Celebrity crush: Cobie Smulders

... And here I kick off what I hope will be a regular feature, new entries on Fridays as well as Mondays, beginning with a co-star of How I Met Your Mother. Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Cobie Smulders (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Much like her character Robin Scherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother, Cobie is a sexy invader from Canada, aka Our Strange and Savage Neighbo(u)rs to the North. She hails from Vancouver, B.C.

Her unusual first name is actually a nickname -- her full name is Jacoba Francisca Maria Smulders, and "Cobie" is short for the first name, which she got from her Dutch grand-aunt, according to her Wikipedia profile. (Her family is Dutch on her father's side, English on her mother's.)
Best Known For: Speaking of mothers, Cobie's biggest claim to fame is the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, one of the TV shows that slowly broke down Ye Olde Podcasters' years-long habit of watching nothing but dramas. Her time there as Robin has allowed for a lot of jokes about our future Canadian overlords, some awkward flashbacks to her character's past as a Canadian teen pop star, and one of the most dazzling smiles on television.

She also did four episodes of cable's The L Word during its second season; fellow celebrity crush Sarah Shahi was on the show at the time, but I don't know if their characters ever crossed paths. (There's a bit of sapphic chemistry between Robin and Alyson Hannigan's Lily on HIMYM, but the producers have chosen to only joke about it, not to pursue it.)
Humble Beginnings: There was once a young pop star named Robin Sparkles ... wait, that's her fictional character's past. Unlike many celebrities profiled in this series, Cobie apparently didn't have visions of fame and fortune from her days as a toddler. Wikipedia notes she aspired to be a doctor or marine biologist until the acting bug bit during high school. She began modeling internationally in her teens as well.

Like her co-star (and future celebrity crush) Alyson Hannigan, Cobie has some genre television on her résumé -- one-off appearances on Jeremiah, Smallville, Special Unit 2, Tru Calling, and Andromeda, plus a full-time role on the short-lived Veritas: The Quest.

She also had a cameo in The Rock's reimagined Walking Tall and more recently appeared in the comedy film The Slammin' Salmon (alongside fellow celebrity crush Olivia Munn and future profile subject Carla Gallo) and guest-starred in the pilot of the HBO series How to Make It in America. She's done a variety of short film projects and is set to return to the big screen this year with Grassroots, co-starring Jason Biggs and fellow celebrity crush Lauren Ambrose.

And she looks a fair bit like
Brandy from Liberty Meadows, too.

Missed Opportunities Dept.: Reading between the lines, it seems Joss Whedon might have been considering Cobie for the lead in the Wonder Woman movie he didn't end up making.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Cobie is, simply put, one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood right now, with a clean-cut girl-you-wish-lived-next-door appeal, good comedy chops, and a willingness to look ridiculous (while also ridiculously hot -- at least most of the time) in pursuit of the laugh.
Film and TV-movie credits: The Avengers (Amazon | iTunes) * Grassroots (Amazon | iTunes) * How I Met Your Mother: Cast and Creators Live at Paley (Amazon | iTunes) * The Slammin' Salmon (Amazon | iTunes) * The Storm Awaits (2007 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dr. Miracles (2006 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Escape (2006 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Long Weekend (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Ill Fated (Amazon | iTunes) * Walking Tall (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * Candy from Strangers (2001) short (Amazon | iTunes)

Musical work: "Two Beavers Are Better Than One" (duet with Nicole Scherzinger) (Amazon | iTunes) in How I Met Your Mother season 6 episode "Glitter" (Amazon | iTunes) * "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" (full cast musical number) (Amazon | iTunes) in HIMYM season 5 episode "Girls vs. Suits" (Amazon | iTunes) * "Sandcastles in the Sand" (Amazon | iTunes) in HIMYM season 3 episode "Sandcastles in the Sand" (Amazon | iTunes) * "Let's Go to the Mall" (Amazon | iTunes) in HIMYM season 2 episode "Slap Bet" (Amazon | iTunes)
TV and Web series credits: How I Met Your Mother, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * How to Make It in America, pilot (Amazon | iTunes) * HIMYM, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * HIMYM, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * HIMYM, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * HIMYM, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * HIMYM, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * The L Word, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Andromeda, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Smallville, season 4: "Bound" (Amazon | iTunes) * Veritas: The Quest (Amazon | iTunes) * Tru Calling, season 1: "Brother's Keeper" (Amazon | iTunes) * Jeremiah, season 1: "Thieves' Honor" (Amazon | iTunes) * Special Unit 2, season 13: "The Wish" (Amazon | iTunes)