What Jennifer Carpenter Has Been Doing Since Playing Debra Morgan On Dexter
Roughly 15 years ago, Jennifer Carpenter was an up-and-coming actress with a filmography that featured roles on the cast of "White Chicks" and in hits like "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." Carpenter's on-the-rise status changed virtually overnight when, in 2006, she booked the second lead on a television series with a considerable amount of buzz around it: Debra Morgan on Showtime's breakout serial killer drama "Dexter."
The series, initially based on Jeff Lindsay's novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," centered on the titular avenging murderer Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall fresh off a lauded run on HBO's iconic drama "Six Feet Under." Even with Hall front and center, Carpenter frequently stole the spotlight from Hall with her impassioned turn as Dexter's foster sister Debra, a homicide detective whose caseload often overlapped with her duplicitous brother's own crimes.
It's been almost seven years since the series' divisive finale episode aired, and fans are still wondering if Carpenter's Debra got the send-off she deserved. As for Carpenter herself, she's maintained a lower profile recently, but she's more than kept herself busy since leaving Debra and "Dexter" behind.
Jennifer Carpenter voiced Black Widow for Marvel
Like so many actors in and around Hollywood over the past decade or so, Jennifer Carpenter eventually found herself with a ticket to ride the Marvel money train. If you're wondering why you can't remember her from any of those money-printing "Avengers" flicks, it's because Carpenter's Marvel ticket wasn't quite of the first-class nature — she only got to contribute her voice to the ever-expanding Marvel-verse through the animated project "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher." In the 2014 anime film, backed by Japanese animation studio Madhouse, it's Carpenter's golden pipes — and not Scarlett Johansson's voice — that's heard as tough-as-nails Natasha Romanoff, better known as Black Widow.
If you're unfamiliar with "Avengers Confidential," it found Carpenter's Black Widow teaming up with the one and only Frank Castle to stop the nefarious LEVIATHAN from putting classified S.H.I.E.L.D. tech into the world via black market backchannels. "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher" may not be on par with anything the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe has delivered, but it's a pretty solid animated feature that should be on the radar of any Marvel fan.
Jennifer Carpenter also voiced the would-be Catwoman for DC
Marvel's Black Widow isn't the only big-time comic book character Jennifer Carpenter has voiced since playing Debra Morgan on "Dexter." Her second turn in the animated comic book movie world found her voicing Selina Kyle, best known as Gotham City's Catwoman, in Warner Bros. and DC Comics' lavish, 19th-century reimagining of the Dark Knight saga, "Batman: Gotham by Gaslight." Released to largely positive reviews in 2018, "Gotham by Gaslight" is adapted from the 1989 graphic novel of the same name, itself the first official offering from DC's "Elseworlds" imprint. Both the book and the film feature Bruce Wayne defending the streets of a gloriously steam-punky Gotham as a Victorian-era Batman, eventually facing off against the infamous killer Jack the Ripper.
Hot on the trail of the Ripper, Batman's path naturally crosses with Catwoman, who's also looking to inflict a little justice on the man who's been brutally killing women in Gotham. Batman and Catwoman's tenuous "partnership" proceeds pretty much exactly how you'd expect it would you've ever read a "Batman" comic, but the action is all the more palatable thanks to the wonderful voice work of Carpenter and her behind-the-scenes Batman, Bruce Greenwood.
Jennifer Carpenter brawled in cell block 99 and got Dragged Across Concrete on the big screen
While Jennifer Carpenter has delivered a couple of impressive vocal performances since "Dexter" rode off to that great logging company in the Pacific Northwest, she hasn't shied away from performing in front of the camera as well, having found a big-screen patron of sorts in cinematic rabble-rouser S. Craig Zahler. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Zahler is the button-pushing provocateur behind such modern B-movie marvels as "Bone Tomahawk," "Brawl in Cell Block 99," and 2019's disturbing dirty cop caper "Dragged Across Concrete."
In the hyper-violent "Brawl in Cell Block 99," Carpenter plays Lauren Thomas, the wife of Vince Vaughn's Bradley Thomas, a retired boxer whose life of crime lands him behind bars at the Redleaf Correctional Facility, where his troubles only grow more intense. Throughout it all — even the more alienating elements of the film — Carpenter stayed devoted to the madness while breathing necessary life into a character that's not quite three-dimensional. She did the same in "Dragged Across Concrete," bringing a refreshing humanity to her limited role tortured young mother Kelly Summer, who serves as a smaller character against leads Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, who portray a pair of cops suspended after assaulting a suspect.
