Cobie Smulders built her profile across nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother (2005) as Robin Scherbatsky, a role that made her one of the most recognizable faces in American sitcoms before she became a Marvel star. She appeared as Maria Hill across multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe entries beginning with The Avengers (2012), then stepped into leading roles with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) opposite Tom Cruise and the crime drama Stumptown (2019). The Canadian actress has sustained two distinct audience relationships simultaneously for longer than almost any performer of her era.

On screen, Smulders operates through a dry wit and physical assurance that made Robin Scherbatsky the most grounded presence in How I Met Your Mother‘s ensemble across its entire run. Her dark hair, sharp features, and athlete’s posture give her a cool authority that suits both comedy and action, and the Marvel films have used that quality efficiently across a decade of appearances. She remains among the more underrated comic actresses working today, a performer whose timing deserves a vehicle as good as she is.