On Monday, the 31-year-old actress and singer-songwriter confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she co-founded a California-based satellite data startup called Northwood Space and will be its CEO.
The start-up received $6.3 million in seed funding from investors, according to Mendler, and will design “ground infrastructure” to help accelerate the mass adoption of satellite technology. It hopes to create “a data highway between Earth and space.”
Mendler’s husband, Griffin Cleverly, whom she married in October 2019, will serve as the start-up’s chief technology officer.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us but that’s the fun part,” she wrote.
Mendler surprised fans again in a follow-up tweet, sharing that she’s the mom of a 4-year-old boy, whom she began fostering in 2021 and adopted “near Christmas of 2022.”
“I’m so lucky — being a parent is the biggest gift and most defining experience there is,” her tweet read. “That’s my news for now folks.”
Mendler is best known for playing Teddy Duncan on the Disney Channel’s original family sitcom Good Luck Charlie. The show, which aired from 2010 to 2014, followed the Duncan family and their adventures in raising their fourth child, Charlie. Mendler’s character was the second-oldest sibling of the bunch.
She also appeared on other Disney Channel shows like Jonas, Wizards of Waverly Place and So Random! She had the starring role in the 2011 Disney Channel original movie Lemonade Mouth.
Mendler’s early projects often showcased her musical abilities. In 2011, the soundtrack for Lemonade Mouth debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, with singles like “Breakthrough” and “Somebody.” The next year, she released her debut album Hello My Name Is… featuring the hit single “Ready or Not.”
Mendler also appeared in network shows like Undateable, the ABC drama Nashville and the Netflix series Merry Happy Whatever with Dennis Quaid.
Mendler is also recognized and admired for her philanthropy and activism.
Mendler began studying at the University of Southern California in 2013, graduating in 2016. She then began working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab in 2017, before enrolling in the school’s graduate program in 2018.
Per her LinkedIn profile, Mendler began a doctorate in philosophy at MIT in 2020. She enrolled at Harvard Law School the following year. She also briefly worked at the Federal Communications Commission in 2022.
Mendler told CNBC that she “completely fell in love with space law” during her time working at the FCC’s Space Bureau. Northwood Space, she explained, aims to mass produce ground stations — large antennas that connect to satellites in space.
“Space is getting easier along so many different dimensions but still the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult,” she said. “You have difficulty finding an access point for contacting your satellite.”
According to its website, Northwood Space is “building a data highway between Earth and space. To meet the needs of today’s space industry, the one-lane rickety road for space data needs to adapt to a 10-lane highway routing continuous traffic across the globe.”
To do so, “Northwood is designing ground infrastructure from first principles to accelerate mass adoption of satellite technology.”
