Virginia Gardner bio, height, age, boyfriend, family 2025

Biography of Virginia Gardner

Virginia Gardner is a young American actress who rose to fame playing Kristina Ruskin in the sci-fi film Project Almanac and Caroline Dean in the "Runaways" series about teenagers with superpowers.

Her other notable credits include "Halloween", "Monster Party", "Good Kids", "Major Crimes" and Scott Mann's thriller "The Fall", released in 2022.

Childhood

Virginia Elizabeth Gardner was born in the suburbs of Sacramento, California's capital and one of the oldest cities in the western United States. Chuck and Sarah Gardner already had a son named Chas when their daughter Virginia was born on April 18, 1995.

From an early age, she showed interest in acting. While attending school in Sacramento, she participated in many school plays directed by Brian Frishman. After seeing Dakota Fanning in Sean Penn's film "I'm Sam", Virginia finally decided that she wanted to become a professional actress.

I grew up watching Dakota Fanning and she was really inspiring to me because we are about the same age. So when I saw her in movies I realized that maybe acting was something that I could do as well. Plus, I am Sam is about autism and my brother is autistic so that particular film is very inspiring to me.

When she turned 16, Virginia moved to Los Angeles, where she took online acting classes and successfully passed her high school exams. During her first year, the future actress lived with her mother, then rented her own place and began living independently.

Acting career

Virginia's first foray into acting was a small role in the comedy "Hart of Dixie" which premiered in September 2011. Her partners on the set were Rachel Bilson, Jamie King and Cress Williams.

Virginia then landed the role of Danielle in Disney Channel's comedy series "Lab Rats" in 2012. Following this success, Virginia received numerous modeling offers and decided to explore that avenue, taking a year-long break from acting. She worked with major brands including Love Culture, HP, Kohl's, LF, and Hollister.

In 2013, when Fox announced casting for "Glee," Virginia decided to audition for the hit series. She successfully landed the role of Kate Fitzgerald in the episodes "Feud" and "Shooting Star" during season 4.

Virginia Gardner, GLEE - Your Song

That same year, she joined "The Goldbergs" comedy series, appearing in 8 episodes as Lexi Bloom. Virginia then took on roles as Bree Miller in the crime series "Major Crimes" and Sally Landry in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." She also appeared as Kristina Ruskin in the sci-fi thriller "Project Almanac" and as Emily in the coming-of-age film "Good Kids."

Virginia in social media

In 2017, Gardner got her first major film role. In Marvel's sci-fi series "Runaways," about teenage superheroes, Virginia brought depth to the character of Karolina Dean – the role that launched her to fame. Her character doesn't just possess powers like flight, energy manipulation, and light generation – she's also navigating the complexities of finding her identity and place in the world.

Runaways: Virginia Gardner as Caroline Dean

Virginia was committed to "Runaways" from 2017 to 2019. During this time, she formed close friendships with her co-stars, including Lyrica Okano (Nico Minoru), Gregg Sulkin, and Rhenzy Feliz. "We're all just really good friends," she said in an interview with ELLE after the release of season 1. She continued, "And we all support each other outside of work. We go to birthday parties; sometimes we go eat out after work."

Karolina Dean - All Powers & Abilities Scenes (Marvel's Runaways S01 -S02)

While working on "Runaways" in 2018, Gardner also appeared in two films: the horror movie "Monster Party" directed by Chris von Hoffman and David Gordon Green's "Halloween." In "Monster Party," she played Iris, girlfriend to one of the leads who accompanies him to a deadly party. In "Halloween," she portrayed Vicky, the girlfriend of Laurie Strode's granddaughter (Laurie being played by Jamie Lee Curtis).

In 2019, Virginia appeared in Danny McBride's satirical comedy "The Righteous Gemstones," and in 2020 she starred as Amanda in the drama "All the Bright Places," directed by Brett Haley.

Personal life of Virginia Gardner

Little is known about Virginia Gardner's personal life. After the release of the TV series "Runaways", fans of the actress were interested in her sexual orientation, since her character was gay.

Later, Virginia set the record straight, explaining that she was interested in men. It turned out that from 2013 to 2017 she dated actor Graham Patrick, but they never made it to the altar.

In 2017, Gardner began dating actor Graham Rogers, but the relationship did not last even a year. In 2018, the couple broke up. After two unsuccessful romances, Virginia decided to devote more time to her parents and focus on her career, which she stuck to for about two years.

In 2020, she began dating Jed Elliott, musician from English rock band "The Struts", who previously broke up with his girlfriend, Jade Trilwall, after a relationship of 4 years. Elliot hails from the English city of Bath and is 4 years older than Virginia. In July 2021, the couple got engaged. According to the photos on their social media, they are very happy together.

Virginia Gardner currently lives in Los Angeles. She's skilled in taekwondo and dedicates her free time to training to keep her skills sharp.

In her social media, she wrote that her favorite series of books is the trilogy of the American writer Veronica Roth, which includes the novels "Divergent", "Insurgent" and "Allegiant", and she'd love to play Tris Prior.

Virginia Garner now

2022 brought Gardner the lead role in Scott Mann's thriller "The Fall", in which her heroine, a fearless blogger, Hunter, survives in extreme conditions at a 600-meter altitude with her friend Becky (Grace Fulton).

The Fall. Trailer

Virginia has another movie coming in 2023. It is the comedy melodrama directed by Roger Kamble "Beautiful Disaster", and the actress plays the main character Abby Abernathy. It is based on the world bestseller by Jamie McGuire. Dylan Sprouse plays her co-star Travis Maddox, a guy who doesn't believe in love and starts the bet that drives the story.