Biographie
Wendle was born in Los Angeles at UCLA Hospital to an artist and art-educator mother, and a pediatrician father. She grew up in Denver, Colorado and majored in theater at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She then attended the Professional Theatre Training Program at Southern Methodist University, receiving her Master of Fine Arts in Acting. She moved to Los Angeles and was seen onstage playing Touchstone in As You Like It, Mary the Maid in The Bald Soprano, and Jaquenetta in Love's Labor's Lost at The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. During The Bald Soprano's run, she crashed the auditions for a TNT re-make Arnold Schwarzenegger was directing, and he hired her for her first on-camera role, playing an Assistant Director, working with scene partners Kris Kristofferson, Dyan Cannon, and Tony Curtis. Soon after, John McTiernan cast her to play a scene with Arnold in Last Action Hero, and Rob Reiner cast Wendle to play a funny airline agent opposite Elijah Wood in North, written by Alan Zweibel. Wendle went to the Sundance Film Festival with the film The Party Favor, a short by writer/director Lisa Udelson, where she worked with Heidi Swedberg and David Schwimmer. The film received highest praise and awards at numerous festivals.
Wendle has enjoyed playing wonderful character roles for many years. Some of her favorite roles have been storm-chaser Haynes in the movie Twister, break-dancing artist Rita, with Matthew McConaughey in Ron Howard's film EDtv, George Clooney's secretary in the Coen Bros film Intolerable Cruelty, and the A.D. in Jake Kasdan's film The TV Set, where she worked with David Duchovny, Willie Garson and Sigourney Weaver. She played a passionate, hilarious Eco-warrior on Weeds, and an annoyingly insensitive gadgets expert with Jennifer Garner on Alias, working with J.J. Abrams. She had the tremendous pleasure of working with Robin Williams, Nastassja Kinski and Steve Valentine on Ivan Reitman's film Father's Day, and the first-time experience of her scene being cut out. She had hilarious roles as a snobby saleswoman on Ellen and as an upset wife on Drew Carey. She played a no-nonsense nurse with Bernie Mac on his show, and enjoyed playing the officious Assistant, Susie, to lawyer Jackie Childs on the Seinfeld finale. Wendle guest-starred as a talented fashion photographer on Glee and an all-green artist on the web series Whole Day Down, starring Patrick Breen and Willie Garson. Working with George Lopez on his TVLand Show Lopez, Wendle enjoyed playing his next door landlady in three episodes.
She has shot over two dozen terrifically funny national commercial roles, including Dr. Scholl's, EA Sports with Wayne Gretzky, Toyota, Hulu, Telezapper, Target, IBM, Korbel, Equifax, Progressive Auto Insurance among others, working with highly talented commercial directors. Wendle is also a Voiceover artist, recording animation characters and commercials including PSA's for the US Dept. of Energy, American Lung Association and Regional Water Authority.
