Jacoba Fransisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders (born April 3, 1982, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) is an actress and former international model.
As a child Smulders wanted to be either a doctor or a marine biologist but started to gain an interest in acting in high school, appearing in several school productions. Discovered by a modeling agency in her teens, she started to model internationally, including in locations such as Paris, Japan, Milan, Greece, and Germany.
She finished high school in 2000 with high honors, being voted "Most Respected," and continued modeling for a few years before settling in Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
She can speak French fluently, and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Her first role was as a guest in the Showtime sci-fi series Jeremiah, and she has guest starred in numerous television series since, including a recurring part in The L Word.
Her first permanent series role was in the short-lived ABC series Veritas: The Quest; her second would be the series for which she is most well-known, the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, where she plays television reporter Robin Scherbatsky, also a Canadian.
Joss Whedon has joked that she was his choice for the lead role in the film adaption of Wonder Woman after he left the project.
