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Rise to Fame
Robin Scherbatsky is one of the few sitcom characters who held up across nine seasons without becoming insufferable, and that's Smulders' doing. She landed the HIMYM role in 2005 with almost no resume, then stayed for all nine seasons. Marvel picked her up as Maria Hill midway through, starting with The Avengers in 2012. Most TV leads treat MCU side gigs as prestige stamps. Smulders treated it like a second career, and Hill kept showing up in Marvel films long after HIMYM wrapped.
In the Spotlight
Post-HIMYM, she's made some bets that haven't landed cleanly. Stumptown cast her as a rough-edged Portland detective in 2019, and ABC cancelled it after one season. Secret Invasion brought Maria Hill back in 2023, then killed the character in the first episode. She has a new comedic drama, Jill Takes a Break, in development. The biggest card in her hand is still the MCU one, and she's made clear she'd play it again whenever Marvel asks.
Side Notes
She spent her teens modeling internationally, including Japan, France, and Italy, and has since said she 'kind of hated' it. Most people who hate something that lucrative quit faster. She enrolled in marine biology at the University of Victoria before switching to New York. The cancer diagnosis came during HIMYM's third season, when she was 25. She had multiple surgeries over two years to preserve her fertility and avoid radiation, and kept filming. Cast and crew apparently didn't know.