This Former Disney Child Star Is Building The Future of Space Communications

Bridgit Mendler has officially gone from Disney Channel darling to rocket-fuelled CEO, and honestly, we’re here for it. The Good Luck Charlie star, known for playing the ever-responsible Teddy Duncan, is now taking on a different kind of launch—one aimed at outer space.

This week, Mendler announced that she’s the CEO and co-founder of Northwood Space, a satellite data startup based in California. Her husband, Griffin Cleverly, is CTO. Together, they’ve raised $6.3 million in seed funding to build what Mendler calls “a data highway between Earth and space.” And no, this isn’t a reboot. This is real life.

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“Expect the unexpected!” she posted on X, as explained by Sarah Begel from The BBC, after CNBC broke the news. Northwood’s mission? To mass-produce ground antennas that streamline satellite communications—effectively transforming the current “rickety one-lane road” of space data into a ten-lane highway.

Mendler’s pivot from Hollywood to hardware might seem like a plot twist, but behind the scenes, she’s been prepping for this next chapter for years. She earned her degree from the University of Southern California in 2016, then joined the MIT Media Lab, began a PhD in philosophy at MIT in 2020, and casually enrolled in Harvard Law School a year later. Who says you can’t wear a lab coat and a red carpet dress?

Image @bridgitmendler
via IG

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It was during the pandemic that the Northwood idea really took off. While most of us were mastering banana bread, Mendler and her team were building antennas out of “random crap” from Home Depot. “For me, why the ground-side matters is because it actually is about bringing the impacts of space home to people,” she told CNBC. Her stint at the Federal Communications Commission in 2022 sealed the deal—she fell in love with space law, and the rest is rocket science history.

The response online? Unanimous awe. Fans are calling her “Barbie with 12 careers”—singer, actress, law student, PhD candidate, and now, space-tech founder. Environmental science educator Laurie Bardon Syphard says Mendler’s move is more than impressive—it’s inspiring. “My gut is telling me she is going to go really far with this career in science and technology,”.

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And Ari Eisenstat, space program director for the upcoming Texas Eclipse Festival, sees Mendler’s trajectory as a symbol of broader change. “She’s a great example of how space is becoming accessible to everyone,” he said.

From sitcoms to satellites, Bridgit Mendler’s next big role might just be shaping the future of how Earth talks to space—and that’s a storyline we can all get behind.