Wendle was born in Los Angeles at UCLA Hospital, her mother is an artist and art educator and her father is a pediatrician. She grew up in Denver, Colorado. Wendle attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she was a theatre major. She then attended the 3 yr. Professional Actor Training Program at Southern Methodist University, receiving her MFA. She moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and was seen onstage playing Touchstone in As You Like It, Mary the Maid in The Bald Soprano, and Jacquenetta in Love's Labor's Lost at Shakespeare Festival/LA. During the Bald Soprano run, she crashed the auditions for a TNT re-make Arnold Schwarzenegger was directing, and he hired her for her first-time on-camera role, playing an Assistant Director, working with Kris Kristofferson, Dyan Cannon and Tony Curtis. She later played an A.D. again in Jake Kasdan's film The TV Set. Arnold cast her in his film Last Action Hero to play a scene with him, soon after she was cast in a guest role on Ellen's first season's sit-com, in commercials for IBM and Target, and Rob Reiner cast her in his film North. Wendle went to the Sundance Film Festival with the film The Party Favor, a short by writer/director Lisa Udelson, which received highest praise and awards at numerous festivals.