Darby Stanchfield (born 29 April 1971) is a film and television actress best known for her recurring roles as April Green on Jericho and as Helen Bishop on the period drama Mad Men. She stars in the ABC drama Scandal, as Abby Whelan. Darby's father was a commercial crab fisherman. She was born and raised in Kodiak, Alaska, and later moved to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, and finally Mercer Island, near Seattle. She attended the University of Puget Sound, graduating 1993 with a degree in Communications and a minor in theater. She later went back to acting school at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.