Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 3, The Turnbow Trap, introduces the Turnbow family. In this Episode, while viewers are watching Erica Sinclair run her crazy scheme, Mrs. Turnbow looks familiar as she is chowing down on a sketchy pie.
If you are still wondering where you have seen the actress before, that’s Kelly Collins Lintz, who has been quietly hustling in Hollywood for more than 3 decades.
Her part in Stranger Things Season 5 may not be extensive, but it is merely the newest entry in an already impressive career that includes big-budget films, acclaimed serious works, and the likes of prime-time television series.
Mrs. Turnbow from Stranger Things Season 5: Here’s where you’ve seen Kelly Collins Lintz

Kelly Collins Lintz pops up as Mrs. Turnbow in Stranger Things Season 5. She is not exactly a main character, but she has had her moment. She is the mom of Tina and Derek Turnbow, and she is just trying to live her suburban life before getting dragged into the wildest pie-related disaster this side of Hawkins.
Erica spikes the family pie with Benzos, and next thing you know, the Turnbows are all part of some rescue scheme. She is barely on screen, but her reactions make that whole scene way more believable, even if you are too distracted by monsters.
As for Lintz herself, she has been grinding away in the acting world for three decades. Born June 25, 1970, she got her regional theatre degree from Penn State. Her first gig was Stormswept in ‘95. Since then, she has done it all: comedy, drama, and more. Sometimes she is just showing up for one episode, sometimes she sticks around longer.
Kelly Collins Lintz is most famously known for her role in We’re the Millers, a 2013 comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. If you have seen the movie, then you have probably caught Lintz as the ultimate “white bread mom.” That movie raked in around $270 million. So odds are, you have seen her in action, even if you don’t remember her name right away.
Lintz also nailed a cookie-cutter suburban vibe, which made everything happening around her even more ridiculous. Her straight-faced line delivery made the insanity pop even harder.
Kelly Collins Lintz also showed up in Miracles From Heaven and Gifted. Both of those movies tug at the heartstrings, and Lintz fits right in, blending into touching stories without fading into the background.
She has dipped her toes into crime dramas and thrillers. She is in The Accountant as well, the one where Ben Affleck plays a super intense, autistic accountant who turns into an action hero. The movie made a ton at the box office, and people clearly loved its offbeat approach to thrillers. Lintz was there, holding down the fort in the supporting cast.
Fast-forward to Richard Jewell in 2019, Clint Eastwood directed this one, and it’s about a poor security guard who got railroaded after the 1996 Olympic Park bombing. That film hit hard on the media circus and how quickly everyone is ready to point fingers and ruin someone’s life. Lintz jumped in and added some weight to a story.
On TV, she is all over the place. If you have watched network dramas in the past decade or so, you have probably spotted her. She has popped up in Surface, a short-lived NBC show with the sea creatures. Kelly Collins Lintz also featured in Army Wives and One Tree Hill. If you were a teen in the 2000s, you probably obsessed over it at least once. Lintz had a guest role there, and considering how die-hard the fanbase is, people still recognize her from it.
Then there’s Banshee, The Mist, Drop Dead Diva, and more. She has built up a TV resume that’s all over the map. Most recently, she has been on Tyler Perry’s The Oval and The Resident.
The story of Kelly Collins Lintz is extraordinary, as her four children, Mackenzie, Matt, Madison, and Macsen, also entered the movie business, following in her footsteps. The Lintz family has been regarded as a Hollywood dynasty, and all of her children have already made their marks with considerable success individually.
Mrs. Turnbow in Stranger Things Season 5 was a very briefly shown character who made a good impression. After being sedated, she even started to slur her words and rushed to her husband, who had fainted, only to faint herself afterward. The dark humor of the scene worked just as perfectly as Stranger Things’ capability of blending real danger and laughter.
In the Turnbow Trap, Lintz demonstrated her skills in an ensemble cast and brought out the best in terms of comedy in a high-pressure scenario. When her daughter, Tina, played by Caroline Elle Abrams, got the most quotable line of the episode while Erica was giving her a shot, Mrs. Turnbow’s slow fall into a drugged haze was the source of physical comedy that kept the scene alive.