Cassidy Freeman (born April 22, 1982)^[1] is an American actress and musician. She is known for her role as Tess Mercer in The CW's superhero drama Smallville and Cady Longmire in Longmire.^[2]

Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois^[1] to prominent Chicago-area attorneys Glynna and Lee Freeman, who also own a cattle ranch in Montana. She is the youngest of three children, with two brothers, voice actor Crispin Freeman and musician Clark Freeman. She has German, Scottish, and Jewish ancestry.

Freeman graduated from The Latin School of Chicago and then magna cum laude from Middlebury College in 2005 with degrees in theater and Spanish.

Freeman starred in the thriller film YellowBrickRoad which was written and directed by Andy Mitton and Jesse Holland.^[3] She has appeared in several films and television series. Freeman played the character Veronica Sharpe in the award-winning short film Razor Sharp. The film won "Best Action Film" at the 2007 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. In September 2008, she began starring in The CW Superman-inspired drama Smallville where she played Tess Mercer after the departure of Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor and continued this role until the show ended in May 2011.^[4]

Freeman has appeared three times in the CBS crime drama franchise CSI. In October 2009, she appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation season 10, episode four called "Coup de Grâce". In September 2011, she appeared in CSI: NY season 8, episode one called "Indelible". In March 2012, she appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation season 10, episode fifteen called "No Good Deed".

On January 13, 2012, Freeman was confirmed to be in The CW fantasy drama The Vampire Diaries as Sage in the third season.^[5] Between 2012 and 2017, Freeman starred as Cady Longmire in the A&E and Netflix crime drama Longmire.^[2][6]

Between 2016 and 2017, she played as Russian spy Eva Azarova in NCIS: New Orleans. She also played in a crossover episode with its parent series NCIS.

Freeman, her brother Clark Freeman, and Andy Mitton formed the band called The Real D'Coy, in which Freeman sings and plays piano.^[6][7]

Freeman is an active member of the Heal the Bay charity, which works toward cleaning up and protecting the West Coast waters, and tutors children in Santa Monica as a part of the Virginia Avenue Project.^[8]