Here's Where You've Seen Daria Francis From Devil's Gate Before
In case you haven't been paying attention, Netflix's ever-shifting Top Ten listings have become a legitimately fascinating lens into the streaming habits of its viewership. The chart also continues to be a compelling tool which can help viewers discover off-the-beaten-track flicks and shows they may previously never have heard of. The latest unexpected entry on the vaunted list is an overlooked little genre confection by the name of Devil's Gate, which should land comfortably in the wheelhouse of horror fans who enjoy a tale about beastly things going bump in the day and/or night.
Set in the titular town in rural North Dakota, Devil's Gate follows the story of a young FBI agent forced to team up with a local Sheriff (Jonathan Frakes) and Deputy (Shawn Ashmore) in her search for a missing woman and child. That search initially points to the missing woman's enigmatic husband (Milo Ventimiglia), but when the agent eventually tracks down the husband, she finds things are not at all what they seem. She also finds that there may be far more sinister elements affecting her investigation.
Needless to say, matters get considerably creepier from there in Devil's Gate. That's all just part of the nightmarish fun of the film, though — as is watching the familiar faces of Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Ashmore (X-Men, The Rookie), and Ventimilia (Gotham, This Is Us) navigate the ominous narrative. It's a safe bet you'll also recognize the actor who portrays the FBI agent at the center of the fray. Her name is Amanda Schull, and she's been making quite a name for herself in recent years. Here's where you've seen Agent Daria Francis from Devil's Gate before.
Amanda Schull entered the wonderfully weird sci-fi puzzle that is 12 Monkeys
25 years ago, gonzo auteur of the absurd Terry Gilliam unleashed on the world a bravura science fiction offering by the name of 12 Monkeys. Based on Chris Marker's enigmatic 1962 short film La Jetée, 12 Monkeys follows the story of a troubled prisoner from 2035 who's sent back to the year 1990 to discover the origins of, and potentially stop, a viral outbreak which has left the humanity of the future decimated and forced to live underground. Starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, and Brad Pitt, Gilliam's 12 Monkeys proved quite the cinematic sensation upon release in 1995, earning critical raves en route to nabbing nearly $170 million at the box office and landing Pitt his first Oscar nomination (for Best Supporting Actor).
In spite of 12 Monkeys' legacy as one of the better dystopian sci-fi sagas ever produced, the film has largely been forgotten in the modern landscape of cinema, and now feels more like a cult classic than the runaway hit it was. That cult status still proved more than enough for SyFy to re-introduce the story to a new audience via an eponymous series in 2015. And the 12 Monkeys saga has proven more than fit for the serial set, with series creators Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas fleshing out the world of the prior films in fascinating ways that Gilliam nor even Marker likely could've conjured.
Amanda Schull has been at the center of the series' mystery since episode 1, taking over Stowe's role as the brilliant virologist trying to help the time-traveling investigator, while simultaneously trying to save herself. And we'd have to admit she's been quite electrifying in in the role to date.
Amanda Schull became a major player on the final seasons of Suits
It should be noted that SyFy's 12 Monkeys series is hardly the first time Amanda Schull has played a tough-minded heroine on the small screen. While the actor spent considerably less time on the run or handling firearms on the set of USA Network's long-running legal drama Suits, her character Katrina Bennett was no less driven by fierce intellect and a stubborn will to survive.
Of course, life and death (particularly the death of humanity itself) were generally not the stakes in the Suits narrative. Set largely within a high-powered New York City law office, Suits tells the story of a brilliant young man (Patrick J. Adams) who weasels his way into a cush legal job after showcasing his untapped potential and photographic memory to the firm's big boss (Gabriel Macht). From that clever setup, Suits more or less settled into a pretty standard legal drama over the course of its nine seasons on the air. It did so with some very familiar faces in tow, with Meghan Markle (see current real-life UK Royal drama), Gina Torres (Firefly), Wendell Pierce (The Wire), Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy), and Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) among them.
So too was Amanda Schull, who joined the cast of Suits in its third season as the recurring Assistant District Attorney, Katrina Bennett. The character proved popular quite with series' viewership, and her role shifted dramatically over the years, with Schull eventually even being promoted to series regular for Suits' final two seasons.
Amanda Schull played the other woman on Pretty Little Liars
Though she's aged out of the demographic in recent years, like most young actors in Hollywood Amanda Schull has partaken in her share of teen drama. She actually got her first big break as the young ballet ingenue at the center of 2000's dance drama Center Stage, and followed that role a few years later with a recurring spot on the CW's One Tree Hill (though her adult character had little to do with the series' teen shenanigans). Whatever the case, it's safe to say those appearances put Schull on the radar of teen drama casting agents, which eventually landed her a juicy recurring role in ABC Family's popular primetime soap opera Pretty Little Liars.
If you weren't among Pretty Little Liars' devoted fandom, the series followed a band of four friends who united to face off against a mysterious foe threatening to expose their darkest secrets. Believe it or not, that simplistic overarching narrative was carried over through seven seasons of Pretty Little Liars, which never really tried to elevate itself over its soapy teen drama setup at any point. It didn't really need to, for the record, and managed to remain entertaining throughout the bulk of its small screen run.
Amanda Schull joined that run during season 2 as Meredith Sorensen, a troubled woman who played lover to Chad Lowe's Byron Montgomery (on-screen papa to the series' breakout star, Lucy Hale). And if you were a fan of Pretty Little Liars at the time, we really don't need to remind you just how crazy that Meredith storyline got in the end.