Alexis Bledel

Gilmore Girls star Alexis Bledel captured viewers’ hearts for seven seasons — and on two networks — as Rory Gilmore, the lovable Yalie with dreams of journalistic stardom.

The Houston native got her start doing community theater in her hometown. After debuting on Gilmore Girls in 2000, her feature film debut came with 2002’s Tuck Everlasting, in which she starred alongside Ben Kingsley, Sissy Spacek and Jonathan Jackson.

The actress tool roles in the high-budget blockbuster Sin City and the beloved girl-bonding flick The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Bledel reprised her Traveling Pants role when the film’s highly anticipated sequel hit theaters in 2008. In 2009, she hit the big screen in Post Grad and signed a modeling contract with IMG.

Bledel reprised her role as Rory Gilmore in the Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in Life in 2016. She joined The Handmaid’s Tale, which debuted in 2017, as Emily. She earned an Emmy for her role in the first season and left the Hulu series in the beginning of season 4.

In her personal life, Bledel dated her Gilmore Girls onscreen love interest Milo Ventimiglia for more than three years before the couple separated in July 2006. She married her Mad Men costar Vincent Kartheiser‘s proposal in 2014. The two have one child together. Us confirmed in August 2022 that Kartheiser filed for divorce after eight years of marriage and their split was finalized less than three weeks later.