Kate Linder

Kate Linder is an American actress who has spent more than four decades playing Esther Valentine on the CBS daytime serial The Young and the Restless. Cast in 1982 for what was meant to be a single day, she became one of the longest serving performers in American soap opera. Born in Pasadena, California, she studied theater arts at San Francisco State University, then found early television roles in Archie Bunker's Place and Bay City Blues. After thirty years in daytime, she moved into independent film with titles such as Hysteria and Erased, later appearing in Garry Marshall's last movie, Mother's Day (2016), and in A Little White Lie (2023). Her television work brought her a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2008, and The Hollywood Museum paid tribute to her in 2022. She is one of two Daytime Governors with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and NATAS gave her a Silver Circle Award in 2025.