Background
Brandt, who is of German descent, was born in Bay City, Michigan, the daughter of teacher Janet and electrician Gary.
Brandt, who is of German descent, was born in Bay City, Michigan, the daughter of teacher Janet and electrician Gary.
She graduated from Bay City Western High School in Auburn, Michigan in 1991. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1996. She studied theater at Harvard University"s Institute for Advanced Theater Training and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.
She is best known for portraying Marie Schrader in Breaking Bad. She currently co-stars in the Columbia Broadcasting System sitcom Life in Pieces. In theater, Brandt has acted in performances of Much Ado About Nothing with the Arizona Theatre Company, Control+Alternate+Delete with the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Beth Henley"s Ridiculous Fraud, Julia Cho"s The Language Archive with South Coast Repertory, and Next Fall with Geffen Playhouse.
She has had guest roles on the television shows Without a Trace, Judging Amy, Emergency, Boston Legal, The Practice, and NCIS. From 2008 to 2013, Brandt portrayed Marie Schrader in the Administrative Management College drama series Breaking Bad.
She auditioned for three different roles before being offered the part of Marie. In 2012, she was cast as Sandy in Parenthood.
Brandt was cast as Annie Henry on The Michael J. Fox Show, which premiered in September 2013. Her performance was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews.
In 2014, Brandt was cast as one of the lead characters in the American Broadcasting Company series Members Only created by Susannah Grant, but the series did not go forward.