Carly Brook Schroeder was born on October 18, 1990, in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Schroeder's tag-along trip to her cousin's audition in 1993 turned out to be her lucky day and the start of her career as an actress. The cute three-year-old was spotted by the casting director and asked if she would consider working for them. While Schroeder's mother was hesitant at first, the prospects of earning money for a college education appealed to her.
After her first job, she began doing print work in Chicago for Sears, Roebuck and Company, Kmart, Spiegel, Land's End, Chuck E. Cheese's, and many other print advertisers. Two years later in 1995, renowned child director Bob Ebel asked her to do a few television commercials.
It was the commercial for Shake 'n Bake which caught the eye of Hôpital central (1963) cast member Kin Shriner. In 1997, Schroeder was cast as Serena Baldwin for the new GH spin-off, Port Charles Schroeder performed in 480 episodes of Port Charles during a six-year period. She was twice nominated for a Young Artist Award; once in 1999 and again in 2000, as well as a Young Star Award nomination in 1999 for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Daytime TV Program.
Schroeder also worked on several television shows and movies including two episodes of Dawson's Creek (2000). as the soccer girl Molly Sey, as well as playing Susan Olsen in the television movie Growing Up Brady (2000).She also appeared in one episode of The George Lopez Show (2002) as Ashley.
Schroeder also appeared in several commercials, including Got Milk?, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and McDonald's as well as getting cast in an unsecured Disney Channel pilot called Web Girl (2001).
In 2002, Schroder won the role of the manipulative and rascally (yet lovable) prankster Melina Bianco in The Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire (2001). Schroeder shot 12 episodes of Lizzie McGuire and also appeared in Lizzie McGuire, le film (2003) reprising her role as the free-spirited Melina.
In 2003, with The Lizzie McGuire Movie under her belt, Schroeder auditioned for her first feature film and won the part of Millie in Mean Creek (2004), which won wide acclaim and dramatic credibility for Schroeder and the rest of the cast, winning the Humanitas Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and also being awarded the 2005 Independent Spirit Festival Special Distinction Award for best ensemble cast.
Schroeder made a return to television in an episode of Cold Case (2004). She also appeared in a small student film called We All Fall Down (2000). Schroeder also appeared in three other films that year; Firewall (2006) with Harrison Ford, Eye of the Dolphin (2006) and Prey (2007).
At this time, Schroeder also did print work for Abercrombie & Fitch in 2005. She worked a few projects for designer Jessica McClintock in the early part of 2006, but had to postpone modeling when she had the opportunity to do her biggest role to date.
An avid soccer player since the age of five, Schroeder finally had the chance in 2006 to combine two of her passions in a single project called Gracie (2007). Schroeder was faced with a battle of her own when director Davis Guggenheim and Elisabeth Shue, producer were set on finding a real female soccer player and even initiated a nationwide casting call for the part of Grace Bowen.
Schroeder began an intense three-month work-out that included a daily regime of not only physical fitness, but training in advanced soccer skills with professional athletes and trainers. Once she received the part, Schroeder trained even harder in order to hone her soccer skills.
While Gracie was in theaters, Schroeder's other movie, Eye of the Dolphin (2006) received two awards from the 2007 International Family Film Festival; a Best Child Actor win for Schroeder, and a Drama Feature win for the movie. In October 2007, Schroeder received the 2007 Kids First Award for Best Emerging Actress.
Schroeder finished shooting Forget Me Not (2009), appeared in Lifetime's Bobby: seul contre tous (2009) in February and is considering new projects. Most recently, she appeared in New York - Unité spéciale (1999) in May.
She enjoys sports, including baseball, scuba diving, lacrosse, karate, surfing, snowboarding, soccer and horseback riding.
Schroeder graduated from high school in June 2009. She is attending college as a liberal arts major, studying communications and theatre arts, with a double major in environmental science.
Her most recent projects are "Suddenly Single in L.A." (2009) and "Rites of Passage" (2010). Both are still unreleased as of November 2011.
