Erika Lindhome (born March 5, 1979) is an American actress, comedian, and musician. She is best known for roles in television shows including Garfunkel and Oates, Gilmore Girls, House, The Big Bang Theory, and United States of Tara, and for the comedy music duo Garfunkel and Oates, which she formed with Kate Micucci. She also hosts the Nerdist podcast Making It. She starred alongside Natasha Leggero in the Comedy Central series Another Period.
Lindhome was born on March 5, 1979, in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Portville, New York. She is primarily of Swedish ancestry. In 1997, Riki Lindhome won first prize in the JFK Profiles in Courage essay contest awarded by the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Lindhome's winning subject was about the courage and resilience of US representative Carolyn McCarthy, whose outrage at the murder of her husband and five others by a gunman on a Long Island train compelled her to challenge and win the seat held by her congressman, who had voted to repeal the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Lindhome studied at Syracuse University and was part of the sketch comedy group known as Syracuse Live. After graduating in 2000, she embarked on an acting career.