Cristin Milioti

Cristin Milioti was an American actress best known for playing the title role in the final season of the hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS 2005-2014) and for her Tony-nominated performance in the off-Broadway musical "Once" (2011-12).

Milioti was born on August 16, 1985 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Throughout high school, she performed in school plays and saw her first Broadway play at the age of 16. Her early interest in theater led to her studying acting at New York University. However, her days at NYU were disappointing and she dropped out within a year. She used the opportunity to jump straight into the theater. Milioti joined her first Broadway production in 2006 with the Martin McDonagh hit "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," which was followed by a string of off-Broadway plays.

While her theater career began to take off in New York, Milioti also started to venture into television. Her first on-camera acting gig was for the critically acclaimed mob series "The Sopranos" (HBO 1999-2007), as younger daughter of crime boss John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni (Vince Curatola) in the show's final season. In 2007, she returned to her home state of New Jersey to film her first feature, the indie flick "Greetings From the Shore." She spent a few more years taking on small roles in movies and television roles, which included an appearance on "The Good Wife" (CBS 2009-) and a scene-stealing episode as the new female writer with a "sexy baby" persona in "30 Rock" (NBC 2006-2013). Meanwhile, the young actress was struggling to land roles in musicals, despite her past experience singing with bands all the way back to her high school days. She came close when she auditioned for "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," but her luck finally turned in the best possible way when she landed the leading role in the off-Broadway musical adaptation of the Irish musical film "Once." The modern day musical love story eventually became a Broadway production and won numerous awards, including a Tony for Best Musical and a Best Actress in a Musical nomination for Milioti.

Joining the cast of "Once" proved to be the turning point for Milioti. In 2013, her biggest break came when she booked an important role for CBS's hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Up until the eighth season finale, the show kept the identity of the mother a secret. In the episode's very last scene, millions of television viewers watched as the sitcom unveiled that Milioti was the future wife of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor). The ninth and final season, set over the course of a three-day weekend, slowly revealed how "The Mother" met each of Ted's friends and how he proposed to her. That same year, holiday moviegoers saw Milioti in "The Wolf of Wall Street," Martin Scorsese's black comedy about the greed and excesses of the financial industry. She played the role of Teresa Petrillo, the first wife of securities fraud extraordinaire Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose memoir the film was based on. Following the divisive end of "How I Met Your Mother," Milioti reappeared on TV in the romantic comedy "A To Z" (NBC 2014-15), Though the series, co-starring Ben Feldman, received generally solid reviews, its ratings were poor and the show was canceled halfway through its initial season.