Darby Leigh Stanchfield (born April 29, 1971) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Abby Whelan in the ABC political drama series Scandal (2012–2018). Stanchfield is also known for roles as April Green in the CBS post-apocalyptic drama series Jericho (2006–07), and as Helen Bishop in the AMC period drama series Mad Men (2007–08). In 2020, she began starring as Nina Locke in the Netflix fantasy horror series Locke & Key.
Stanchfield was born and raised in Kodiak, Alaska, where her father was a commercial fisherman. She later moved to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, and finally Mercer Island, near Seattle. She attended the University of Puget Sound, graduating in 1993 with a degree in Communications and a minor in theater. She graduated from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
Stanchfield began her career in theater, and made her television debut in an episode of CBS crime drama, Diagnosis: Murder in 2000. She later appeared in a number of television shows, including dramas Angel, Monk, American Dreams, Strong Medicine, Without a Trace, Nip/Tuck, Bones, Cold Case, and The Mentalist, and well as sitcoms That '80s Show, It's All Relative and How I Met Your Mother. In feature films, she had the female lead role opposite Josh Duhamel in the 2004 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and co-starred as Nathan Fillion's character wife in the comedy-drama Waitress (2007). She later has appeared in a number of independent films.