Virginia “Ginny” Gardner is an American film and television actress best known for her roles as Karolina Dean in Hulu’s Marvel’s Runaways and Vicky in the 2018 Halloween. She is also known for smaller guest appearances in popular television dramas such as Molly Bartlett in How to Get Away with Murder and Bernadette in American Horror Story.

Virginia Gardner Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Virginia Gardner was born on April 18, 1995 (Virginia Gardner age: 30) in Sacramento, California. During her childhood in Sacramento, Gardner frequently acted in school plays. In high school, her family moved to Los Angeles, where she began remote homeschooling, and a few months later, decided to take the California High School Proficiency Exam.

During her teenage years, she lived with her mother, but once her acting career took off, she was able to move into her own apartment and become more independent.

Virginia Gardner: Career

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Gardner shared the heartwarming story behind her decision to pursue acting.

“I have a brother with autism, and there was a movie that came out many years ago called I Am Sam, and I watched that movie at a really young age and it really resonated with me,” Gardner remarked. “Something clicked, and where I was like, ‘Oh I’m understanding more about my life through this film’, and it just made me want to be a part of that kind of magical experience.”

Gardner further reflected how the film made her feel “seen and understood” and caused her to ask herself, “how can I recreate that feeling for others?”

Her professional acting career began in 2011, when she landed the role of Young Lemon in an episode of Hart of Dixie. Her television career took off from there; in 2012, she appeared in Disney’s Lab Rats as Danielle, in 2013, she was cast as Katie Fitzgerald/Marissa in Glee, and later that year, she was cast in ABC’s The Goldbergs as recurring character Lexie Bloom for eight episodes.

In 2015, she booked her first movie, where she acted as Christina Raskin in Project Almanac, a science-fiction thriller about teenagers who find themselves in possession of a powerful “temporal displacement device.”

She continued to work in television and film, gaining more small parts in shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and movies like Halloween, but her breakthrough role came in 2017 when she was cast as main character Karolina Dean in Hulu’s Marvel’s Runaways. She was commended for her portrayal of Karolina and the representation she brought to one of the first openly gay characters in a Marvel series.

Gardner continued on this trajectory. In 2022, she starred as Shiloh Hunter in Scott Mann‘s Fall alongside Grace Caroline Currey, who played Becky Connor. The film follows the pair as they climb a 2,000-foot tower and find themselves completely stranded and forced to reconsider their relationships with both themselves and each other. In an exclusive interview with Gardner and Currey, the two reflected on the challenges the film brought.

“The wild thing is when you’re on a soundstage and in a studio, you don’t have weather to battle and you don’t have bee infestations, flying ant infestations, rain storms, thunderstorms – which, we had all of that”, Currey said.

“It was a 100-foot tower that was built on top of a 2,000-foot mountain, and it was all practical, we did the stunts, everything you see was real, we were doing it,” Gardner added. “We had no choice but to overcome our fears…we had so much we never thought we’d be capable of.”

Both actresses had minimal experience with stunt work going into Fall, which centered mainly around indoor bouldering. Gardner’s stunt work in Fall helped her to be more open to doing future stunt work and taking risks in her career.

This translated into her recent work as Kelly in the 2025 thriller F- Marry Kill, where she starred alongside Lucy Hale, who plays Eva Vaughn. The film centers around Eva, a true crime enthusiast, who finds herself in a dating app nightmare when she is tasked with figuring out which of her three dates is a murderer.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Gardner reflected on her work throughout the movie. When asked about her experience working with Hale, she smiled and said, “We had so much fun working together, she’s the best.”

Gardner also discussed her work portraying Kelly. “I had never done a character like Kelly before on many different levels, so it was really fun to play with a character that I had never done anything similar to before, and I love that kind of a challenge”, she said. “I love playing drunk, it’s one of my favorite things to do…I really love those kinds of scenes where you’re playing a character that’s a little loose and having fun and anything goes, and it’s just so much fun.”

She continued on, highlighting her exciting stunt work in the film.

“I love doing stunt work, and we had some practical effects as well, and I find that stuff so fun and fascinating to see behind the scenes on, so that was some stuff I really enjoyed, was doing some fun stunt stuff.”

When asked about how the film related to her personal life, Gardner vulnerably shared her opinions on dating apps.

“I met my husband on an app I had been on for many years before I met him, and…I’m a paranoid person in general and I like True Crime, so I think that I might get murdered at the best of times, let alone going out to dinner with someone I’ve never met before so that was definitely a paranoia of mine and is of my girl friends now,” Gardner explained. “If I have a friend that’s going on a blind date, I’ll make her share her location with me beforehand so I know where she is, and we always take precautions.”

Virginia Gardner: Personal Life

Gardner is a feminist, martial arts enthusiast and animal lover. She does philanthropy work where she works with charities that offer support and aid to troubled youth and war veterans.

In May 2023, she married English bassist of The Struts, Jed Elliott, in an intimate ceremony in Napa Valley, California. The two currently reside in Los Angeles with their dog and cat.

She is currently filming romantic-comedy F*ck Valentine’s Day in Malta, where she stars as Gina and is joined by cast members Marisa Tomei, who plays her mother, and Skylar Astin.

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