Jennifer Carpenter played both sides on Limitless and The Enemy Within
Jennifer Carpenter has continued to book challenging big-screen roles since leaving "Dexter" behind, but she's also kept busy looking for another "Dexter"-like success on the small screen. That search ultimately led Carpenter to the hyper-competitive realm of network television, where she's delivered strong work in largely forgettable dramas.
The first of Carpenter's post-"Dexter" TV roles came on the short-lived drama "Limitless," which was based on the Bradley Cooper-starring movie of the same name. That flick found Cooper tripping the life fantastic after ingesting a wonder drug that enabled him to utilize the full potential of his brain. The television adaptation (produced by Cooper and "Joker" director Todd Phillips) followed a similar set up — only this time, the "gifted" man is out to make the world a safer place and features Carpenter portraying an FBI Agent tasked with helping focus the man's energies on solving crimes.
Carpenter's next television venture found her playing the other side of the law as a traitorous former CIA Agent forced to team up with the FBI to help track down their most wanted spy. Titled "The Enemy Within," Carpenter's timely espionage drama had the look of a winner when it hit the air in 2019, but tragically never found its audience and was canceled after airing just 13 episodes. Here's hoping she has a little better luck with her next TV role.
She had a role in a popular video game
It wasn't long after the end of "Dexter" that Jennifer Carpenter took her career to a whole new medium. She joined the cast of "The Evil Within," a survival horror game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks in 2014. The game was created by the same man who made "Resident Evil" and "Dino Crisis," game developer icon Shinji Mikami. Carpenter's work on "Dexter" had inadvertently prepared her for her "Evil Within" role of Juli Kidman, a junior detective in the midst of an apparently normal investigation when supernatural hell breaks loose.
Carpenter was new to video game voice-acting in at the time, but she already had some experience with voice performing in other media. During her time on "Dexter," she did some voice work for an animated spin-off called "Dexter: Early Cuts," and she guest-starred in a handful of episodes of "Pound Puppies" as well as in an episode of "Robot Chicken." "The Evil Within" came out at a great time for horror games and was a big success. It earned a sequel, which didn't see the return of Carpenter or her character. Though she hasn't yet voiced another character in a video game, she has made voice acting a regular part of her job.
She got married and became a mom
Jennifer Carpenter's life since the end of "Dexter" has just been one career move after another. Her personal life has been through some big changes too, and nothing's been bigger than the birth of her son, Isaac. Carpenter and her now-husband Seth Avett met in 2011, and the two had their son in August 2015. While preparing for the baby, Carpenter thought that she'd struggle to get roles, but she ended up being offered a part in the TV series "Limitless." She filmed the pilot while she was eight and a half months pregnant.
Carpenter and Avett met shortly after Carpenter divorced her "Dexter" co-star Michael C. Hall, so the two of them had been together for several years before Isaac was born. They didn't decide to tie the knot until 2016, though Avett has said they had been thinking about getting married for quite a while. In 2017, Carpenter told Us Weekly that marriage and motherhood have made her happier than ever: "I'm with the right man. I have an incredible son. Every fraction of myself is totally invested, you know, and I'm satisfied."
She got to play a famous Mortal Kombat character
"The Evil Within" is the only video game that Jennifer Carpenter has acted in so far, but it's not the only time that she's voiced a video game character. The "Mortal Kombat Legends" franchise kicked off in 2020 with the animated movie "Scorpion's Revenge," which was followed up in 2021 with "Battle of the Realms." In both movies, Carpenter plays Sonya Blade, a character who's been part of the larger "Mortal Kombat" franchise since her debut in the original arcade game in 1992.
By 2020, Carpenter had some passing familiarity with the video game industry, but she said she'd never been much of a gamer herself. She told the Beat about heading into the movie, "If I'm perfectly honest, the title was familiar but I didn't know anything about [Sonya] joining forces to protect Earthrealm or the tournament." While taking a deep dive into the lore of "Mortal Kombat," Carpenter said, she discovered Sonya Blade's importance in gaming history as an early female playable character in a fighting game and got even more excited to take part in the films. Carpenter said that she deeply enjoyed getting to play Sonya, so even though the character didn't appear in the third "Mortal Kombat Legends" movie, "Snow Blind," there's a chance that we'll see her come back to the role at some point.
