Louise Linton (née Hay) is a Scottish actress. She was born on December 21, 1980. She has appeared in the horror films Cabin Fever and Intruder and in minor roles in the television series CSI: NY and Cold Case.^[2][3] Linton is married to Steven Mnuchin, the current United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Louise Hay was born in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland,^[3] the youngest of three children of William and Rachel Hay.^[4][5] Her family owns Melville Castle outside Edinburgh,^[4] where she used to spend weekends.^[1]

Linton was educated at St George's School for Girls and Fettes College.^[6] She was interested in acting from an early age; after observing students from Pepperdine University participating at the Edinburgh Festival, she vowed to her father that she would one day attend "Pepperdine and be an actress."^[7] According to Linton, she trained in Edinburgh with a private coach from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, from which she gained honours after an exam.^[8]

Linton's mother died of breast cancer, aged 53, when Linton was 14 years old.^[4][9] After boarding school, she spent part of her gap year as a volunteer in northern Zambia, before attending university in the United States.^[10] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Pepperdine University and earned a J.D. degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, a private, for-profit law school, accredited by the State Bar of California Committee of Bar Examiners, but not accredited by the American Bar Association.^[11]

Linton has stated that she adopted her stage surname from her grandfather, partly to protect her family and partly to avoid confusion with the author Louise Hay.^[4]

Her first film was 2007's Lions for Lambs, in which she played Miss M,^[12] but her scenes were dropped from the final release.^[9] In 2008, she portrayed Katie in the Roy Lee horror film The Echo.^[13] Her first lead role was in the sci-fi film Scavengers. In 2016, she appeared in Cabin Fever, a remake of the 2002 film of the same name and played the lead role of Elizabeth in the thriller Intruder.^[1][13] She has also acted in episodes of the TV series CSI: NY and Cold Case, and in the film Crew 2 Crew. Linton was featured in the 2003 reality TV series Hopelessly Rich.^[14]

Linton posed for Maxim in 2009.^[1][15]

She is a producing partner at Stormchaser Films, a Los Angeles-based independent production company that she founded in 2012, named for her brother's dinghy.^[2][3]

In interviews from 2009 to 2011, Linton recounted volunteering during her 1999 gap year in what she described as "war-torn Zambia", and the night she spent "hiding in the bush as Hutu rebels attacked the village she was working in".^[4][9][16] In 2016, she drew widespread criticism for her self-published memoir about her experiences in Zambia, titled In Congo's Shadow, co-authored by Wendy Holden.^[10] An excerpt from the memoir, published in The Telegraph, drew intense scrutiny, with many readers objecting to her portrayal of Zambia, as well as Linton's claim that she was a "central character" in the events.^[17]

The Zambian High Commission in London and others criticised the book for its inaccuracies and promotion of the false narrative of "the white saviour".^{[18][19][20][21]}

Shortly after The Telegraph published its extract from the book, Linton withdrew her book from sale.^[18] She later apologised for causing offence and promised to donate all profits from the book to an appropriate charity.^[22] The Telegraph withdrew the published extract and also apologised for any inaccuracies in Linton's text.^[23][24]

In February 2017, Linton succeeded her fiancé, Steven Mnuchin, as the interim CEO of Dune Entertainment. Mnuchin had founded Dune in 2004 but stepped down as part of his ethics agreement to divest his business roles in preparation for his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury.^[25] Linton publicly announced her new role in early May,^[26] which immediately drew the attention of Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), a member of the Senate Finance Committee. Wyden questioned whether the appointment of Linton meant Mnuchin had fully divested from the company. Although the Treasury replied that she was serving in an uncompensated capacity, Linton resigned as interim CEO later in May.^[27]

Linton is involved in The Rockshiel Trust, a Scottish legal entity ^[56] , which applied to develop townhouses and apartments in the upmarket area of Murrayfield in Edinburgh close to the Hay family's Edinburgh home.^[28] The plans for 9 Kinellan Road were objected to by the local community^[29] and the plans submitted to Edinburgh City Council in January 2019 were later withdrawn.^[30]

Linton was married to Los Angeles defense attorney Ronald Richards from 2006 to 2009.^{[4][9][31][32]}

Linton met Mnuchin through mutual friends^[1][33] at a 2013 wedding reception in Los Angeles. The pair were engaged in 2015 after dating for two years.^[7] On 24 June 2017, Linton married Mnuchin.^[34] The civil ceremony, at which Vice President Mike Pence officiated, took place at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.^[35]

Linton serves on the board of Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA^[36] and the Old Fettesian's US Board of Trustees for Fettes College in Edinburgh.^[37][38] She was an ambassador for Erskine Wounded Warriors Scotland from 2010 to 2012, and is an ambassador for the Scottish Butterfly Trust for Cystic Fibrosis.^[37]

In August 2017, Linton was criticised for posting a photo on Instagram of herself accompanying her husband on a trip to Fort Knox on a United States government plane, using hashtags to highlight the designer clothing and accessories she wore. In her reply, she called the critic "adorably out of touch", and suggested that she contributed more to the US economy and paid more in taxes than the woman criticising her.^[1][39][40] Following extensive publicity, Linton apologised for both her initial post and her response to criticism released by her publicist, saying "it was inappropriate and highly insensitive".^[41] The couple reimbursed the government for the travel costs.^[42] Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the authorisation and costs of the trip, noting the trip "seems to have been planned around the solar eclipse."^[43] Later, Linton said she was a "bozo" for the Instagram post.^[44]

In November 2017, Linton and Mnuchin sparked a new wave of criticism when they posed holding a sheet of dollar bills – the first to include Mnuchin's signature – at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.^[45][46] Afterward, Linton's outfit, including elbow-length black leather gloves, was compared to Darth Vader and Cruella de Vil.^[7][44]

In January 2018, Linton was one of many celebrities, sports stars, journalists and politicians that was outed by The New York Times for allegedly purchasing fake followers – some of whom used information copied from real people – on various types of social media in order to overstate her following and influence.^[47]

The Treasury's Office of Inspector General is reviewing the flight taken by Mnuchin and Linton.^[48] ABC News reported in September 2017 that the office had opened a second inquiry following reports that Mnuchin had requested use of a government jet to take him and Linton on their honeymoon in Scotland, France and Italy.^[49][50]