Central period sitcom Another Period (2015–2018) with Natasha Leggero. She voiced the recurring role of Kimberly Harris in the Fox animated sitcom series Duncanville (2020–2022) and in 2022, starred as Dr. Valerie Kinbott in the Netflix comedy horror series Wednesday. In 2023, she guest-starred in the Disney+ series The Muppets Mayhem.

Lindhome made her feature film debut in the 2004 film Million Dollar Baby as Mardell Fitzgerald, and went on to star in the comedy horror films Hell Baby (2013) and The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020). She also had supporting roles in the films Pulse (2006), My Best Friend's Girl (2008), The Last House on the Left and in Powder Blue (2009), Much Ado About Nothing (2012), Fun Size (2012), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), Under the Silver Lake (2018), Knives Out (2019), King Tweety (2020), and They Listen (2024).

In 2007, she formed Garfunkel and Oates with actress Kate Micucci. They wrote, produced and starred in an eponymous television series on IFC, which aired for one season in 2014. Their 2016 Vimeo comedy special Garfunkel and Oates: Trying to Be Special was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Early life

Erika Lindhome^[2] was born on March 5, 1979, in Coudersport, Pennsylvania,^[3] and raised in Portville, New York.^[4] She is primarily of Swedish ancestry.^[5] Lindhome graduated from Portville High School in 1997. She majored in communications and film at Syracuse University, where she graduated in 2000.^[4][6]

In 1997, Lindhome won first prize in the JFK Profiles in Courage essay contest awarded by the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.^[7] Her subject was United States Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), whose outrage at the murder of her husband during the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting compelled her to challenge and win the seat held by her congressman, who had voted to repeal the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

Career

Acting

Without an agent, Lindhome started her acting career with a role on a short film "Backseat Detour" (as a backseat passenger), and Charlie on the sitcom Titus. In a season seven episode of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer she was the crutches-using student Cheryl in 2002. In 2003, she joined The Actors' Gang and appeared in the play Embedded in two roles, one a Commedia dell'arte of Condoleezza Rice, and a reporter, and was one of four actors from the play to be cast in the 2004 Academy-Award Winning film Million Dollar Baby, where she played Mardell Fitzgerald, the trailer-living sister of Maggie, the film's lead.^{[8][better source needed]}

Lindhome briefly appeared as a nameless inquisitive student in a season three episode of the television series Gilmore Girls in 2002 before later guest starring as calorie-counter Juliet on the show's fifth and sixth seasons.^[9][10] She also appeared as Janelle in the 2006 techno-horror film Pulse and as a cruel nurse in the 2008 crime drama film Changeling.^[11][12] She guest-starred on the television series The Big Bang Theory as Ramona Nowitzki, a controlling graduate student obsessed with Sheldon Cooper, in seasons two, ten and eleven (2008, 2017).^[13] She guest-starred in the television series Pushing Daisies as the pie-loving Jeanine, and in 2008, Lindhome played Hilary, a deeply Christian girl who has a purposely disastrous date with Dane Cook in My Best Friend's Girl and had a minor role as murder victim Vanessa Holden on Criminal Minds.^[14] In 2009, she starred as the vicious, amoral Sadie in The Last House on the Left, a remake of the 1972 horror film of the same name.^[15]

In 2011, Lindhome was featured alongside Heather Morris, Sofía Vergara and Ashley Lendzion in "Nuthin' But a Glee Thang", a Glee-themed Funny or Die parody of the Dr. Dre song "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang".^[16] From 2010 to 2013, she developed and hosted the Nerdist podcast Making It with Riki Lindhome, interviewing people in the entertainment industry about their rise to fame.^[17][18] From 2011 to 2013, she guest-starred as Harper on the HBO television series Enlightened.^[19] She played a female version of Conrade, who is one of Don John's followers with whom he has a steamy relationship in Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, what Whedon calls "villain sex, which is nice and twisted" in his 2012 adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, and appeared as the "Galaxy Scout" costume-wearing Denise in the 2012 comedy film Fun Size.^[20][21] In 2013, she starred in the horror-comedy film Hell Baby as Marjorie, the protagonist's Wiccan sister, a role for which she did a full frontal nude scene that attracted attention because of its unusual length.^[19][22]

In 2015, Lindhome and Natasha Leggero created the Comedy Central series Another Period, in which Lindhome also starred as Beatrice Bellacourt. The show, which focuses on the Bellacourts, a fictional aristocratic family living in Newport, Rhode Island at the turn of the 20th century, premiered in June 2015.^[23] She had a recurring role on the television series The Muppets in 2015 as Becky, Fozzie Bear's human girlfriend.^[24][25][26] Also in 2015, she appeared in a season two episode of Fresh Off the Boat as Arielle, a resort masseuse, and Agneta, a Swedish Detective in Brooklyn Nine-Nine's season three episode "The Swedes".^[27][28] She voiced Poison Ivy in the 2017 animated film The Lego Batman Movie.^[29]

In 2018, Lindhome guest-starred as Shaina, a recovering drug addict, in an episode of the comedy-drama television series Kidding.,^[30] and later in 2018, Lindhome played "The Actress" who has casual sex with the "aimless" Sam in the neo-noir black comedy Under the Silver Lake. In October 2019, she was featured in SoulPancake's short documentary film Laughing Matters.^[31] The next month, she appeared in the ensemble cast of the 2019 mystery film Knives Out, as faithful wife Donna Thrombey.^[32] She began starring in the Fox animated sitcom series Duncanville in February 2020, voicing the character Kimberly Harris, the emotional 12-year-old sister of the protagonist, Duncan Harris.^[33][34] In October 2020, she starred in the comedy thriller film The Wolf of Snow Hollow, directed by Jim Cummings, as sympathetic, yet professional local Police Officer Julia Robson.^[35][36]

In 2022, she voiced the role of Royal Assistant Beep Beep in the Warner Brothers animated comedy film "King Tweety", and starred as Dr. Valerie Kinbott, Wednesday Addams's strict but understanding court-ordered therapist, in the Netflix comedy horror series Wednesday.^[37]

In 2023, she guest-starred as Justine the Belieber, a fan of Justin Bieber who steals Dr. Teeth's van in Disney's The Muppets Mayhem.

She will appear as Maud in the upcoming horror film They Listen, scheduled to be released in 2024.^[38][39]

Music

Lindhome performs as "Garfunkel" in the comedy-folk duo Garfunkel and Oates,^[40] with her friend and fellow songwriter Kate Micucci.^[40]

Other work

As of November 2021^[update], Lindhome will write the script for the upcoming animated musical film Steps, which she will executive produce and write the lyrics for alongside Micucci.^[41]

Personal life

Lindhome has a son, who was born in March 2022.^{[42][non-primary source needed]} Since 2022, her partner is Fred Armisen.^[1]

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Discography

• Yell at Me from Your Car EP (2011)