Linda Powell

Linda Margaret Powell was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, on April 16, 1965 the daughter of Alma and Colin Powell, the former United States Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She was raised on a series of military bases and attended four different high schools, because of her father's career. After attending Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado in eleventh grade, Powell graduated from Leavenworth High School in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1983. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1987 with a B.A. in English literature. Additionally, she studied theater at the Circle in the Square Theatre School.

Powell has had a long career of supporting roles in film and television, her most notable roles being Ingrid Mills on Chicago Fire, Pauline Samson in TV mini-series Political Animals and a lawyer in the film Blue Caprice.

Powell has also worked extensively in the theater, starring on Broadway in revivals of Wilder, Wilder, Wilder and On Golden Pond, and off Broadway in productions of A Raisin in the Sun, Angela’s Mixtape and The Christians.

Film credits include American Cuisine (1998), in which she played Miller, a U.S. Navy officer; American Gangster (2007) as a social worker; Morning Glory (2010) as Louanne; Blue Caprice (2013) as a case worker; Meadowland (2015) as Mrs. Williams; and The Report (2019) as Marcy Morris.

On television, she appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–2010) as Lauren White across nine episodes, The Good Wife (2009) as Patrice Wilcox in the episode “Conjugal,” the miniseries Political Animals (2012) as Pauline Samson, Chicago Fire (2012–2015) as Ingrid Mills in seven episodes, and Modern Love (2021) as Mrs. Vacher in the episode “Am I...? Maybe This Quiz Will Tell Me.”