Aisha Tyler Joins ‘Criminal Minds’ In A Recurring Role
2 min readFollowing the departure of Jennifer Love Hewitt (Kate Callahan), and with AJ Cook (JJ Jareau) going on maternity leave, Criminal Minds has added Aisha Tyler to the cast in a recurring role for season eleven. Tyler previously appeared in 13 episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’s fifth season, where she played DNA lab tech Mia Dickerson. On Minds, she’ll portray a forensic psychologist named Dr Tara Lewis.
Tyler spoke about the role on The Talk yesterday, and you can watch the video below:
You can find more details about the character after the jump, along with tweets—two from Tyler and one from new costar Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia)!
According to Entertainment Weekly, Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) interviews several candidates to replace Kate on the team. Dr Lewis stands out, and she helps the team during an investigation. Here’s a description of the character’s background:
Her dream was to study psychopaths up close and personal – and her psychology background, combined with her experience in the FBI, brought her face-to-face with monsters. Her job was to stare them down and interview them, in order to determine if they were fit to stand trial. In the process, she made herself find the humanity inside these broken men (and, sometimes, women) in order to learn if there was a conscience behind their brutal crimes.
And here are the tweets:
Oh lordy so exciting: "'Criminal Minds': Aisha Tyler joins cast in recurring role http://t.co/sTQyWgYyFT " via @EW
— Aisha Tyler (@aishatyler) June 22, 2015
Yes Yes and yes yes yes yes!!! Hooray!! https://t.co/KUixFB6D7j
— Kirsten Vangsness (@Vangsness) June 22, 2015
Thanks to all who sent me congratulations today. So excited to join @CrimMinds_CBS this fall! Thanks to the fans for making me feel welcome!
— Aisha Tyler (@aishatyler) June 23, 2015