Amy Carlson

Amy Lynn Carlson (born July 7, 1968) is an American television actress, best known for her roles as Linda Reagan in the CBS police procedural Blue Bloods, as Alex Taylor on the NBC drama Third Watch, and Josie Watts in the NBC daytime soap opera Another World.

Life and career

Carlson was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. When Carlson was 13, her family (consisting of her parents, three siblings and her) moved for a year to Amman, Jordan, where her parents had been hired to teach at the American Community School. After returning to the United States, Carlson attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. While in college, Carlson was active in the school’s theatre department, appearing in Fifth of July, Noises Off, A Lie of the Mind, and School for Scandal. Carlson graduated cum laude.

Carlson made her soap opera debut in 1993 on Another World as Josie Watts. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1998 for this role and later left the show. She guest-starred in a number of prime time shows and in 2000 won a series regular role on the NBC series Third Watch, where she starred from 2000 to 2003. She later had leading roles in the short-lived dramas Peacemakers and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. In 2010, Carlson began starring as Linda Reagan on Blue Bloods.