She was in a 2021 movie with some big names
From Catwoman to Sonya Blade, Jennifer Carpenter has gotten to take on some big-name characters since leaving "Dexter." She's also had the opportunity to work with some real-life big names in front of the camera. Though she's become known for her TV roles, one of Carpenter's biggest projects in recent years was the 2021 movie "A Mouthful of Air."
Amy Koppelman published her novel "A Mouthful of Air" in 2003, and not quite two decades later she got to write the screenplay for the adaptation and direct the movie. The story follows a children's book author named Julie Davis (Amanda Seyfried) who's trying to find a way to heal from her past trauma after attempting suicide shortly before her son's first birthday. Carpenter plays Julie's sister, Lucy, who struggles to relate to Julie's struggle. The movie also stars Finn Wittrock, Amy Irving, and Paul Giamatti, and it opened to mostly positive reviews from critics and overwhelmingly strong reception from audiences. The role isn't exactly the kind that Carpenter usually plays, so it lets her show her range in a new way.
She returned for the Dexter revival
Ten years after "Dexter" ended, "Dexter: New Blood" revived the series and brought back both Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter. Fans who were delighted and shocked that "Dexter" was coming back were experiencing those emotions right alongside Carpenter, who never expected to come back to the series — especially considering that her character, Deb, had already been killed off.
"I think it's well-known that I did want Deb to die," Carpenter told Entertainment Weekly in 2021. Fans weren't thrilled with the way that the original "Dexter" series had ended, but Carpenter herself was fairly satisfied with how the show had finished Deb's story. Because of that, she was a little reluctant to return, as she didn't want to change something that had worked already and end up leaving fans even more disappointed than the original finale. "Fans have been so loyal and enthusiastic," she said. "So I wanted certain things from it on their behalf before I was ready to go back."
Luckily fans got the series that they deserved. Carpenter had the opportunity to return to Deb in a way that both made sense and had a substantial impact on the new story. "Dexter: New Blood" was received well by both fans and critics, and it finally capped off Dexter's story in a satisfying way.
She's still actively filming new projects
If Jennifer Carpenter called it quits tomorrow, she'd still be remembered fondly years from now. She played such an integral role on "Dexter" that she'll always be associated with the series, but her career since then has been no less impressive. She's taken on a wide variety of new movies and TV series, and if you've been seeing less of her in front of the camera, that's just because she's been more busy than ever in the vocal booth.
Today Carpenter is just as active as she's ever been. She's filming new shows like "Ballistic," a psychological thriller that'll see her character on the run in a world of clandestine agencies and ruthless spies. She's also still grabbing movie roles wherever she can, like Liz Manashil's sci-fi thriller "Control Group" or the horror movie "She's Still Here," in which Carpenter co-stars with Mickey Rourke. "Dexter" may have skyrocketed Carpenter to fame fairly early in her career, but she'll stick around for a long time.
She's working more as a producer
Even as Jennifer Carpenter is keeping her schedule packed with acting jobs, she's slowly starting to branch out into other areas of show business. Carpenter has started working as a producer in addition to her work in front of the camera, and we're probably going to see her wearing that particular hat more and more as time goes on. Producing is something that Carpenter had basically no credited experience with until the year after "Dexter" ended, but that changed when she stumbled into "Ex-Girlfriends," the debut film from writer-director Alexander Poe.
The movie stars Carpenter, Poe, and Kristen Connolly as young New Yorkers struggling with their love lives. Carpenter reached out to ask for a role in the film after reading the script and ended up believing in it so much that she worked as a producer to help promote it. "Ex-Girlfiends" was a change of pace for Carpenter, who was playing a very different character than Deb on "Dexter" while tackling a new role behind the scenes. "I feel like I've held a lot of tricks up my sleeve for a lot of years, and 'Ex-Girlfriends' is a good way to show another side of me," she told IndieWire in 2012.
With the experience she has, Carpenter is starting to spend more of her time advocating for projects she's passionate about. She's working as an executive producer and star for the series "Ballistic," created by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg. She's also pulling double duty in the movie "Control Group" as a producer and star.