Certain actors spend entire careers trying to capture lightning in a bottle once.
Cobie Smulders managed to do it twice simultaneously in two completely different genres.
Between 2005 and 2014, the Vancouver-born actress anchored one of the most culturally dominant sitcoms of the 21st century as Robin Scherbatsky in How I Met Your Mother. Right as that show was reaching its ratings zenith, she stepped into the colossal machinery of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Agent Maria Hill, becoming the unflappable tactical backbone of The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
What makes Smulders exceptional is her effortless versatility. While Hollywood often tries to separate glamorous leads, action heroines, and comedic performers into rigid boxes, Smulders glides between all three. Whether singing 80s Canadian mall-pop as Robin Sparkles, trading toxic relationship barbs in a dark Netflix comedy, or skewering rom-com clichés in satirical spoofs—as we explored in our retrospective on the lost art of the parody movie—Smulders grounds every scene with dry wit and commanding screen presence.
Here is the definitive critical ranking of the 10 best Cobie Smulders movies and tv shows, evaluated by cultural impact, comedic performance, and dramatic execution.
1. How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014, CBS) — “Robin Scherbatsky”
The Role: Robin Scherbatsky, an ambitious Canadian television journalist whose aversion to marriage, love of Scotch and cigars, and secret pop-star past subverted every standard sitcom "dream girl" trope.
There is no How I Met Your Mother without Robin Scherbatsky. When Smulders was cast in 2005 as a relatively unknown Canadian actress, she could easily have been reduced to a passive romantic foil for Ted Mosby. Instead, Smulders forged Robin into the show’s fiercest, funniest, and most complex character.
Smulders’ comedic timing was unmatched across the series’ nine-season run. She fully embraced unhinged physical absurdity—none more legendary than the reveal of Robin Sparkles and the bubblegum anthem “Let’s Go to the Mall.” Whether screaming in furious Canadian hockey slang, firing guns on a firing range in evening wear, or matching Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney Stinson drink-for-drink as an unapologetic bro, Smulders turned Robin into an immortal sitcom icon.
2. Friends from College (2017–2019, Netflix) — “Lisa Turner”
The Role: Lisa Turner, an accomplished corporate lawyer struggling through fertility treatments while navigating the chaotic, boundary-less dynamic of her husband's toxic Harvard friend group.
Nicholas Stoller’s brutally funny Netflix comedy gave Smulders the most complex material of her career. As Lisa, she operates as the intelligent moral center of a group of hopelessly narcissistic forty-somethings, only to watch her life implode when she discovers her husband’s twenty-year affair.
Smulders delivers a masterclass in slow-burn comedic rage. Her performance during the winery meltdown in Season 1 and her reckless, wine-soaked escapades in Season 2 demonstrate her mastery of cringe comedy and emotional unraveling. Playing against improv titans like Keegan-Michael Key and Nat Faxon, Smulders was often the sharpest performer on screen.
3. The Avengers & The MCU (2012–2023, Marvel Studios) — “Agent Maria Hill”
The Role: Maria Hill, the no-nonsense S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director who keeps the world's most chaotic superheroes in line with lethal tactical efficiency.
In a cinematic universe overflowing with super soldiers, Norse gods, and billionaire inventors in flying metal suits, Maria Hill was the voice of cold, grounded tactical sanity. Smulders made her debut in Joss Whedon’s record-shattering 2012 blockbuster The Avengers, immediately establishing Hill as a peer to Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury.
Smulders brought genuine military gravitas to the role. Across appearances in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Secret Invasion, she served as the grounded human anchor of the franchise, delivering dry, cynical one-liners while executing complex stunt sequences with precision.
4. Stumptown (2019–2020, ABC) — “Dex Parios”
Based on the Oni Press graphic novel series, Stumptown provided Smulders with a bona fide network drama vehicle built entirely around her charisma. As Dex Parios, an unapologetic, gambling-addicted Marine veteran navigating PTSD while working as an unlicensed private investigator in Portland, Smulders was electrifying.
Dex is bruised, messy, and wildly charming. Smulders did the majority of her own stunts, taking punches in muddy dive-bar parking lots while caring for her brother Ansel with tender devotion. The show’s premature cancellation during 2020 production disruptions remains one of recent television’s most lamented casualties.
5. They Came Together (2014, Lionsgate) — “Tiffany”
Directed by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) and starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, They Came Together is a brilliant, relentlessly deadpan parody of classic Nora Ephron New York romantic comedies.
Smulders appears as Tiffany, Paul Rudd’s seemingly perfect ex-girlfriend whose polite superficiality skewers every romantic comedy cliché. Smulders’ ability to deliver absurd dialogue with total straight-faced sincerity proved she belongs in the company of cinema’s finest spoof performers.
6. Arrested Development (2019, Netflix) — “Young Lucille Bluth”
In the fifth season of Mitchell Hurwitz’s iconic sitcom, Smulders took on an intimidating challenge: portraying the young Lucille Bluth in 1970s and 1980s flashbacks, playing opposite real-life husband Taran Killam as young George Bluth.
Stepping into the shoes of the legendary Jessica Walter is nearly impossible, but Smulders channeled Walter’s icy, aristocratic disdain with eerie perfection. Much like fellow series standout Mae Whitman’s brilliant deadpan turn as Ann Veal, Smulders proved that Arrested Development thrived on actors who could deliver scathing familial insults with absolute emotional chill.
7. Delivery Man (2013, Touchstone Pictures) — “Emma”
Starring alongside Vince Vaughn and Chris Pratt in Ken Scott’s comedy-drama, Smulders plays Emma, an NYPD officer who finds herself pregnant by Vaughn’s irresponsible meat delivery driver just as he discovers he has fathered 533 children via sperm bank donations.
Smulders provides the film’s emotional compass. Rather than playing the nagging girlfriend archetype, she imbues Emma with tough-love warmth and realistic hesitation, allowing Vaughn’s comedic redemption arc to feel genuinely earned.
8. Unexpected (2015, Film Arcade) — “Samantha Abbott”
Premiering in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, Kris Swanberg’s indie drama-comedy stars Smulders as an inner-city high school science teacher who finds herself pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students (Gail Bean).
Filmed while Smulders was pregnant in real life, the performance is raw, intimate, and deeply compassionate. It remains a showcase for Smulders’ naturalistic indie sensibilities away from studio pyrotechnics.
9. A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017, Netflix) — “Mother”
In Barry Sonnenfeld’s visually whimsical, macabre adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s beloved books, Smulders and Will Arnett play “Mother” and “Father”—a pair of mysterious globetrotting secret agents fighting their way across the globe to reunite with their children.
Smulders embraces the show’s dark, stylized theatricality. Parachuting out of airplanes, scaling sheer mountain cliffs in vintage explorer gear, and delivering heightened literary dialogue, Smulders brought genuine adventure-serial energy to the steampunk universe.
10. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016, Paramount Pictures) — “Major Susan Turner”
Holding your own opposite Tom Cruise in an action thriller is a notoriously demanding task, but Smulders proved more than equal to the challenge. As Major Susan Turner, a framed military police commander fighting to clear her name, Smulders refused to let her character be a damsel in distress.
She trained intensively in close-quarters combat, matching Cruise’s famously relentless pace in sprint scenes and fistfights. Her tactical presence and steely resolve made Turner one of the most formidable female action leads of the 2010s.