Why Ashley Seaver From Criminal Minds Looks So Familiar
After a decade and a half of chasing down the worst of the worst, the Behavioral Analysis Unit on "Criminal Minds" has seen its fair share of agents rotating in and out of the team. During Season 6, the team had a short-term participant named Ashley Seaver following her graduation from the academy.
In Seaver's first appearance, "What Happens at Home...," the team asks for her help finding a serial killer named Drew Jacobs (Kenneth Mitchell) due to her personal experience with a serial killer: her father. She was then made a regular on the team and served under Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) and David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), the agents who caught her father. She eventually transferred to Andi Swann's (Amy Price-Francis) unit between Seasons 6 and 7, her number of episodes coming in at an unlucky 13.
Ashley Seaver may have had a short stint on the series, but the actor who plays her, Rachel Nichols, has been around for years and still shows up regularly on TV. Here's where you've seen Nichols before.
She made a simultaneous splash on TV in 2005 and 2006
Rachel Nichols has credits that go all the way back to 2000. Her big breakthrough, however, was in 2005, when she starred in two different TV shows simultaneously for a total of 30 episodes in 2005 and 2006.
The first role was in the short-lived "The Inside," which saw her as main character Special Agent Rebecca Locke, who was abducted when she was 10 years old and spent 18 months in captivity before escaping. She starred alongside a multitude of names known in the industry, including Adam Baldwin ("Independence Day," "The Patriot"), Peter Coyote ("E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "A Walk to Remember"), and Garret Dillahunt ("12 Years a Slave," "No Country for Old Men").
At the same time, Nichols became a regular in the final season of "Alias" alongside Jennifer Garner. Her character, Rachel Gibson, began as an operative for the criminal organization the Shed under Gordon Dean (Tyrees Allen), who recruited her under the guise of it being a black-ops division of the CIA. After discovering the truth, however, she took the Shed — and eventually Dean himself — down. Viewers spent the final season learning that Gibson's life paralleled Sydney Bristow's (Garner) in many ways. They became friends, colleagues, and roommates. In the finale, it is revealed she moved on to deep undercover operations for the CIA.
She has a pair of failed franchise credits
After her smash breakout in "The Inside" and "Alias," Rachel Nichols made a jump to the big screen. She appeared as pivotal characters in two films meant to launch lucrative franchises: 2009's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and the 2011 "Conan the Barbarian" remake.
She played Scarlett, the tough and brainy fire-haired Joe in the "G.I. Joe" franchise launchpad. "Rise of Cobra" was panned by critics and audiences alike, scoring 33% and 50%, respectively (via Rotten Tomatoes). One critic called it "appalling blockbuster garbage" (via NME), while an audience member commented, "Acting was terrible!!! Duke had no emotions on his face. The premise of the movie was stupid..I could go on" (via Rotten Tomatoes). With that kind of response at the box office, it's a wonder the franchise got a sequel.
Two years later, Lionsgate released "Conan the Barbarian," a reboot 30 years after the original. Nichols starred as Tamara, the female lead alongside a virtually unknown Jason Momoa, who also appeared as Khal Drogo on "Game of Thrones" that same year. Unfortunately for Nichols and Lionsgate, this reboot received an even worse fate than "G.I. Joe." It got worse reviews, pulling in a 25% critic and 30% audience score on Rotton Tomatoes. Derek Malcolm of the London Evening Standard described it as "an expensive B-movie that makes a lot of noise but signifies absolutely nothing." So far, Nichols hasn't had anywhere close to the same luck on the big screen as she has on the small screen.
She headlined Continuum
A year after the failure of "Conan the Barbarian," Rachel Nichols landed the lead role in the science-fiction thriller series "Continuum." The show centers around Kiera Cameron, a Vancouver City Protective Services Protector who is unintentionally transported from her time in 2077 to the present day (2012).
The series follows Cameron as she helps the Vancouver police go after the 2077-era fanatical terrorist group Liber8, members of which had been transported back in time to 2021 as well. Cameron is a talented and dedicated cop who initially depends too highly on her advanced tech but adjusts quickly as the series gets underway.
"Continuum" ran for four seasons, three of which scored an average Rotten Tomatoes critic score in the 80s. Season 3, meanwhile, was given a perfect 100%, proving that despite her apparent struggles on the big screen, Nichols could be a force to be reckoned with on the small screen.
She's still active on TV
After the untimely cancellation of "Continuum," Rachel Nichols jumped right into her next project, appearing in six episodes of Season 4 of "Chicago Fire" as Jamie Killian. The character Nichols portrayed is a lawyer who, while she didn't appear for very long, was able to calm the charismatic ladies' man that is Lieutenant Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney).
Nichols made her first appearance in the season premiere, "Let It Burn." Her character, Jamie, has a short affair with Severide before they have a falling out. That doesn't stop her from showing up in five more episodes, eventually becoming the lawyer for serial arsonist Roger Maddox (Mark Hengst). She defends him despite his underhanded practices until the fall finale, "Short and Fat," ultimately giving Severide the information he needs to get the false home invasion and assault charges against Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker), which were instigated by Maddox to discredit him, dropped.
While her six-episode run was limited to the first half of Season 4, Rachel Nichols accomplished what she has done for the last 20 years of her career: She made a big impression with a small part.