--- name: "Andrea Anders" canonical: "https://film.one/person/andrea-anders" roles: ["Actor"] born: "10 May 1975" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 74 updated: "2026-09-17T00:47:19.043930+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Andrea Anders Actor. Born 10 May 1975 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 10 May 1975, Madison, Wisconsin, USA - **Active:** 2009–2018 - **Also known as:** アンドレア・アンダース ## Fi1m on Andrea Anders > Andrea Anders plays the sane, likeable woman in the middle of an ensemble comedy, and plays her well. The trouble is that her shows keep casting her as the love interest, which is the one strand of any sitcom nobody is watching for. In *Better Off Ted* (2009), Linda Zwordling is the one person at the company who reacts to it the way a viewer would. The building goes mad over a new policy, everyone else adjusts, and Anders looks about her with a face that says this cannot be happening and then gets on with it. She is quick, she is easy to like, and she is the show's conscience. She is also its love interest, and every time the will-they-won't-they between Linda and Ted comes forward, the pace drops. That is roughly the shape of her career. She came out of theatre, did soaps and an episode of *Oz* (2003), and then landed Alex Garrett in *Joey* (2004–2006), the part that fixed the type: smart, friendly, on hand. There followed a run of network sitcoms in which she was a lead and which did not last, *The Class* (2006–07), *Better Off Ted* (2009–10), *Mr. Sunshine* (2011). Since then she has done recurring work, most visibly as Michelle Lasso in *Ted Lasso* (2020–), and supporting parts in films directed by her brother Sean Anders, from *Sex Drive* (2008) to *Instant Family* (2018), six of them so far. What she does well is timing inside a group. She listens, she lands the reply a beat early, and she makes the people around her funnier by seeming to be the only one who has noticed the joke. "I think comedy comes easily to me," she has said, and on the evidence it does. What she is rarely asked to do is carry the odd material herself. In *Better Off Ted* the strange, cold, funny stuff belongs to Portia De Rossi and the lab, and Linda gets the ordinary sitcom business the rest of the series is mocking. We liked her more than the strand she was given. Whenever she was reacting to the company rather than to Ted, the scenes moved; whenever the show remembered she was supposed to be in love, we found ourselves waiting for it to get back to the building. That is not her fault. Somebody has to be the reasonable one, and she is very good at it, but the reasonable one gets the least to play. Four lead roles in sitcoms that did not go the distance is a pattern, and it would be easy to read it as a verdict. It is worth noticing which way the pattern runs. The shows kept ending and she kept being hired for the next one. That says more about the shows than about her. ## Biography Andrea Anders is an American actress. She was born on 10 May 1975 in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in DeForest, Wisconsin. She graduated from DeForest Area High School in 1993, received a BFA from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 1997, and an MFA from Rutgers University in 2001. She began her career in theatre in 2001 before making her screen debut in 1998. Anders is known for her television work, including main roles as Alex Garrett in *Joey* (2004–2006), Nicole Allen in *The Class* (2006–2007), Linda Zwordling in *Better Off Ted* (2009–2010), and Alice in *Mr. Sunshine* (2011). She has had recurring roles in series such as *Oz* (2003), *Modern Family* (2014–2015), *Young Sheldon* (2018–2020) and *Ted Lasso* (2020–). Her film credits include *The Stepford Wives* (2004), *Sex Drive* (2008), *Instant Family* (2018) and *Daddy's Home 2* (2017). She is the sister of director Sean Anders. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Instant Family* (2018), Fi1m 68, as Jessie — [page](https://film.one/film/instant-family.md) - *Better Off Ted* (2009), Fi1m 80, as Linda Zwordling — [page](https://film.one/tv/better-off-ted.md) ## Also known for - *Young Sheldon* (2017), Linda Swanson - *Daddy's Home 2* (2017), Principal Hayes - *Countdown* (2019), Jamie Harris - *Sex Drive* (2008), Brandy - *The Stepford Wives* (2004), Heather - *Spirited* (2022), Carrie - *Law & Order* (1990), Emily Hoyt - *Numb3rs* (2005), Rena Vining --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/andrea-anders